The Jackaroo have given humanity fifteen worlds and the means to reach them. They're a chance to start over, but they're also littered with ruins and artifacts left by the Jackaroo's previous clients.
Miracles that could reverse the damage caused by war, climate change, and rising sea levels. Nightmares that could forever alter humanity - or even destroy it.
Chloe Millar works in London, mapping changes caused by imported scraps of alien technology. When she stumbles across a pair of orphaned kids possessed by an ancient ghost, she must decide whether to help them or to hand them over to the authorities. Authorities who believe that their visions point towards a new kind of danger.
And on one of the Jackaroo's gift-worlds, the murder of a man who has just arrived from Earth leads policeman Vic Gayle to a war between rival gangs over possession of a remote excavation site.
Something is coming through. Something linked to the visions of Chloe's orphans, and Vic Gayle's murder investigation. Something that will challenge the limits of the Jackaroo's benevolence ...
Born in Gloucestershire, Paul McAuley has a Ph.D in Botany and worked as a researcher and lecturer in various universities, including Oxford, St Andrews and the University of California, Los Angeles. His first novel won the Philip K Dick Award; his fifth the Arthur C. Clarke and John. W. Campbell Awards. His novels and stories have also won the British Fantasy, Sidewise and Theodore Sturgeon Awards. Although he lives in London, he spends as much time as possible getting lost in the woods.You can find his website at: www.unlikelyworlds.co.uk