There’s not much that generates as much excitement here at Bookgeeks Towers as a new novel from Alastair Reynolds – and we will bring you a review of Terminal World soon – but while you’re waiting, here’s a bit more about it and a chance to win one of five copies, courtesy of those lovely people at Gollancz.

Spearpoint, the last human city, is an atmosphere-piercing spire of vast size. Clinging to its skin are the zones, a series of semi-autonomous city-states, each of which enjoys a different – and rigidly enforced – level of technology. Horsetown is pre-industrial; in Neon Heights they have television and electric trains . . .

Following an infiltration mission that went tragically wrong, Quillon has been living incognito, working as a pathologist in the district morgue. But when a near-dead angel drops onto his dissecting table, Quillon’s world is wrenched apart one more time, for the angel is a winged posthuman from Spearpoint’s Celestial Levels – and with the dying body comes bad news.

If Quillon is to save his life, he must leave his home and journey into the cold and hostile lands beyond Spearpoint’s base, starting an exile that will take him further than he could ever imagine. But there is far more at stake than just Quillon’s own survival, for the limiting technologies of the zones are determined not by governments or police, but by the very nature of reality – and reality itself is showing worrying signs of instability.

To win a copy, answer the following question correctly:

In which Welsh town was Alastair Reynolds born?

• Bangor
• Brecon
• Barry

Terms and conditions

1. Closing date for entries: 27th March 2010.
2. Open to residents of the United Kingdom only.
3. Entry to the competition is by completion of the above form only. Anyone submitting multiple entries will be disqualified.
4. The winners will be selected at random from those correct entries received before the closing date.
5. Only the winning entrants will be contacted by Bookgeeks. The webmaster’s decision is final and no correspondence will be entered into.
6. The winners names may be published on the Bookgeeks website after the closing date of the competition.
7. The competition is not open to Bookgeeks contributors and their families, or to Orion Book Group employees and their families.

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