A powerful sci-fi tale of betrayal, trickery and sheer human grit from a dream-team of authors.

In a fight outside a bar Ramon Espejo kills a man. Next day, all hell breaks loose. The dead man was a big shot, a diplomat on a mission to the out-world of Sao Paulo. Ramon goes on the run, heading north toward unexplored territory, land so far only glimpsed from orbit during the first colony surveys.

He makes a bare living prospecting for minerals and each trip out he's sure will be the big one that'll make him rich. This one, too. Instead he finds something else, something terrifying. Or rather, it finds him, and uses him: as humans are used by species more intelligent than themselves. But Ramon Espejo is about to prove what a man is capable of. Ramon is about to demonstrate what it is to be human; to be angry, intelligent and alive...

Reviews

'Intriguing. dark and gritty. the Byzantine political intrigue bears Martin's hallmark, and although it's not fantasy, those awaiting the next instalment of his Song of Ice and Fire sequence could do worse than pick this up' DeathRay 

 'The novel's intertwined hunter-hunted and psychological-transformation tensions make for a compelling and satisfying read' Locus

"Starred Review. Martin (Song of Ice and Fire series), Dozois (Strange Days) and Abraham (A Shadow in Summer) revisit classic themes of exploration, exploitation and what it means to be human in this gritty SF adventure. Humanity has finally reached the stars, only to find that all the best spots have been claimed by other races-the Silver Enye, Turu, Cian and others. Human colonists serve as world-building crash-test dummies, dropped onto empty planets deemed too dangerous or inconvenient for other races, to pave over whatever marvels and threats evolution had put there. On the misbegotten colony planet of São Paulo, ore prospector Ramon Espejo has no illusions, especially about how the Enye view humanity. Then Ramon murders the wrong man in a drunken fight and takes off into the wastelands to avoid the Enye authorities. Once in the outback, he discovers he's not the only one trying to hide from the Enye-and that the deadly cat-lizards called chupacabras are far from the worst dangers on São Paulo. This tightly written novel, with its memorable protagonist and intriguing extrapolation, delivers on all levels." Publishers Weekly

Author Biography

George R.R. Martin is the author of the bestselling A Song of Ice and Fire series and award-winning writer of books and screenplays. Gardner Dozois is a science fiction writer and editor who has won a record fifteen Hugo Awards for his work. He was the editor of Asimov's Science Fiction magazine from 1984 to 2004. Daniel Abraham is a writer of science fiction and fantasy novels.