Seven Surrenders

The second book of Terra Ignota, a political SF epic of extraordinary audacity. It is a world in which near-instantaneous travel from continent to continent is free to all.<br /><br />In which automation now provides for everybody’s basic needs.<br />In which nobody living can remember an actual war.<br />In which it is illegal for three or more people to gather for the practice of religion—but ecumenical “sensayers” minister in private, one-on-one.<br />In which gendered language is archaic, and to dress as strongly male or female is, if not exactly illegal, deeply taboo.<br />In which nationality is a fading memory, and most people identify instead with their choice of the seven global Hives, distinguished from one another by their different approaches to the big questions of life.<br /><br />And it is a world in which, unknown to most, the entire social order is teetering on the edge of collapse.<br /><br />Because even in utopia, humans will conspire. And also because something new has arisen: Bridger, the child who can bring inanimate objects to conscious life.