Paul Mcauley - 400 Billion Stars series

400 Billion Stars

Dorothy Yoshida is a telepath, and a really rather good one at that. She's also a scientist, and when a small planet begins to manifest some unusual signs she is sent to investigate. The planet is more than it seems, and on further investigation the scientists begin to suspect it has been artificially altered. But despite their suspicions the only life they can detect is on the surface, none of which has advanced far above the level of animals. And despite the hopes of mankind to find something which will help them in a burgeoning war against other species, there seems to be nothing there to aid them. With Dorothy's arrival, however, they are in for some surprising discoveries.

Secret Harmonies

Like Earth before the Age of Waste, the planet Elysium has boundless oceans, clean skies, lush forests and fertile plains; its primitive aborigines seem harmless.

Yet all is not well in Paradise. Citizens descended from the first colonists benefit from the new technologies brought from Earth, but ruthlessly suppress the expansionist plans of the new settlers. Richard Florey knows at first hand the prejudice against his people; so does Miguel Lucas, a settler ‘gone dingo’, living wild and free despite the laws of the city.
As the iron grip of the city tightens, so the two men find themselves at the heart of a revolution, upon which hangs the future of both humans and aliens.

Eternal Light

In the aftermath of an interstellar war an enigmatic star is discovered, travelling towards the Solar System from the galactic core. Its appearance adds a new and dangerous factor in the turbulent politics of the inhabited worlds as the rival factions - the power-holders of the Reunited Nations, the rebels who secretly oppose their power, and the Religious Witnesses - all see advantages to be gained.
But what awesome technology started the star on its journey half a million years ago - and why?
From the endless carnival on Titan to an earth ruled by the fanatic Witnesses; from the depths of space and the galactic core to the border between reality and the manifold infinity between universes, Eternal Light is huge in scope, breathtaking in ideas and packed with life, character, atmosphere and incident.