Synopses & Reviews
A novel of prodigious scope and ambition, ablaze with imaginative energy and rendered in mesmerizing prose—complete with polar bear attacks, tsunamis, modern piracy, airship crashes, Cold War intrigue, and a djinnOn May 25, 1928 over the frozen seas of the Arctic, an airship falls out of the sky. Among the survivors is a young scientist on the verge of a discovery that will redefine physics. On October 3, 1996 through the dusty industrial towns of India's Great Trunk Road, a disgraced and disfigured female detective starts tracking a criminal syndicate whose tentacles spread from forgery to smuggling to piracy. Her life has been ruined, but she will have her revenge. On December 26, 2004 a tsunami washes up a rusting container on the island of Bali. Locked within this aluminum tomb are the mummified remains of a shipping magnate missing for 29 years, and a handwritten journal of his last days. On December 13, 2011 off the coast of Sri Lanka, a tramp steamer is seized by pirates. The captain has his wife and son aboard, and their survival depends on following the pirates' every demand. But what can they possibly want with his worn-out ship and its cargo of junk? The ship was carrying a Dead Water cargo—Dead Water is the key to everything.
Review
"It is unlikely there will be finer fiction written this year." —Guardian
Review
"A virtuoso display of imaginative plotting." —Financial Times
Review
"Deceptively readable, dizzyingly constructed . . . Ings's mad, mad world is held together to the very last page by humor, vivid depictions and a deeply compelling emotional core." —Publishers Weekly on The Weight of Numbers
Review
"A remarkable debut, full of startling imagery and set pieces of bizarrely inventive action." —Roz Kaveney, author, Reading the Vampire Slayer
Synopsis
An ambitious SF novel that is at once post-cyberpunk and post-modern. Complex, multi-layered, it combines hard science, tarot and images of late 20th-century Europe to make something utterly original. And introduces a memorable new heroine to the genre ...
Malise has a problem. She's come downwell to Earth, but years of space combat have ruined her: her muscles have wasted away, her past is a confused torture of events and her brain is wired to addictive military hardware that's illegal on Earth.
But with an AI mining probe returning to Earth, having bred and grown until it is hundreds of miles across, Malise is in the firing line again. The probe is indestructible and it is insatiable for more metals. No one knows how to stop it. Malise doesn't know she has a blueprint for humanity's survival wired into her head.
Synopsis
At once post-cyberpunk and post-modern, Ing's extraordinary debut novel combines hard science, tarot, and images of late 20th-century Europe, as well as introducing a memorable new heroine to the genre Malise has a problem. She's come downwell to Earth, but years of space combat have ruined her: her muscles have wasted away, her past is a confused torture of events, and her brain is wired to addictive military hardware that's illegal on Earth. But with an AI mining probe returning to Earth, having bred and grown until it is hundreds of miles across, Malise is in the firing line again. The probe is indestructible and it is insatiable for more metals. No one knows how to stop it—and Malise doesn't know she has a blueprint for humanity's survival wired into her head.
About the Author
Simon Ings is a science fiction and literary author whose previous books include Dead Water and A Natural History of Seeing. He also edits Arc, a fiction magazine from the makers of New Scientist, and reviews fiction and popular science for the Guardian and the Telegraph.