Incandescence - Greg Egan

A million years from now, the galaxy is divided between the vast, cooperative meta-civilisation known as the Amalgam, and the silent occupiers of the galactic core known as the Aloof. The Aloof have long

rejected all attempts by the Amalgam to enter their territory, but have

permitted travellers to take a perilous ride as unencrypted data in their

communications network, providing a short-cut across the galaxy's central

bulge. When Rakesh encounters a traveller, Lahl, who claims she was

woken by the Aloof on such a journey and shown a meteor full of traces of

DNA, he accepts her challenge to try to find the uncharted world deep in

the Aloof's territory from which the meteor originated.

Roi and Zak live inside the Splinter, a world of rock that swims in a sea of light they call the Incandescence. Living on the margins of a rigidly prganised society, they seek to decipher the subtle clues that can reveal the true nature of the Splinter. In fact, the Splinter is orbiting a black hole, which is about to capture a neighbouring star, wreaking havoc. As the signs of danger grow, Roi, Zak, and a growing band of recruits struggle to understand and take control of their fate. Meanwhile, Rakesh is gradually uncovering their remote history, and his search for the lost DNA world ultimately leads him to a civilisation trapped in cultural stagnation, and startling revelations about the true nature and motives of the Aloof.