Revelation Space

On the eve of the twenty-sixth century, the outpost world of Resurgam holds the buried secrets of the Amarantin: an alien civilization annihilated nine hundred thousand years ago, just as it was on the verge of achieving space flight. Xenoarchaeologist Dan Sylveste is obsessed with learning what happened to them, and is prepared to wreck his own colony to do it. Light-years away, the ancient lighthugger Nostalgia for Infinity limps toward Resurgam, its crew searching for a cure to the plague consuming their captain — and for the one person who might provide it: Sylveste himself. Aboard ship, weapons officer Ilia Volyova already suspects he is the key. On the ground, the assassin Ana Khouri, hired by a woman known only as the Mademoiselle to kill him, infiltrates his life instead. As their paths converge, the three uncover a threat reaching far beyond one dead civilization: something ancient and merciless polices the galaxy, and the Amarantin's fate may be humanity's next.