Neal Asher ramps up the action in this second book in his Rise of the Jain Trilogy. Expect epic conflicts in space, extraordinary aliens and impossible choices in the page-turning follow-up to The Soldier. Each faction will do whatever it takes to save their kind…. Orlandine has destroyed the alien Jain super-soldier by deploying an actual black hole. And now that same weapon hoovers up clouds of lethal Jain technology, swarming within the deadly accretion disc's event horizon. All seems just as she planned. Yet behind her back, forces incite rebellion on her home world, planning her assassination. Earth Central, humanity's ruling intelligence, knows Orlandine was tricked into releasing her weapon, and fears the Jain are behind it. The prador king knows this too - and both foes gather fleets of warships to surround the disc. The alien Client is returning to the accretion disc to save the last of her kind, buried on a ship deep within it. She upgrades her vast weapons platform in preparation, and she'll need it. Their nemesis also waits within the disc's swirling dusts - and the Jain have committed genocide before.