Hammerfall (The Gene Wars)

One of science fiction's greatest writers -- a three-time Hugo Award winner -- introduces an all-new universe for the first time in decades. An innocent desert world is trapped between two hostile interstellar empires.One of the most renowned figures in science fiction, C. J. Cherryh has been enthralling audiences for nearly thirty years with rich and complex novels. Now at the peak of her career, this three-time Hugo Award Winner launches her most ambitious work in decades, Hammerfall, part of a far-ranging series, The Gene Wars, set in an entirely new universe scarred by the most vicious of future weaponry, nanotechnology. In this brilliant novel -- possibly Cherryh's masterwork -- the fate of billions has come down to a confrontation between two profoundly alien cultures on a single desert planet. The first volume in a new series follows Marak, a prince and warrior, who is ordered by the dictator, the Ila, to find the elusive silver tower, and when he accomplishes this task, the beings within the tower give him a new mission--lead his people to safety before the hammer of the dictator's drea Marak is sent on a quest across his desert planet to find the source of the madness the torments so many of his people, including himself