A superb standalone novel from the awesome imagination of Iain M. Banks, a master of modern science fiction.

Count Sessine is about to die for the very last time...

Chief Scientist Gadfium is about to receive the mysterious message she has been waiting for from the Plain of Sliding Stones...

And Bascule the Teller, in search of an ant, is about to enter the chaos of the crypt...

And everything is about to change...

For this is the time of the encroachment and, although the dimming sun still shines on the vast, towering walls of Serehfa Fastness, the end is close at hand. The King knows it, his closest advisers know it, yet sill they prosecute the war against the clan Engineers with increasing savagery.

The crypt knows it too; so an emissary has been sent, an emissary who holds the key to all their futures.

Praise for Iain M. Banks:

'Epic in scope, ambitious in its ideas and absorbing in its execution' Independent on Sunday

'Banks has created one of the most enduring and endearing visions of the future' Guardian

'Jam-packed with extraordinary invention' Scotsman

'Compulsive reading' Sunday Telegraph

The Culture series:
Consider Phlebas
The Player of Games
Use of Weapons
The State of the Art
Excession
Inversions
Look to Windward
Matter
Surface Detail
The Hydrogen Sonata

Other books by Iain M. Banks:
Against a Dark Background
Feersum Endjinn
The Algebraist

About the Author
Iain Banks (1954-2013) came to widespread and controversial public notice with the publication of his first novel, The Wasp Factory, in 1984. Consider Phlebas, his first science fiction novel, was published under the name Iain M. Banks in 1987 and began his celebrated ten-book Culture series. He is acclaimed as one of the most powerful, innovative and exciting writers of his generation.

Reviews
Another truly impressive piece of work from the pen of a master storyteller. * STARBURST *
Dazzlingly original. * DAILY MAIL *
Banks is a phenomenon: the widly successful, fearlessly creative author of brilliant and disturbing non-genre novels, he's equally at home writing pure science fiction of a peculiarly gnarly energy and elegance. * WILLIAM GIBSON *
Sharp, witty, comprehensively terrifying. * OBSERVER *


Awards
Winner of British Science Fiction Association Award 1995 and British Science Fiction Association Award 1994.



Book Information
ISBN 9781857232738
Author Iain M. Banks
Format Paperback
Page Count 288
Imprint Orbit
Publisher Little, Brown Book Group
Weight(grams) 200g
Dimensions(mm) 196mm * 128mm * 20mm