Book description
Smoothly, remorselessly, inhumanly, the controlled flow of people
continued. As each of the great planetary shells approached population
maximum, the surplus of mass of humanity was transported out: Mars
shell, Asteroid, Jupiter.
Inexorably they filled the space made ready for them by Zeus, the
master-minding intelligence. Jupiter shell, Saturn, Uranus...
But at Uranus shell the ordered, ever-outward flow stopped and the
pressure of the countless billions had pushed the shell to the very edge
of catastrophic breakdown.
Beyond Uranus lay ready Neptune shell. Zeus-designed, Zeus-built but no
longer Zeus-controlled. Another giant intelligence had usurped all
power, was refusing to operate the system that alone gave any future to Solaria.
And so it was that Maq Ancor, Master Assassin, Magician Cherry and Sine
Anura became the eyes of Zeus as they journeyed to the place where all
systems failed, where chaos and the Tyrant of Hades ruled. Born in
1928, Colin Kapp was both a British SF author and a worker in
electronics, later becoming a freelance consultant in electroplating.
His writing career began with the publication of 'Life Plan' in New Worlds
in November 1958. Kapp is best known for his stories about the
Unorthodox Engineers, which gained a modest cult following. He passed
away in 2007.
