The Polity itself may be at risk in this final novel of Neal Asher's classic Spatterjay trilogy, following The Skinner and The Voyage of the Sable Keech, now reissued in mass market.

Orbus--an Old Captain hooper and one of the oldest inhabitants of the deadly and remote waterworld Spatterjay--is traveling to the Graveyard, a planetary wasteland in the vast no-man's-land between the Polity and the Prador Kingdom.

Heading in the same direction is the prador Vrell. Mutated by the Spatterjay virus into something powerful and dangerous, Vrell has seized control of a massive dreadnought ship, intent on exacting vengeance on those who tried to have him killed. Meeting him there will be the King of the Prador, looking to finish the job.

Everything points to a climatic confrontation in the Graveyard, as deeper truths about the Spatterjay virus will be revealed, and an ancient menace to civilization itself will reappear . . .