Paperback: 384 pages
Publisher: Orbit (4 Sep 2003)
ISBN-10: 1841492035
Category(ies): SF
This is the concluding part of MacLeod's Engines of Light series.
This is when life really gets interesting. Did I mention that the Saurs have a strange resemblance to 'Greys'? Or that they typically fly around in things suspiciously like flying saucers? Or that here, in the Second Sphere (far from Earth in an unknown direction), there are an awful lot of Gods, because when you have an asteroid or comet full of biological and silicaceous material, and it ferments for long enough, you get intelligences, intelligences that get rather peeved by the racket coming from planet-bound life and that try to persuade those planetary civilisations to go away somewhere else.
And sometimes, just sometimes, they'll persuade a wandering rock to drop onto one of those planets. Well, it's happened a few times to Earth.
So there's somewhat of a stand-off. The Gods don't drop rocks on other species, and the other species try not to bother the Gods too much.
Not usually, anyway.
MacLeod closes his excellent trilogy with a bang.