Book description
In AD 2329, humanity has colonised over four hundred planets, all of
them interlinked by wormholes. With Earth at its centre, the Intersolar
Commonwealth now occupies a sphere of space approximately four hundred
light years across. When an astronomer on the outermost world of
Gralmond, observes a star 2000 light years distant - and then a
neighbouring one - vanish, it is time for the Commonwealth to discover
what happened to them. For what if their disappearance indicates some
kind of galactic conflict? Since a conventional wormhole cannot be used
to reach these vanished stars, for the first time humans need to build a
faster-than-light starship, the Second Chance. But it arrives to find
each 'vanished' star encased in a giant force field -- and within one of
them resides a massive alien civilisation.
Peter F. Hamilton was born in Rutland in 1960, and still lives near
Rutland Water. His previous novels are the 'Greg Mandel' series:
Mindstar Rising (1993), A Quantum Murder (1994) and The Nano Flower
(1995); and the 'Night's Dawn' trilogy: The Reality Dysfunction, The
Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God. Also published by Macmillan
(and Pan) is A Second Chance at Eden, a novella and six short stories
set in the same universe, and The Confederation Handbook, a vital
guide to the 'Night's Dawn' trilogy. His most recent two novels were
Fallen Dragon and Misspent Youth.
