Copyright

      This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.

      HarperCollinsPublishers 77–85 Fulham Palace Road, Hammersmith. London W6 8JB www.harpercollins.co.uk

      First published in Great Britain by HarperCollinsPublishers 1993

      Copyright © Luke Rhinehart 1993

      The Author asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

      HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication.

      Source ISBN: 9780006513919

      Ebook Edition © JUNE 2012 ISBN: 9780007322251 Version: 2014-09-05

      Accident is the creator of life.

       Charles Darwin

      Life is at best a tenuous and hazardous enterprise, but mankind’s puny efforts to protect himself from its instability and randomness seem worse than futile. It appears the best course is simply chancing it.

       Emerson

      It is necessary to resign from the human race – with a forged signature, of course.

       Luke

      CONTENTS

       Cover

       Title Page

Copyright

Preface

Second Preface

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

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