From Booklist
Novo Haven, a floating city on Greene's World, is a place people go to to escape. Andre Deschenes is a very good assassin but wants to branch out into conjuring, manipulating probability, and changing odds, if he can find someone willing to teach him. The world is controlled by the ruthless Charter Trade Company, which knows of more undercurrents flowing in this backwater than it wants to acknowledge: mining is eroding the native population, the ranids; the material being mined is no ordinary substance; and mining operations are destroying the planet. No one in the company wants to admit that the ranids constitute a civilization, though there are those who want the ranids freed of their servitude to the Company. One such is Lucienne Spivak. When Andre kills her to fulfill a contract, the gears of revolution start turning. Bear's perfectly paced story features fascinating characters, complex plotting, and brilliantly imagined aliens. Thought-provoking as well as entertaining, it further demonstrates the strength of Bear's storytelling. Schroeder, Regina
Product Description
A frontier world on the back end of nowhere is the sort of place people go to get lost. And some of those people have secrets worth hiding, secrets that can change the future–assuming there is one. . . .
André Deschênes is a hired assassin, but he wants to be so much more. If only he can find a teacher who will forgive his murderous past–and train him to manipulate odds and control probability. It’s called the art of conjuring, and it’s André’s only route to freedom. For the world he lives on is run by the ruthless Charter Trade Company, and his floating city, Novo Haven, is little more than a company town where humans and aliens alike either work for one tyrannical family–or are destroyed by it. But beneath Novo Haven’s murky waters, within its tangled bayous, reedy banks, and back alleys, revolution is stirring. And one more death may be all it takes to shift the balance. . . .