A post-viral planet. Hushed. Fang and claw dominate. Tom Evans and Ceri Lewis occupy a silent new world. Little more than a million people survived the Cleansing; now they are spread out, weak and bewildered, compelled by a force beyond their comprehension to remain where they are. Their fate--humanity's fate--lies in the hands of the few, like Tom and Ceri, who can resist the power that seeks to control them. But resistance may be futile. For in the midst of the deathly calm, a new threat rises, one that will finish the job started by the Cleansing. Tom and Ceri face a stark choice: risk their lives, already endangered, to try to stop activation of the Beacon, or lie low and wait for the human race to be exterminated. Either way, the end seems certain... Sam Kates s writing style is elegant and deft, and his way with words is superbly meticulous. He paints a picture for the reader of color and space and emotion, but uses a light brush so that no two readers will see quite the same thing: he doesn't overburden the reader with description but leaves just enough, and just the right things, to the imagination. Kates has written some of the most powerful scenes anyone has put on paper, yet his writing is smooth, effortless, and supremely comfortable. --Adam Byrn Tritt, author of the award-winning sci-fi short story "Ezekiel's Wheel" "