Hardcover UK, first printing and true first edition. (The first US edition was published later in January 2002 by Tor.) Very fine (unread) copy in very fine jacket. Not a book club, remainder or ex-library copy. "Whether this is pretentious adolescent obscenity, a synesthetic masterpiece which redefines the genre, or a honker of a shaggy dog story is a debate primed to run for years." - Gary S. Dalkin. "Renaissance philosophy, the complicated evolution of religion, art history, even alchemy, get a heretical new spin as Clute keeps bursting through the confines of space opera, heading somplace different." - Locus, May 2001. Awards: NY Times Best SF Books of 2002 List