Book description
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. Iain Banks came to widespread and controversial public
notice with the publication of his first novel, THE WASP FACTORY, in
1984. He has since gained enormous popular and critical acclaim for both
his mainstream and his science fiction novels.
