The Solar System in the twenty-third century, ravaged by war between Earth and the Outers, looks forward to an uncertain future.

On the moons of Saturn, Earth's Three Powers Alliance consolidates its grip on the cities and settlements it fought and conquered in the Quiet War, Sri Hong-Owen hunts down the strange gardens abandoned in place by the gene wizard Avernus, and a spy searches for the woman he loved and lost. Around Uranus, Macy Minnot and other refugees from the war struggle to survive, while on Neptune's largest moon, Triton, a cabal plots to reshape history. And on Earth, in Greater Brazil, the democratic traditions maintained by the Outers have infected a population eager to escape the tyranny of the great families who have ruled them for more than a century.

After a battle fought to contain the expansionist, posthuman ambitions of the Outers, fresh conflicts on Earth, around Saturn, and the outer reaches of the Solar System threaten to shatter the human species. Only one thing is certain. No one can escape the consequences of war -- especially the victors.

'Paul McAuley is a writer of dazzling range, luminous intelligence and great humanity. His futures and alternate worlds are both lived in and pungently real, witnessed from the street level up. No matter where he takes you, he makes you feel like you've been there and come back with a head full of sizzling experiences.' Alastair Reynolds

'Paul McAuley's balanced grasp of science and literature, always a rare attribute in the writer of prose fiction, is combined with the equally rare ability to look at today's problems and know which are really problems, and what can be done about them.' William Gibson

You can find the first chapter of Gardens of the Sun here. Further chapters are here.