Ian M. Banks is one of the recognized masters of “intellectual space opera”, a writer who created his own Universe.

A Universe in which there is WAR...

War between the two largest galactic civilizations - the Republican culture and the Idiran Empire.

The war that the Culture got involved in only to save its peace of mind - the most valuable thing it had.

The war that the Idirans started because understood: jihad must expand so as not to become meaningless.

A war that lasted for forty-eight years and one month. The total number of fallen is 851.4 billion. Ship losses - 91,215,660. Number of planets destroyed - 53.

Scientists considered this war the most significant conflict in the last fifty thousand years of Galactic history.

Before you is one of the most STRANGE episodes of this war An episode in which the fate of millions of “strangers” is destined to be decided not by armies or generals, but simply by one single person - the “kamikaze” killer Tibaylo Quilan.