Evensong

Praise for John Love’s Faith:

“Succeeds both as a purely visceral, exciting story and as a meditation on the place of humanity in the universe...There is a kind of passionate wonder on display here that makes Faith exhilarating to read, a novel that demands and rewards the reader’s attention from the first sentence to the last.”

—Katherine Farmar, Strange Horizons

“A science fiction debut of the highest order. It has fascinating, well- rounded characters who will remain with you for a long time. [...] A novel I maybe would have expected from the mind of Iain M. Banks— and if that isn’t a compliment for an SF debut, I don’t know what is...I’m already sure this novel will end up on my list of 2012 favourites.”

—Stefan Raets, Tor.com

“A huge widescreen premise...The perfect mix of space battles and politics.”

—Charlie Jane Anders, io9.com

“Sophisticated, inventive and beautifully written, Faith is a cut above the rest. John Love has made an excellent debut.”

—Allen Steele, author of Oceanspace and The Coyote Chronicles

“The beautiful, brutal bastard of Iain M Banks and Peter Watts—abso- lutely brilliant.”

—Sean Williams, author of The Resurrected Man and The Grand Conjunction

“Gripping and original.”

—David Moles, Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award-winning author

“Tremendous science fiction that blends literary traditions with space opera and all the various subgenres therein...John Love’s debut is on par with Dan Simmons’s Hyperion in its quest to pose questions and attempt to answer them.”

—Justin Landon, Staffers Book Review

A genius bit of writing, and an absolute home run for first-timer John Love.”

—SteveSkojec.com

Also by John Love:

Faith

EVENSONG

JOHN LOVE

NIGHT SHADE BOOKS

AN IMPRINT OF START PUBLISHING LLC

NEW YORK, NEW YORK

Copyright © 2015 by John Love.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any manner without the express written consent of the publisher, except in the case of brief excerpts in critical reviews or articles. All inquiries should be addressed to Start Publishing LLC, 609 Greenwich Street, 6th Floor, New York, NY 10014.

Night Shade Books is an imprint of Start Publishing LLC.

Visit our website at www.start-publishing.com.

Cover design by Claudia Noble

ISBN: 978-1-59780-566-7

For Sandra, Helen and Ian 

JUNE 2061

They’d wish her dead if they knew what she’d done. But they are only a congregation, mostly elderly and infirm, and they know nothing about her.

Some of them look round as she enters. This is the third consecutive Sunday that Olivia has come to Evensong at Rochester Cathedral, and they are beginning to notice her. She is shabbily dressed, her blonde hair lank and greasy. She looks like someone they would once have recognised.

Habit makes her glance round every few minutes, though she doesn’t expect to see those hunting her. Not yet. It normally takes them a few weeks, but they always find her—after what she did, they’ll never give up—and then the cycle begins again: flight, to another rundown flat, in another rundown neighbourhood. She thinks, Anwar would have handled the last few months much better, but Anwar is long gone.

The choir is singing the evening’s first psalm. She recognises the words from other Evensongs at other churches.

For he shall deliver thee from the snare of the hunter.

He shall defend thee under his wings,

And thou shalt be safe…