Search Worlds Without End

The year is 2085, two decades after the great economic collapse that destroyed Western civilization. With its power broken and its cities ruined, life in the West continues in scattered communities. In rural Dorset Jake Reed lives with his 14-year-old son and memories of the great collapse. Back in '43, Jake was a rich, young futures broker, immersed in the datascape of the world's financial markets. He saw what was coming - and who was behind it. Forewarned, he was one of the few to escape the fall. For 22 years he has lived in fear of the future, and finally it is coming - quite literally - across the plain towards him. Chinese airships are in the skies and a strange, glacial structure has begun to dominate the horizon. Jake finds himself forcibly incorporated into the ever-expanding 'World of Levels' a global city of some 34 billion souls, where social status is reflected by how far above the ground you live. Here, under the rule of the mighty Tsao Ch'un, a resurgent China is seeking to abolish the past and bring about world peace through rigidly enforced order. But a civil war looms, and Jake will find himself at the heart of the struggle for the future.

Change is in the air: the generals of the Middle Kingdom await the decision of the emperor as the campaign to secure the border from China to Iraq has reached a strange impasse. Two blood enemies, Arabs and Jews, have united against their common cause. But with the lives of thousands at his whim, the exalted Tsao Ch'un, the Son of Heaven, cannot decide. Destroy the Middle East in one blinding flash, or take another path? In the court of Tsao Ch'un, men of power have become smiling lackeys, whose graces conceal their fear, or their ambition. A man that can be trusted absolutely is a rare thing. And so, with his family held hostage by the empire, General Jiang Lei finds himself appointed to a special task: the orchestration of the last great war against the West—the total dominion of America.

But life in the world of levels continues. No hint of war, want, or discontent can infiltrate the oppressive, ordered society that replaces the world Jake Reed once knew. Since the first airships rolled over the horizon, nothing has been the same. His new life means new thinking, new customs, a new way of behaving, and with his every move scrutinized, Jake can only serve the bureaucracy of new China—but he is not the only citizen who feels discontent with the anodyne new order.

The year is 2196. The great Empire of Ice, Chung Kuo, has finally been shaken after more than a century of peace enforced by brutal tyranny. The Minister of the Edict—an official responsible for licensing all technology that could lead to Change—has been assassinated. The seven ruling T'ang struggle to maintain Stasis, even as their mile-high, continent-spanning cities descend into chaos. Amid the chaos, the rebels responsible for the assassination seize the opportunity to effect Change. But the assassination was orchestrated by those far closer to the ruling power and this betrayal, the first of many, will lead them all into the world-shattering War of Two Directions.

A war is fought within the levels of Chung Kuo's great world-spanning City in the fourth entry in this epic series.

The year is 2201. Chung Kuo, the great City that covers the globe, enjoys an uneasy peace, but it is a peace that will soon be disrupted by the discovery of the Aristotle File, which charts the real history of the world—a truth which has been suppressed for millennia. Cold, cruel, and calculating, Howard DeVore is determined to end the rule of the Seven T'angs and make way for his own bid for power. The harbinger of Change is the starship The New Hope—and its destruction will force the rebel factions into open warfare with the Seven. The Fight begins.

Peace has returned The year is 2206. After five years of war, the Seven are weak. They have lost three of their members, and the new T'ang are young and inexperienced. Once it was considered inconceivable but now, down in the lowest levels of the immense CIty, new currents of unrest have awoken. Currents that threaten to tear Chung Kuo apart. The fight endures But the demand for CHange is not the only threat to the Seven. Major Howard DeVore will use any means available to destroy them and their world-spanning City. And, from their own ranks, Wang Sau-leyan, appointed T'ang after the suspicious deaths of his father and elder brothers, plots to destroy them from within. The Seven are vulnerable and the forces against them continue to grow... Welcome to the Future

The sixth installment of David Wingrove's director's cut of his epic vision of the future

It is 2206. As Chung Kuo's population continues to swell, the Seven—the ruling T'angs—are forced to make further concessions, laws must be relaxed and the House at Weinmar reopened. Change is coming, whether the Seven like it or not. The tides of unrest unleashed by earlier wars grow faster even than the population. DeVore secretly allies with newly appointed general, Hans Ebert. It seems that DeVore's plans are coming to fruition. But Ebert has his own schemes and plots—he intends to depose the Seven and control the whole of Chung Kuo. Includes more than 30 pages of character listing and Mandarin glossary.

The seventh installment in a masterpiece of a series, perfect for fans of George R. R. Martin and Frank Herbert

The year is 2207 and Chung Kuo's perfect stasis is falling apart. The Seven's dominance is threatened by a series of terrorist attacks as the War of Two Directions intensifies. Howard DeVore, the Seven's greatest enemy, is masterminding the atrocities-but how can they hunt down a man who seems to be invulnerable? Kim Ward, the Clay-born scientific genius, is attacked by a group of deadly assassins bent on destroying his work. And a group of rich young American rebels intend to create change-at any price.

A City Under Threat

The year is 2207. Currents of unrest and tides of innovation threaten to overwhelm Chung Kuo's stability. And some threats are beyond the immense city's control. When a lethal epidemic strikes the Seven's chief supporters, Li Yuan acts ruthlessly to wipe out the disease. But his actions incur far more fatal consequences for the rule of the Seven.

While the Seven splinters, Kwibesi, the detention camp for terrorists, continues to establish order. However, rebellion is brutally contained inside the camp and a growing sense of injustice stirs in its guard, Kao Chen, who begins to question his sense of duty.

The Seven are divided amongst themselves, and around them allegiances are shifting