Annunciate

In a dark, brutal new age, humans have crossed vast stretches of space and incorporated new levels of technology into their very beings. Yet they still struggle with the bloody instincts that have tormented humanity since time immemorial. ThreeSys is a triangle of stars with eleven planets each, where people are divided into three classes-Meshed, Jacked, and Jackless-a caste system of technological access. "Mesh" has emerged as the universe's single greatest power: a tiny elite of Meshed humans can access unsurpassed knowledge, enter another dimension, and manipulate lesser mortals' reality.

But three of these gifted humans-Eve, Corey, and Annmarie-have harnessed this power for their own evil ends. Traveling throughout ThreeSys, the trio devotes their extraordinary abilities to selling what they claim is an end to all wars and aggression. What they're actually selling is Staze, an opiumlike, instantly addictive drug that wraps the user in dreams and lethargy. Yet some Jacked and Jackless have retaliated against this and other abuses of power, mercilessly hunting down and killing Meshed humans.

Time is running out for the three, even as ebony-hued Eve falls in love with lower caste Naverdi, who's Jacked, a supplier of a key Staze ingredient, and an addict herself. The only answer is on Paradise, the first ThreeSys planet where humans ever set foot. Paradise hadn't survived its first brush with human habitation, and was blasted from its orbit into another solar system millennia ago. Now it's the only place where the Mesh is intact-the old Mesh, the original Mesh, the real one.

The Annunciate-the first person to step off the first ship-still lives in Paradise's myths andlegends.

All Meshed wear the Annunciate's medal, her mysterious, enigmatic image etched at the gates of Paradise, offering the elusive promise of a new world clean of sin and violence. But a far more dangerous presence awaits Eve, Naverdi, Annmarie and Corey on the abando

"Intricately thought out and compelling; love, duty, subjugation and first contact play out in worlds where humaninterfacewith technology is organic, personal, and shapedby individual creative vision. A beautifully conceived story." (— NaloHopkinson, author of Brown Girl in the Ring )