Jon Grady's team achieves what they've been working toward for years: a device that can reflect gravity. Grady expects widespread acclaim for his entire team. Instead, his lab is locked down by the BTC, who uses the technologies they have harvested over the decades to fulfill their mission. Asked to join the BTC, Grady balks, and is put into a high-tech prison. Grady and his fellow prisoners must conceive of a way to usher humanity out of its artificial dark age.
"The characters (even the not-strictly-human ones) are vivid, the pacing is perfect, the villain is capital-E evil, and the author's near-future world is so well developed that you completely buy even his wildest speculations. A magnificent tour de force."
