Too Like the Lightning
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Sci-Fi; Fantasy
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July 2017
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UK: Head of Zeus
US: Tor Books
Terra Ignota Book I
The year is 2454.
Humanity has engineered a hard-won golden age, forged in the aftermath of a bitter conflict that wiped both religion and nation state from the planet. Now seven factions or 'hives' co-govern the world, their rule fuelled by benign censorship, oracular statistical analytics and technological abundance. But this is a fragile Utopia – and someone is intent on pushing it to breaking point.
Convicted for his crimes, celebrated for his talents, Mycroft Canner is the indentured instrument – and confidant – of some of the world's most powerful figures. When he is asked to investigate a bizarre theft, he finds himself on the trail of a conspiracy that could shatter the tranquil world order the Hives have maintained for three centuries.
But Mycroft has his own secrets. He is concealing a much greater threat to the seven Hives, a wild car no degree of statistical analysis could have prophesised. This threat takes the unlikely form of a thirteen-year-old called Bridger. For how will a world that has banished God deal with a child who can perform miracles?
WINNER OF THE JOHN W. CAMPBELL AWARD AT THE HUGO AWARDS 2016
WINNER OF THE COMPTON CROOK AWARD 2017