A chilling dystopia exploring AI technology and migration

A SUNDAY TIMES BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR 2022

“Literary SF at its best.”—The Guardian

“An accomplished, thought-provoking novel that is also darkly humorous.”—The Sunday Times

“A neat idea . . . a scathing critique of the attitude towards migrants in Brexit Britain.”—The Financial Times

Outwardly alien arrivals from a distant sea, the lambdas are genetically human. They slip quietly into low-to middle-income jobs and appear to want nothing more than to be left alone. For Cara Gray, they are first a haunting presence in her otherwise ordinary childhood, then the inscrutable target of her police surveillance work.

When a bomb goes off at a school, a nebulous group of lambda extremists claims responsibility for the attack — but how could a vulnerable community of tiny aquatic humans, barely visible in society and seemingly indifferent to their own exploitation, be capable of something so horrific?

In a world of sentient objects, all-powerful quantum AI, and neuroses-ridden organic robots, Cara must decide whether to accept her place in a pattern of technology, violence and deceit, or take action of her own.

David Musgrave
David Musgrave was born in North East England and now lives in London. He has exhibited widely as a visual artist, and his work is held in many collections worldwide.