Lededje Y'breq is one of the Intagliated - her entire body marked with a tattoo that signifies her family's debt and her status as property. When her escape from servitude draws the attention of the Culture, she finds herself aboard one of its most powerful and arguably deranged warships, heading into a conflict she barely understands. Across the galaxy, a war is being fought in the digital afterlives - the virtual heavens and hells where some civilisations store the minds of their dead. The war has been contained to the virtual realm, but it is about to spill into reality. A novel about whether simulated suffering counts as real suffering, and about a young woman whose personal vendetta intersects with a question that could reshape the moral landscape of the galaxy.
