Dr. Sunya Song embarks on an interstellar journey across the Milky Way to connect with the artificial intelligence known as Baomind, a moon-sized entity that holds the key to humanity\u2019s survival amidst cosmic challenges and unforeseen threats in Hugo Award-winning author Elizabeth Bear\u2019s next epic science fiction novel.<\/b><\/p>\n
Information doesn\u2019t want to be free. Information wants to vanish without a trace.<\/p>\n
Sunya Song\u2019s job is to stop that from happening.<\/p>\n
She\u2019s an archinformist: a specialist historian whose job usually involves sitting at a console at her university job near the Galactic Core, sorting ancient documents and restoring corrupted files.<\/p>\n
But now, the research opportunity of a lifetime has sent her\u2014along with her teenage children and alien wife\u2014halfway across the galaxy to preserve the data and aid in the retrieval of the archaeological find of the century: an ancient alien artificial intelligence called Baomind. As vast as a stellar system, the Baomind orbits a dying red giant, and the star\u2019s time has nearly ended.<\/p>\n
The isolated research station and its small fleet of ships come under attack by fanatic Freeport pirates who believe that artificial intelligence is an abomination that must be destroyed, putting the lives of Sunya and her family at risk.<\/p>\n
Tens of thousands of lightyears from home, isolated from all help, Sunya is the only one who can save them all.<\/p>\n