by Ken MacLeod
First published 2002
Matt Cairns makes his living as a 21st-century outlaw programmer, taking the risky assignments others avoid. When he accepts a job to infiltrate the Marshall Titov, a classified European Space Agency orbital station, he expects another routine hack. What he finds instead launches him on a journey he never imagined possible. Meanwhile, on the distant world of Terra Nova, Gregor Cairns studies alien life forms while nursing an obsession with a trader's daughter. His research partner Elizabeth loves him in silence as they work together on his family's centuries-old project to unlock the mystery of interstellar travel. The two storylines converge as both men confront discoveries that will reshape their understanding of the universe and their place within it.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, space-opera, aliens, 21st-century, alternate-universe
Vibes: suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, found-family
Setting: Terra Nova, Marshall Titov, European Space Agency
Period: 21st-century
352 pages · Mass Market Paperback · Tor Science Fiction