White Devils [Paperback]

McAuley continues to demonstrate that he's quite as adept at the multi-layered thriller as he was at the SF novel - although White Devils is powered by an intriguing scientific premise. Nicholas Hyde, a charity worker in Africa, is part of a team investigating a wartime atrocity. The team is ambushed, and small, preternaturally strong ape-like creatures slaughter most of the group. The team's government observer calls them 'white devils' and falls in with the official story, claiming that he saw only rebel troops in body paint. The cover-up seems to originate inside Obligate, the company that effectively owns the Congo. Nick Hyde refuses to co-operate - and that's when people around him start to die. This is a novel that exhilarates on all levels - the ideas are quite as brilliantly realised as the machine-tooled plotting.

White Devils is set sometime in the future in a post apocalyptic Congo. The Black Flu has wiped out millions of people, and the plastic disease has melted away forests. Engrams, intense emotions that cause human conflict, have been eradicated by mind washing, which is controlled by Obligate, an environmentally conscious transnational whose employees are mainly zombies after undergoing emotional reorientation. Enter humanitarian fieldworker Nicholas Hyde working for the charity Witness. While investigating a massacre, he stumbles into a raid by white devils, horrifying humanoid white primates that appear to be protected by inbuilt body armour and that devour the brains and livers of their human victims. In trying to discover who has engineered the monstrous white devils, Nicholas is stonewalled at every turn. His quest for truth leads him into scary escapades with the daughter of the eccentric genius who developed the monsters. With vivid imagery McAuley has constructed a fantastically frightening vision of a world of unbelievable evil; of mind bending, zombification, genetic engineering and human cloning. A must for fans of futuristic horror. (Kirkus UK) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Nicholas Hyde, a volunteer charity worker in Africa, is part of a team which is ambushed by small, ape-like creatures - pale, fierce and preternaturally strong - who slaughter most of the group in a matter of minutes. 'Diable blanc' the team's government observer calls them - 'white devils' - but after the rescue he falls in with the official story and claims instead he saw only rebel troops in body paint. The cover-up seems to originate from Obligate, the company that effectively owns the Congo. Shell-shocked and angry, Nicholas refuses to cooperate. He knows what he saw, and he will tell the truth. And that's when people around him start to die. On his quest to find out the truth, NIck journeys into the heart of darkness of C21st century Africa - the Dead Zone. There, he will discover a reality almost too horrifying to contemplate.

Paul McAuley has worked as a researcher in biology at various universities, including Oxford and UCLA, and for six years was a lecturer in plant science at St Andrews University. His first novel won the prestigious Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, and his fifth the Arthur C. Clarke and the John W. Campbell Awards. He lives in North London. Visit the author's website at www.omegacom.demon.co.uk