Alastair Reynolds (born 1966 in South Wales) is an astrophysicist who made his science fiction debut with Cosmic Apocalypse, a novel that critics have called "the most ambitious work since Hyperion" and "a book that competes the work of Peter Hamilton and Iain Banks“”... Little remains of an ancient, long-vanished alien civilization. Only artifacts. The artifacts are mysterious—and deadly to people. Artifacts whose mystery must be unraveled at any cost. Because it depends on whether or not there will be a Cosmic Apocalypse, a catastrophe that will claim billions of lives... Who will reveal the secret of the artifacts? Perhaps the closest to the truth are two - a scientist ruling an alien colony of earthlings, and his mortal enemy and forced ally - a space adventurer...