Above is the rather nifty trailer Michael Cobley‘s made for his latest novel, ANCESTRAL MACHINES. The novel, published by Orbit Books in the UK and North America, is released in paperback later this week. Here’s the synopsis…

The Warcage is a feat of unprecedented stellar engineering: two hundred worlds harnessed to an artificial sun. Built to travel through space as a monument to peace between alien species, its voracious rulers have turned it into a nightmarish wasteland, capturing new planets for slaves and resources, then discarding the old.

Now, when a verdant agri-world is pulled out of its orbit and a deal goes bad, it is up to the captain of a smuggling ship to journey into the Warcage and rescue his crew.

The novel is a stand-alone story in Cobley’s Humanity’s Fire series. The first trilogy in the series, also published by Orbit Books, includes SEEDS OF EARTH, THE ORPHANED WORLDS and THE ASCENDANT STARS.