War of the Maps

Written by Paul McAuley

Narrated by Jonathan Oliver

"The underrated McAuley is in top form in this hard science fiction novel with heart." -Washington Post Book World

On a giant artificial world surrounding an artificial sun, one man-a lucidor, a keeper of the peace, a policeman-is on the hunt. His target was responsible for an atrocity, but is too valuable to the government to be truly punished. Instead he has been sent to the frontlines of the war, to use his unique talents on the enemy. So the lucidor has ignored orders, deserted from his job, left his home, and thrown his life away, in order to finally claim justice.

Separated by massive seas, the various maps dotted on the surface of this world rarely contact each other. But something has begun to infiltrate the edges of the lucidor's map, something that genetically alters animals and plants and turns them into killers. Only the lucidor knows the depths to which his quarry will sink in order to survive, only the lucidor can capture him. The way is long and dangerous. The lucidor's government has set hunters after him. He has no friends, no resources, no plan.

But he does have a mission.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Tantor Media, Inc
• Release date: Jun 1, 2021
• ISBN: 9781666124729

Paul McAuley

Paul McAuley was born in England on St George's Day 1955. He has worked as a research biologist in various universities, including Oxford and UCLA, and for six years was a lecturer in botany at St Andrews University. The first short story he ever finished was accepted by the American magazine Worlds of If, but the magazine folded before publishing it and he took this as a hint to concentrate on an academic career instead. He started writing again during a period as a resident alien in Los Angeles, and is now a full time writer. His first novel, Four Hundred Billion Stars, won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, and fifth, Fairyland, won the 1995 Arthur C. Clarke and John W. Campbell Awards. His other novels include Of the Fall, Eternal Light, Red Dust, Pasquale's Angel, the three books of Confluence, Child of the River, Ancients of Days, and Shrine of Stars, The Secret of Life, Whole Wide World, and White Devils. He has also published the collections of short stories The King of the Hill, The Invisible Country and Little Machines. A Doctor Who novella, The Eye of the Tyger, was published by Telos Books in November 2003, forty years after the author was scared behind the couch by the Daleks. He lives in North London.