When a young tug pilot's career is ruined by a collision in Earth orbit he has no choice but to accept a commission to fly an eccentric ship builder to a planet far from the trade routes. When they discover alien ruins on the planet and the hulk of a missing generation ship they are thrown into the centre of a conspiracy that reaches back centuries.

Meanwhile on earth a young Indian police officer is trying to track down a serial killer little suspecting that the killer is linked to what is happening on a planet light years away and that her own past holds the key to everything that is happening. Eric Brown has written a novel that brings together an extraordinary imagination, rare sensitivity to character and a love of Eastern philosphy. A key novel from one of the UK's favourite SF writers.

"This is a very skilfully plotted novel about which it is best not to give too much away... This is the book for readers who really don't want to know where a writer might be taking them... The more meditative aspects of Penumbra bring to mind the calm of Arthur C Clarke's work, while those who appreciate the involved mystery will find much to enjoy in Kim Stanley Robinson's Icehenge."
--Gary S Dalkin

"Eric Brown is the name to watch in SF"
--Peter F Hamilton

"Eric Brown is back - and he has fire in his belly. Recommended"
--Stephen Baxter

"SF infused with a cosmopolitan and literary sensibility ... accomplished and affecting"
--Paul J. McAuley

"Stories which are the essence of modern science fiction and yet show a passionate concern for the human predicament and human values"
--Bob Shaw