First published 2006
Manfred lives in the early 2010s, making money by connecting people and scattering new technologies wherever he goes. The recession has lifted, but populations grow older while technological change speeds up at a dizzying pace. He operates at the forefront of intelligence amplification, though even he can bite off more than he can chew. His robot cat discovers something remarkable buried in SETI transmissions. This discovery flips everything upside down, not just for Manfred but for generations of his family that follow. The story traces how this single moment of contact reshapes human civilization itself. What begins as one man's encounter with alien intelligence becomes a multigenerational saga of transformation, as humanity races toward a future none of them could have imagined.
Genres: science-fiction, space-opera, 21st-century, artificial-intelligence
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, multigenerational
Period: 2010s
433 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Orbit (UK)