A classic SF tale of what happens when four alternative selves from different realities meet. New edition.

Lou is autistic. One of his skills is an ability to find patterns in data: complex patterns that not even the most powerful computers can comprehend. Those he works and has made money for now want him to change, to become normal . He faces his greatest challenge: to understand the speed of dark.

Aliens - Moties - were first contacted in AD3017 in the region of space known as the Coalsack. The eponymous mote in his eye, which has winked out, much to the distress of pious Himmists, just might have been Motie laser light. It might even indicate the position of their home planet.

Claudette Blum and her father are among thousands of Jewish refugees fleeing over the Alps towards Italy. For the Italians have broken with Hitler and sued for peace, and here the Blums hope to find safety at last. This book tells the story of those who sought refuge in Italy during the final phase of the Second World War.

'Light puts most modern fiction to shame. It's a magnificent book' China Mieville

The Great Plague destroyed Europe. Now the world's a different place ! From the award-winning author of the Mars trilogy, 'the ultimate in future history' (Daily Mail), comes the most ambitious alternate history novel ever written.