Tides of Light

TIDES OF LIGHT - Gregory Benford As the sequel to "Great Sky River", this is the story of a small band of humans at the center of the galaxy who come face to face with an awesome alien intelligence. Continuing the story begun in Great Sky River, Benford creates a stunning novel of the last band of humans fleeing extinction in the Galactic Center. This last remnant of humanity is led by Killeen, a man elevated to command in desperate times by his luck and daring. He manages to reach a new planet where he encounters vast wonders. But with one enemy behind them, the humans are dismayed to discover an alien race more awesome than any they have encountered. Set long into the future when humans have become a relict of their former glory. Once a space-faring race they are now confined to a few individual planets in the outer reaches of the galaxy, confined by the increased deprivations of the mech, a robot mechanical species who have virtually taken over control of the galaxy. The book is set in three distinct parts. The first, the humans voyage of flight from their devastated home planet out into space to a new world. In fact this flight has been planned for them by the mechs, unknown to them! The second part deals with the thoughts and movements and conflicts of an alien race, very much like organized spiders, who encounter the travelling humans. This latter race is gutting the humans destination planet using a cosmic string and using the planets core material, iron, to build a great cosmic web for communication to other galaxies. The third part deals with the humans conflicts on the surface of the new planet both with the original human inhabitants who have also been fighting a losing battle against both the mech and the spiders and the subsequent discovery by the spiders that the humans have a role to play in the ultimate destiny of the universe.