Bantam Spectra, June 2001
Imagine a world where everyone is dangerous, to themselves and to others; a world where ordinary humans are regarded as nothing more than ghosts. Such a world is the lost colony of Monde D'Isle.
As the story begins, a mission of eco-priestesses has come from the world Irie St Syre, to find out what has become of the colony. They find a planet in which the colonists' descendants live in harmony with nature and are natural dowsers - yet their children are sent out into the wilderness to live like wild animals, and as adults they lapse into terrifying outbursts of violence.
With difficulty, the mission manages to make contact with a young man from the colony, Eleres, and his disabled sister, Mevennen. But in exploring the sinister technology which lies in a ruined desert city, and attempting to save a child from what she believes is an unprovoked attack, mission acolyte Bel precipitates a chain of events which gradually embroil Eleres and Mevennen in a tragic web of internecine conflict.
Buy The Ghost Sister at Amazon.co.uk
Bantam Spectra, spring 2002
Tor Macmillan, summer 2003
* * * Nominated for the Philip K Dick memorial award * * *
Millions of years ago alien beings seeded Earth with their genetic strand to create a new outpost of intelligent life. Now their descendents have returned to Earth's skies, drawn by their detection of a Receiver, a human with the genetic ability to tap into alien communications. It is the signal that Earth is ready to be absorbed into a vast galactic empire.
Jaya Nihalani has been a prophet, a crusader, fighting for the rights of her despised Untouchable caste. Now she lies in an Indian hospital, dying of a hideous disease. Her head is filled with voices and visions; her body is aging rapidly, inexplicably. But the voices and visions are no disease... Jaya is the Receiver, whom the aliens intend to heal, enlighten... and use.
Soon the subcontinent erupts in riots and chaos as powerful forces attempt to co-opt the enigmatic alien emissaries, and a shocked world awaits its fate. Jaya must somehow discover the plans of her perfect and powerful 'friends'. Have they come to end human suffering, or to make it worse? Should she help them - or lead the impossible fight against them?
Buy Empire of Bones at Amazon.co.uk
Bantam Spectra, winter 2003
Tor Macmillan, summer 2003
DeBoekerij 2004
For generations untold, a population of humans has been held captive on the world of Latent Emanation, virtual prisoners of their alien overlords, the Lords of Night. None of the humans know how they got to this planet, or what their purpose is in being there. They only know that those people chosen by lottery to serve the Lords never come out of the experience entirely sane - if they even come out of it alive at all. But how can you defeat an enemy you cannot understand, or learn the truth of your origins when it is shrouded in alien mystery? Some people endeavor to unlock these mysteries through secret spiritual quests. Latent Emanation is rich in psychotropic substances from the swamps, and while a lucrative industry has developed, some of the inhabitants also take the drugs as a sacrament, trying to gain a knowledge of humanity's lost origins. But for others, sometimes an unlikely alliance might be the key to unlocking their prison's door.
Alivet Dee is a young apothecary whose twin sister has been taken by the Lords. When she is approached by an offworld stranger, Ari Ghairen - a poison master from the even more mysterious world of Hathes - she is given a deal. If she applies her expert knowledge in the mixing of chemicals to help him to defeat the Lords, he will aid her in freeing her sister. But the more Alivet learns about Ghairen and his world, the more she realizes that the deal is not as simple as it seemed. Other worlds have a stake in the ultimate fate of the Lords - for reasons she does not yet understand. And soon Alivet finds herself caught in the midst of treacherously shifting alliances in her attempts to free her sister - and her planet - from alien dominion.
Nine Layers of Sky
Bantam Spectra, autumn 2003
Tor Macmillan ,2004
A former Soviet scientist, Elena Irinovna once dreamed of sending men into space. Now, she cleans office buildings. But her life is going to dramatically change yet again when she crosses paths with Ilya Muromyets. A remnant of Russia's glorious and fabled past, Ilya is an eight-hundred-year-old hero turned heroin addict, dreaming of a death that never comes. They are brought together by a strange artifact Elena comes across while on a trip to sell goods on the black market. Made of unknown metal, the engimatic object offers a glimpse into another dimension, creating a dangerous breach in a world Elena only thought she knew... Just the opposite, Ilya is no stranger to the unexplained. He's been hired by a mysterious organization to track down the artifact. But nothing prepares him for what it offers-or for a woman like Elena and her determination to uncover the truth. Fighting their own inner demons as well as those from across the breach, Ilya and Elena embark on a harrowing trip between nations and worlds. And for the first time, the man of myth and the woman of science discover that they have a dream to defend-and even die for...
Banner of Souls
Bantam Spectra, 2004
Tor Macmillan ,2004
Far-future Earth: a flooded, shattered world, its history lost, governed by the iron hand of the Martian Matriarchy and infested with the alien science known as haunt-tech... Martian warrior Dreams-of-War is not pleased to be dispatched to Earth to guard a young girl from an unknown threat. Even in a world where natural birth has long since ceased to occur, males are no longer produced and children are force-grown in garden laboratories, Lunae is no ordinary child - the clone of an extraordinary heritage, she possesses the ability to alter time. Dreams-of-War must travel to the half-ruined city of Fragrant Harbour, to where Lunae lives with her malignant grandmothers and a member of the genetically modified race known as the kappa. Here, Dreams-of-War encounters a host of intrigues and plots, centring on the sinister presence of an alien mission station at the heart of the city. When an assassin comes to Lunae's home of Cloud Terrace, Dreams-of-War and the kappa are forced to flee with the girl to the flooded northern islands of what was once Japan. But Lunae and the kappa go missing en route and Dreams-of-War finds a dubious ally in the form of Yskatarina, a mutated woman from the world of Nightshade. Unsure of whether she can trust Yskatarina, stripped of her rank and her armour, Dreams-of-War struggles to return to the plains of Mars, to discover the truth about Martian rule over Earth, and the nature of the intrigues that lie behind it.