Age of Demons is a Jack Vance "End Times-style" science fiction epic. It is set in a future in which a three-second nanotech war has reduced mankind to a state of barbarism.
In this future, spaceships grow on trees and are powered by prayer. Software intelligences known as demons spread between human hosts like viruses. Mutant strains of humanity inhabit the transformed worlds of Venus, Earth and Mars.
The hero is Nathan Edgartan, a Venusian, whose civilization is run by a godlike entity called the Gardener. The Gardener takes direct control of the minds of his people at puberty through a ritual called Embracing. The few who fail the ritual are called the Tarnished, and Nathan is one of them. The Tarnished are trained as expendable warriors, and fight the wars that the Gardener cannot. It is their duty to keep Venus safe from the constant threat of demonic invasion.
But now Nathan finds himself pitted against a demon more powerful than any in the history of his world. To save Venus, the Gardener sends Nathan on a quest. He's given a mysterious super-weapon, the size of a pill, and told to take it to a secret location on Mars where it can be used. On the way, Nathan learns the truth about his god. And by the end of the book, finds the fate of all three worlds in his hands.
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