This high-octane adventure is set in the same world as Neal Asher's acclaimed Polity universe. It's a thrilling, fast-paced standalone novel, perfect for fans of Alastair Reynolds and Stephen Baxter.

Created to die - determined to live . . .

Jack Four - one of twenty human clones - has been created to be sold. His purchasers are the alien prador and they only want him for their experimentation program. But there is something different about Jack.

The prador's king has been mutated by the Spatterjay virus into a monstrous creature, along with his children. They were infected by the virus during the last humans-versus-prador war, now lapsed into an uneasy truce. But the prador are always looking for new weapons - and their experimentation program might give them the edge they seek.

Suzeal trades human slaves out of the Stratogaster Space Station. She thinks the rewards are worth the risks, but all that is about to change. The Station was once a zoo, containing monsters from across known space. All the monsters now dwell on the planet below, but they aren't as contained as they seem. And a vengeful clone may be the worst danger of all.

'Neal Asher's books are like an adrenaline shot targeted directly for the brain'
John Scalzi, author of the Old Man's War series

'Magnificently awesome. Then Asher turns it up to eleven'
Peter F. Hamilton, author of Salvation and others, on Asher's The Soldier