A priest is dead. As Detective Inspector Adam Ferguson picks through the rubble of the demolished Edinburgh tenement, he discovers that the explosion wasn’t an accident. The priest’s flat was bombed. When a bishop is assassinated soon afterwards, it becomes clear that a targeted campaign of killings is underway. It's been a long time since anyone saw anything like this. The word the police don't want people to say is ‘terrorism’. That war has been won. Terrorism is history . . .
After the Faith Wars and the rising sea levels - after Armageddon and the Flood - came the Great Rejection. The first Enlightenment separated church from state. The Second Enlightenment has separated religion from politics. In this more tolerant age there's no persecution, but the millions who still believe and worship are a marginal and mistrusted minority. And now someone is killing them. But who?
At first, suspicion falls on atheists more militant than the secular authorities, but when the target list expands to include the godless, it becomes evident that Ferguson and his team need to cast their net wider. But with each question they answer the suspicion dawns that they may have stumbled onto a conspiracy to bring about disaster on a biblical scale. The solution lies in the brave new world of the future but its origin is couched in the rigid doctrines of the past.
It seems that something very old has risen from the ashes of the Faith Wars. Something very old and very, very dangerous . . .
Praise for Ken MacLeod:
- 'Mind-expanding science fiction at its best
- it is no surprise that [Learning the World] has been shortlisted for all the main science fiction awards.' The Times, 'Stunningly assured, inventive and intelligent' Iain M. Banks, 'A classic saga … heartily recommended' SFX, 'MacLeod continues to add massive new levels of sophistication to the traditional space opera' Starlog
Hardback:
£18.99
Available 07/08/2008
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