Redemption Ark (Gollancz)

Many, many millennia ago, the Inhibitors seeded the universe with machines designed to detect life and then suppress it ...but after hundreds of millions of years, the machines started to fail and intelligent cultures started to emerge. Then Dr Dan Sylveste and the crew of Infinity discovered what had happened to the Amarintin race ...and might just have awakened one of the Inhibitors. For years it has watched while humankind rose from the ground and sought the stars; now its patience is about to be rewarded ...