The Vindication of Man Read online

  Gliese 1137 in Antlia—Terra Pericolosa

  Predominate race here is Monsters. The oceans were improperly terraformed and contain venom. Water is used as currency, and strangers are killed and sent to the extraction press.

  SAO 214963 in Phoenix [a.k.a. HR 6]—World of Willows and Flowers

  Binary suns. A garden world of immortals plagued by deadly anthropophagic flowers, ferns, and lianas, poisonous willows, and malign pines. Foxes established a totalitarian monarchy and restored humanity to all non-orthogonal and mechanized races.

  Kappa Coronae Borealis—Aerecura

  The pantropy here is unique, with larval humans living in mines as apprentices, who undergo metamorphosis to upright nocturnal sexless drones at journeyman rank and as masters are transformed again to diurnal creatures, male or female. There is a dead Potentate in orbit, the remnant of a failed attempt to elevate their moon, whose whispers disturb the dreams of the unshielded.

  Iota Draconis [a.k.a. Eldsich]—Torment

  Colonized from Nightspore of Arcturus.

  Torment orbits the superjovian Wormwood, which stands at 13 AU and has a year 194 Earth years long, in a highly eccentric orbit. The surface becomes uninhabitable for 22 Earth years during its wintertide. The population tends to be of a melancholy nature, and the sight of the ruins of the previous civilizations that once inhabited the planet does not reassure them. Torment is an antiquarian world, preserving many races extinct elsewhere. The world was originally named Septfoil.

  BEYOND 100 Lightyears

  These worlds were settled not by a sweep, but voluntarily

  Achernar—Orphan

  The single heavenly body orbiting Achernar. At 144 lightyears, it is the furthest human colony. It is also the only colony established by humans independently of Dominion forced settlement. Settled from Nocturne between the Second and Third Sweep, the hedonistic Laiacists and the strict and zealous Followers still maintain an ancient racial separation, with the Followers dominant. The Followers maintain loyalty to a very ancient religion, and worship a god called Kamisama-no-Miko.

  Pulcherrima [a.k.a. Epsilon Boötis]—Houristan

  There are persistent rumors of an even further colony, at 210 lightyears, circling Epsilon Boötis called Houristan, populated entirely by young and nubile women, who reproduce by cloning, where the rivers run with wine and the road are paved with gold—as best human science can tell, this epicurean space utopia has no basis in fact.

  TOR BOOKS BY JOHN C. WRIGHT

  The Golden Age

  The Phoenix Exultant

  The Golden Transcendence

  The Last Guardian of Everness

  Mists of Everness

  Orphans of Chaos

  Fugitives of Chaos

  Titans of Chaos

  Null-A Continuum

  Count to a Trillion

  The Hermetic Millennia

  The Judge of Ages

  The Architect of Aeons

  The Vindication of Man

  ABOUT THE AUTHOR

  JOHN C. WRIGHT is an attorney turned science fiction and fantasy writer. He has published short fiction in Asimov’s Science Fiction and elsewhere, and wrote the Chronicles of Chaos, the Golden Age, and the War of Dreaming series. His novel Orphans of Chaos was a finalist for the Nebula Award in 2005. This is the fifth novel in the Eschaton Sequence. You can sign up for email updates here.

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  CONTENTS

  Title Page

  Copyright Notice

  Dedication

  Epigraph

  Part Eight: The Vast Desolations of Heaven

  One: The Sound of Her Voice

  Two: The Vindicatrix

  Three: The Hour of Her Advent

  Part Nine: Ancient Starships Shall Return

  One: Aardwolf Star in the Constellation of the Dragon

  Two: Deceleration Carnival

  Three: The Street Which Sneaks Up On the Sphinx

  Four: The Palace of Future History

  Five: The Chamber of the Black Hexagon

  Six: Lords of the Stability

  Seven: The Ambitions of the Imperator

  Part Ten: The Seven Daughters of Atlas

  One: The Eye of the North

  Two: Farewell to Torment

  Three: Cradle of the Stars

  Four: The Beehive Cluster

  Five: The Wreck of the Vast Desolations of Heaven

  Appendix A: Pedigree of Earths by Diaspora

  Appendix B: Posthumans

  Appendix C: Earths of the Empyrean Polity of Man

  Tor Books by John C. Wright

  About the Author

  Copyright

  This is a work of fiction. All of the characters, organizations, and events portrayed in this novel are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously.

  THE VINDICATION OF MAN

  Copyright © 2016 by John C. Wright

  All rights reserved.

  Cover art by John Harris

  A Tor Book

  Published by Tom Doherty Associates

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  The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is available upon request.

  ISBN 978-0-7653-8159-0 (hardcover)

  ISBN 978-1-4668-8280-5 (e-book)

  e-ISBN 9781466882805

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  First Edition: November 2016