Confluence (4)

Captured by his archenemy, Dr. Dismas, the remarkable young man known as Yama fights a dual battle against an internal and an external enemy in order to achieve his true destiny. Set in a far future in which humans have abandoned the known worlds, leaving behind them a plethora of created races, McAuley's conclusion to his galactic trilogy, “The Books of Confluence,” reveals the cyclic nature of the universe and the infinite variety of creation. Richly detailed and lyrically told, this volume belongs in most sf collections.

In McAuley’s follow-up to , named a PW Best Book of 1998, Yama continues his quest for identity, still pursued by the implacable Prefect Corin of the Department of Indigenous Affairs, who would subvert Yama’s burgeoning psychic powers and put them to use in the war against the Heretics. Confluence is a planet-sized, needle-shaped artificial environment set millions of years in the future by the Preservers, humanity’s distant descendants, to orbit a star. Nearby is the Eye of the Preservers, a massive black hole within which the galaxy’s remaining humans have evidently hidden themselves, for reasons unknown. The inhabitants of Confluence, the 10,000 bloodlines, are, apparently without exception, animals, some of earthly origin and others not, all genetically engineered for human intelligence and form. Yama, an orphan of mysterious parentage, is a Builder, a member of a bloodline thought long extinct. His desire to uncover the mystery behind his birth is the motivating force for both his quest and the series. Throughout, he is opposed not just by Prefect Corin but by other intelligent beings, both organic and inorganic, who would bend him to their will.

NASA discovered the alien ship lurking in the asteroid belt in the 1960s. They kept the Target under intense surveillance for decades, letting the public believe they were exploring the solar system, while they worked feverishly to refine the technology needed to reach it.

The ship itself remained silent, drifting.

Dr. Jane Holloway is content documenting nearly-extinct languages and had never contemplated becoming an astronaut. But when NASA recruits her to join a team of military scientists for an expedition to the Target, it’s an adventure she can’t refuse.

The ship isn’t vacant, as they presumed.

A disembodied voice rumbles inside Jane’s head, “You are home.”

Jane fights the growing doubts of her colleagues as she attempts to decipher what the alien wants from her. As the derelict ship devolves into chaos and the crew gets cut off from their escape route, Jane must decide if she can trust the alien’s help to survive.