Humanity was on the brink. Now it has fallen off and into the void. The alien parasite, that man's stupidity brought to Earth, is endemic. Every adult is infected. They all have a Voice, the link with their contracted parasite. Everyone is part of the Grid - a telepathic network formed by the parasites. Except for a few damaged and frightened individuals - the last free humans. They are humanity's only hope.

This book is an edited selection of the papers presented at the International Workshop on VLSI for Artiflcial Intelligence which was held at the University of Oxford in July 1988. Our thanks go to all the contributors and especially to the programme committee for all their hard work. Thanks are also due to the ACM-SIGARCH, the Alvey Directorate, the lEE and the IEEE Computer Society for publicising the event and to Oxford University for their active support. We are particularly grateful to David Cawley and Paula Appleby for coping with the administrative problems. Jose Delgado-Frias Will...

What has happened to George Wright? The fun-loving sun-seeker has been turned into a deranged madman. Can his wife cope? Can she find out what's wrong and, if so, can she do anything about it? Eve Quinn is on a mission. Her Special Forces squad has been hit and crippled. The trouble is, only she knows about the mission's true purpose. And what connects these people with the fate of humanity? An alien parasite has arrived on Earth, origins unknown. George Wright has contracted it whilst swimming in the Greek Islands and is rapidly succumbing. His wife, Hannah must cope and try to find a cure...