In this powerful, breathless adventure, a benign system of artificial intelligence has taken over the world – and the galaxy beyond. Everyone is biologically immortal; no one is hungry; and there are thousands of colonized planets to choose from. The AIs nurture and protect human beings, enabling all people to enjoy lives of hedonistic pleasure. But when the systems that run a planet become corrupted, the consequences are catastrophic. A man with a rare mix of personality traits – one part computer engineer, one part special investigator, and one part sociopathic rebel – is the only recourse as a world of decadence becomes a world of death and pain.