Ancestral Machines (Humanity's Fire) - Softcover

"Proper galaxy-spanning Space Opera ... a worthy addition to the genre."--Iain M. Banks on Seeds of Earth

"The invention is endless."--SFX on Seeds of Earth

"A well-constructed space opera...a thick and satisfying 10-course meal of starchy pageantry, meaty characters, bitter losses, and sweet romance."--Publishers Weekly on Seeds of Earth

"Space opera has never been in more capable hands."--The Guardian (UK) on The Orphaned Worlds

"Seeds of Earth has everything: well-realised extraterrestrials, scheming artificial intelligences, set-piece space battles and bizarre technology from the dawn of the galaxy."--The Guardian (UK) on Seeds of Earth

"Michael Cobley has added a fine piece of work to a grand tradition."--SF Crow's Nest on The Ascendant Stars

A new standalone epic space opera, set in the same world as the Humanity's Fire trilogy.
No world is safe.
The Warcage: two hundred worlds harnessed to an articial sun in a feat of unprecedented stellar engineering. Built to travel through space as a monument to peace between alien species, now its voracious rulers have turned it into a nightmarish wasteland, capturing new planets for slaves and resources, then discarding the old.
Now, when a verdant agri-world is pulled out of its orbit, the captain of a smuggler ship must journey into the Warcage to rescue his crew.