When your life is based on lies, how do you hunt down the truth? Jerry Beche should be dead. Instead he's rescued from a desolate Earth where he's the last man alive. He's then trained for the toughest conditions imaginable and placed with a crack team of specialists on an isolated island. Every one of them is a survivor, as each withstood the violent ending of their own alternate Earth. And their new specialism? To retrieve weapons and data in missions to other apocalyptic versions of our world.

But what is 'the Authority', the shadowy organization that rescued Beche and his fellow survivors? How does it access timelines to find other Earths? And why does it need these instruments of death?

As Jerry struggles to obey his new masters, he begins to distrust his new companions. A strange bunch, their motivations are less than clear, and accidents start plaguing their missions. Jerry suspects the Authority is feeding them lies, and team members are spying on him. As a dangerous situation spirals into catastrophe, is there anybody he can trust?

A riveting, action-packed postapocalyptic survival story from master of sci-fi Gary Gibson.

Prior to becoming a professional writer, Gary Gibson worked for an environmental agency but left shortly after other members of staff attempted to levitate a local bridge as a protest against road traffic. Following this, he worked as a graphic designer for a printing firm that turned out to be run by a gang of convicted forgers, hastening his departure, and then for a small publishing company otherwise notable only for producing a Freddie Mercury impersonator well-known on the Scottish cabaret circuit.

Until recently he resided in Taipei with his wife and is pleased to say that the only lunatic he has to answer to these days is himself. He has a blog at www.garygibson.net.