Look to Windward

This sophisticated space opera, filled with suspense and humor, masterfully explores the horrors of war. The Twin Novae battle had been one of the last of the Idiran war—and one of the most horrific. Desperate to avert their inevitable defeat, the Idirans had induced not one but two suns to explode, snuffing out worlds and biospheres teeming with sentient life. Now, eight hundred years later, light from the first explosion is about to reach the Masaq' Orbital, home to the Culture's most adventurous and decadent souls. Also journeying to Masaq' is Major Quilan, an emissary from the war-ravaged world of Chel, on a mission more ambitious than even he can know.