THE BEGINNING OF THE END

In AD 2600, the human race is finally realizing its potential. The galaxy's colonized planets host a multitude of diverse cultures. Genetic engineering has defeated disease and produced extraordinary space-born creatures. Huge fleets of sentient trader starships thrive, living on the wealth created by industrializing entire star systems. And throughout inhabited space, the Confederation Navy keeps the peace.

Then something goes catastrophically wrong. On a primitive colony planet, a renegade criminal encounters an utterly alien entity. And this unintended meeting triggers the release of those that should never see the light, threatening everything we've become. An extinct race named this phenomenon 'the Reality Dysfunction'. It is a nightmare that has haunted us since the dawn of time.

'Super-intelligent space opera . . . and it's a rattling page-turner too' Stephen Baxter

'Painted on the vast canvas of classic space opera . . . the story builds to an explosive climax' SFX

'A space opera with a difference . . . All the disparate plot-strands converge to knot together in an exhilarating climax' Starburst

Insert jpegs for the NIGHT'S DAWN TRILOGY NECs on back cover (The Reality Dysfunction, The Neutronium Alchemist, The Naked God)

Peter F. Hamilton was born in Rutland in 1960 and now lives in Somerset. He began writing in 1987, and sold his first short story to Fear magazine in 1988. He has written many bestselling novels, including the Greg Mandel series, the Night's Dawn trilogy, the Commonwealth Saga, the Void trilogy, the Chronicle of the Fallers, short story collections and several standalone novels.