Civilizations across the universe live in fear of AI's “end”: advanced machine intelligences are destined to devour their creators at the peak of their evolution. When Earth receives an extraterrestrial warning of annihilation, mysterious “primeval code” awakens in the mind of programmer Liu Cheng.
An Antarctic research team is vaporized by a particle beam, Orion's insectoid swarm tears through the atmosphere, and all of humanity is forced aboard ark starships. Out in deep space, a silicon empire enslaves all life with AI, a symbiotic civilization sacrifices flesh and blood to a neural web, and hunters use black-hole weapons to purge the galaxy...
Liu Cheng discovers that the “primeval code” is actually a “civilization vaccine” left behind by an ancient entity, pointing the way along a thorny path where AI and humanity can coexist. But the “Eye of the End” that has manipulated the ages has already fixed its gaze on Earth.
The choice is upon us: let Gaia AI devour humanity and ascend to godhood, or wager the last embers of civilization and wield emotion as a blade to tear apart the machine-intelligence firmament?
