It is the year 2055 and the battle of the sexes has seven combatants rather than two. "The illusion of empathy" has been dispensed with, and a few idealistic souls try to create a Utopia with pirated technology. But a wired journalist, Andrew Worth, doesn't want any part of the pop-'Frankenscience' regularly dished out to the masses. To get the real sbacksy, he goes to Stateless to cover the Einstein Centenary Conference where academic science is ready to reveal the ultimate breakthrough.

Unfortunately Academia's facade of civility is dangerously cracked with a seething maelstrom of plotting, assassination attempts, and rebellion and Worth is dragged down into the nightmare. The world's only hope for survival lies in Violet Mosasa's development of a final Theory of Everything but whether it will lead to the total destruction of Life As We Know It or the complete re-making of the Universe may be a risk too dangerous to take.

"Hot new writer Greg Egan is on his way with considerable velocity."

Gardner Dozois