Ghost Devices is a novel written by Simon Bucher-Jones. Released in 1997, it is the seventh book in Virgin's Bernice Summerfield series and features Bernice working to discover the secret of the mysterious Spire.
Characters[]
- Bernice Summerfield
- Malkovitch Fellows
- Mandir - the leader of a coup on Canopus IV. A crippled priest, Mandir is driven by a desire to completely destroy the Gods (the Vo'lach) and control the universe - becoming an uberfascist antitheist due to the nonpresence of the Gods and his belief that humanity should have killed the Gods.
- Sandra Johansen
- Geth Kathath
- Morry
- Jane Steadman
- Factory 34561239 - One of the few sentient Factories on Vo'lach Prime. It turned away from producing weaponry and would instead make consumer goods. It is able to leave Vo'lach Prime's surface by detonating nuclear warheads below its surface and is able to fly through space using a hyperdrive.
- Clarence
- The Vo'lach Negoitiator
rest to be added
Publisher's summary[]
In the evening, when the sky was the colour of burnt umber, the factories crawled down the continental shelf to drink.
The Spire is an inhuman artefact, a construction almost three hundred miles high. But it is more than just a big dumb object. Those close to it can look into the future — a future which is going to be arriving sooner than they think, and which is as bad as can be.
In the here and now, Professor Bernice Summerfield, doyenne of twenty-sixth century archaeology and seedy space-port bars, is used to seeing strange things in her rooms. So it takes the unexpected arrival of an angel to get her away from increasingly desperate professional deadlines and off to investigate one of the seven hundred and seventy-six wonders of the galaxy.
However, Benny is not the only one interested in the Spire. A mysterious race of weaponsmiths, a mutogenic assassin and a sect of fanatically anti-religious reptiles all have their reasons for learning — or concealing — the structure's secrets. And, as she struggles to unlock this ancient mystery, it soon becomes clear that the life of an eccentric professor is of very little consequence indeed.
Plot[]
Prologue: Necessary but Insufficient Causes[]
Before humanity even evolves, a sentient Factory on the planet Vo'lach Prime is killed.
Millions of years later, an investor named Sul Starren is told by someone (possibly the Doctor) to invest in various shares. A week later, he is killed by a corporate assassin.
Chapter 1: Angels in Dirty Places[]
to be added
Worldbuilding[]
- Canopus IV is a planet in the Canopus system. It is home to the Canopusi and fragments of futurite (an extremely rare mineral). It is also the location of the Spire.
- Vo'lach Prime has been converted into a desolate world by the Vo'lach - with all possible life being annihilated and profanity burned onto its continents with nuclear weapons. It is the second world in the Sadr system, with the first being a massive tachyon weapon.
- The Spire is one big time travel device, built by the Vo'lach to stop both red-shift expansion of blue-shift implosion within the entire universe through the creation of dark matter. It has several side effects - such as making some of the Canopusi time-sensitive and forming every single quasar in the universe.
Sources[]
| Bernice Summerfield novels | ||
|
1997 | ||