Amazon.com Amazon.com Review (ISBN 0553575376, Mass Market Paperback)

It's not easy to disturb a mega-utopia as vast as the one Iain M. Banks has created in his popular Culture series, where life is devoted to fun and ultra-high-tech is de rigueur. But more than two millennia ago the appearance--and disappearance--of a star older than the universe caused quite a stir. Now the mystery is back, and the key to solving it lies in the mind of the person who witnessed the first disturbance 2,500 years ago. But she's dead, and getting her to cooperate may not be altogether easy.

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 185723457X, Paperback)

Two and a half millennia ago, the artifact appeared in a remote corner of space, beside a trillion-year-old dying sun from a different universe. It was a perfect black-body sphere, and it did nothing. Then it disappeared. Now it is back. 'Banks is a phenomenon...wildly successful, fearlessly creative' William Gibson 'Thrilling, affecting and comic...probably the finest science fiction he has written to date' New Scientist 'Banks has rewritten the libretto for the whole space-opera genre' The Times

Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0553374605, Paperback)

Sent to investigate the reported existence of a star believed to be fifty times older than the universe itself, diplomat Byr Gen-Hofoen must steal the soul of a long-dead starship captain and convince her to be reborn.