After a relentless war ravaged the galaxy for hundreds of millions of years, an insidious enemy was finally subdued by the events of the Great Conflation – although not defeated. With the pre-Conflation empires in ruins and the Ascended Biologicals wiped out, the decimated galactic community struggled to rebuild itself from the ashes, and the machine-led Wanderer civilisation rose to prominence. A lone Wanderer craft-lect – a sentient machine intelligence – has found something on an innocuous world it had marked for routine decontamination. Something that may aid it in finally discovering answers about their formidable enemy, and with the power to stop it. Gil, a young woman from an isolated commune, realises that her abilities far surpass anything she had suspected, but do they come at a price? She battles to save the future of her commune against mysterious, ancient rivals, and possibly much more.

Now a passenger on the Wanderer ship, Gil struggles to comprehend its galaxy-spanning quest and her place amongst the stars. She is helped by 998, the c-autom appointed by the craft-lect as her guardian, while it also deals with its own burgeoning duties as quasi-leader of its kind. The ship’s other recent passenger, One-oh, an ancient bio-lect and assumed sole survivor of an ancient race, has meanwhile retreated into self-imposed isolation – although dark secrets about a terrible past threaten to be unleashed. Minding its own business, a data-lect supervising one of the Wanderer data exchange portals is taken by surprise when a puzzling stranger makes an unexpected visit – its absurd claims of other realities can’t possibly be true, can they? Elsewhere, paradise is tirelessly tended to by its devoted workers, keen to aid their forgetful creator in remembering vital knowledge that was lost. The gardens require a steady influx of new seedlings to continue to flourish, but a new arrival could jeopardise everything.

When a powerful machine-lect reconnects with real space to gaze across the galaxy, it receives an unexpected message and decides to take action. The Maspero, an Ascended Biological civilisation extinct for sixty million years, may hold vital clues about the fabled Deliverer. The craft-lect is nearby, but there’s a problem. An internal attack has removed its control and left it isolated from the crew. This time, it’s not just angry, it’s vengeful – and just where do One-oh’s loyalties lie? While the ship’s occupants struggle in the aftermath of the attack, Gil is confronted by startling visions of the past, and the return of her sphere. Tor and DeVoid try to make sense of their uninvited guest as well as his bizarre request, before embarking on a journey neither would have thought possible. Apalu faces a difficult choice on its quest to the Lenbit Orbital in search of answers, while a terrible weapon lies in wait – little more than a distant memory from the dawn of the Wanderer civilisation.

A standalone novel from the Wanderer Universe. Chiton vanished. It was there, and then it wasn't. How does an entire star system vanish? The Chitchi were forced to start again. 300 years ago, the brilliant Krasna established her research c'hub on the unclaimed water-world of Prebis. Chiotechnology may have its flaws, but finally, her ferinon experiments seem to be going somewhere. Unfortunately, her increasingly bizarre behaviour and strange references to the past begin to worry her subordinates. Meanwhile, rumours circulate the c'hub of a fascinating, new fast travel technology that is being gifted to the galactic community by the Ascended Biologicals. Chathindi studies the insectoid Risers - non-sentients, native to Prebis, that eject from the ocean to join the living blanket encompassing the world - and grows increasingly convinced they are more than they appear. Just who is observing who?

Previous cover of ASIN: B07V6K5HM3 A novel from the Wanderer Universe. An ancient mystery has returned. Everyone wants to survive. Everyone wants answers. The Outer Layer is an enigma to its residents. Representatives from countless races and civilisations wander the many territories, hoping to unlock the secrets and progress further into its depths. An anomaly has been detected in space by an artefact from an extinct civilisation. Ciqalo, a machine intelligence from the Wanderer civilisation, is tasked with leading the investigation in the hope of weaponizing it for a galactic war. Beatrict and Gerstial are leaders of the Alexis-Meld - a prominent Roranian collective. They control their commercial interests from the idyllic homeworld of Lillea, and expect rule of the meld to be passed to their heirs, Beatrict II, Gerstial II and Philsima. Unfortunately for them, life is never so simple. Tolren, playmate of Gerstial II, becomes a hunted fugitive, and finds himself thrust into an adventure aboard a structure in space that defies all understanding, alongside Seremend, a fellow Roranian. While the relationship between them intensifies, they race to comprehend the complexities of their new home and why they have been chosen. What is the purpose of it all?