Book description
The year is 2065, two decades after the great economic collapse
that destroyed Western civilization. With its power broken and its
cities ruined, life in the West continues in scattered communities. In
rural Dorset Jake Reed lives with his 14-year-old son and memories of
the great collapse. Back in '43, Jake was a rich, young futures
broker, immersed in the datascape of the world's financial markets. He
saw what was coming - and who was behind it. Forewarned, he was one of
the few to escape the fall. For 22 years he has lived in fear of the
future, and finally it is coming - quite literally - across the plain
towards him. Chinese airships are in the skies and a strange, glacial
structure has begun to dominate the horizon. Jake finds himself
forcibly incorporated into the ever-expanding 'World of Levels' a
global city of some 34 billion souls, where social status is reflected
by how far above the ground you live. Here, under the rule of the
mighty Tsao Ch'un, a resurgent China is seeking to abolish the past
and bring about world peace through rigidly enforced order. But a
civil war looms, and Jake will find himself at the heart of the
struggle for the future.
