By the 24th century, the Arab-Israeli conflict has spread throughout the galaxy as mankind has expanded its territory into space. John Truck is the louche, leather-jacketed owner of cargo ship My Ella Speed, known on numerous planets for boozing and drug abuse. Apprehended on Sad al Bari IV by an irascible female representative of the Israeli World Government and browbeaten by one of the repulsive religious fanatics known as Openers (who have replaced much of their skin with windows so that God can look within them), Truck flees the system to the immense space-dock that was once Great Britain. Attending the longest running party in the history of the universe, Truck continues to find himself the quarry of myriad factions keen to press him into service and activate what they believe is the ultimate weapon. The Centauri Device is an artifact only explicable to its builders, a species of humanoids driven to extinction by Earthmen. As Truck's mother was one of the last surviving Centaurans, his DNA puts him in a precarious position of unwanted power where all the players are gambling for the highest stakes imaginable.

This ironic tale of Truck's picaresque attempts to avoid the inevitable is typical of M. John Harrison's rewardingly dense yet mercurial style. The author's past history as literary editor of (and major contributor to) New Worlds is abundantly apparent. Reminiscent of the high times when the new SF was a significant sector of underground publishing, the novel effortlessly employs such countercultural elements as antique Fender Stratocasters and interplanetary-scale dope dealing. Harrison's influence over contemporary radical hard SF is indisputable – he brought a multi-faceted complexity to space opera evident in the intricate works of Banks while echoing the feverishness of Bester. His finest works are his sublime short stories and the brilliantly observed mainstream novel Climbers, while his recent return to SF (Light) confirms him as one of Britain's most versatile and accomplished writers.

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