Annihilation Factor

From the Garlowe Clusters in the north to the Veils of Darkness in the south, the Star Kingdom sprawled over roughly a fifth of the galaxy. So huge was this realm that those who tussled for power over it seemed unable to appreciate that it faced annihilation by the Patch, a roving region of peculiar pseudo-energy a light-year across which drained the life-force from any living thing it encountered.The Patch had moved into the Kingdom and was systematically feeding on system after system. Cynically unperturbed by the appalling loss of life, the royal houses merely tried to involve the Patch in their machinations, to the extent that civil war broke out all over again. But in the event, the Patch was to provide the crucial factor in the struggle for absolute power. The Annihilation Factor! Two views from Vector, the Journal of the British Science Fiction Association:Barrington J. Bayley"is a man of ideas. His inventiveness is perhaps unparalleled in contemporary SF.... Allison & Busby intend issuing a lot more of Bayley's books over the next couple of years, and this represents a publishing event of major importance" - Brian Stableford in Vector"Barrington Bayley is one of the most inventive and idiosyncratic writers in the genre; his short stories, especially, read like no one else's. He has been writing SF for two decades, yet it is only comparatively recently that he has found a regular market for his novels. I suspect that the major reason for this is that publishers were afraid to risk their necks with such obviously original work.... His plots are fast-paced and action-packed, with the fate of a world or a solar system in the balance - but his subject matter extends far beyond the limited horizons of the pulp format" - Chris Evans in VectorCover illustrated by John Harris, Young Artists