Eater

A scientist facing personal tragedy discovers a sentient black hole targeting humanity in this hard sci-fi thriller from “a superb storyteller” (Houston Post).

Dr. Benjamin Knowlton’s private world is crumbling around him. On the threshold of their greatest achievement, the renowned astrophysicist learns that his beloved wife and partner, Channing—an ex-astronaut-turned astronomer—is dying of cancer.

Meanwhile, something looms alarmingly on the far edge of the solar system: at once a scientific find of unparalleled importance that could ensure the Knowltons’ immortality, and a potential earth-shattering cataclysm that dwarfs their private one. For Benjamin and Channing have discovered “Eater,” an eons-old black hole anomaly that devours stars and worlds. Yet its most awesome and devasting secrets are still to be revealed . . . and feared.

“A celestial horror tale, a cosmological adventure, a literate end-of-the-world epic, and a story bursting with old-fashioned ‘sense of wonder.’” —Orlando Sentinel

“Benford spins poetry from textbook phenomena . . . [His] novel proves that scientific wisdom involves the heart and soul as well as the mind.” —The Washington Post Book World

“The scientific equivalent of a taut police procedural . . . Benford’s deft, suspenseful weaving of the struggle between Eater and humanity blends two threads with maximal impact.” —Newark Star Ledger

“Even in the face of huge events and special effects sequences, Benford manages to keep the characters and the human-scale issues important . . . It’s just this kind of juggling that characterizes the best of Benford’s work . . . Eater is Benford’s most Benfordesque book in quite a while.” —Locus