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Description:
Aboard a vast
seafaring vessel, a band of prisoners and slaves, their bodies remade
into grotesque biological oddities, is being transported to a fledgling
colony of New Crobuzon. But the journey is not theirs alone. They
are joined by a handful of travellers, each with a reason for fleeing
the city. Amoung them is Bellis Coldwine, a talented linguist whose
services as interpeter grant her passage -- and escape from horrific
punishment. For she is linked to Isaac Dan der Grimnebulin, the brilliant
renegade scientist who has unwittingly unleased a nightmare upon New
Crobuzon.
For Bellis, the plan is clear: live among the new fronteirsmen
of the colony until it is safe to return home. But when the ship
is besieged by pirates on the Swollen Ocean, the senior officers
are summarily executed. The surviving passengers are brought to
Armada, a city constructed from the hulls of pirated ships, a floating
landless mass ruled by the bizarre duality called the Lovers. On
Armada, everyone is given work, and even Remades live as equals
to humans, Cactacae and Cray. Yet no one may ever leave.
Lonely and embittered in her captivity, Bellis knows that to show
dissent is a death sentence. Instead she must furtively seek information
about Armada's agenda. The answer lies in the dark, amorphous shapes
that float undetected miles below the waters -- terrifying entities
with a singular, chilling mission. . .
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