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. "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