One of the most exciting new science fiction writers of the new millennium, Paul McAuley has already won the Arthur C. Clarke Award, the Philip K. Dick Award, and the John W. Campbell Award. Now he presents a disturbingly convincing exploration of the future of Africa, the darker applications of biotechnology, and of the very nature of the human psyche.
The Congo, roughly thirty years from now. Plague, civil war, and rampant genetic engineering have spawned widespread chaos and devastation throughout Africa. Nicholas Hyde is investigating a reported massacre in a remote corner of the Congo when his team is attacked by a band of fierce apelike creatures, possibly the result of illegal genetic experimentation on chimpanzees. Nick survives the encounter, only to discover himself at the center of a massive cover-up.
Obligate, the supposedly eco-friendly transnational that now controls the Congo, denies the existence of the “white devils,“ and will stop at nothing to suppress all evidence to the contrary. Although Nick has secrets of his own to conceal, he becomes determined to uncover the origin of the mysterious creatures---and why certain individuals will kill to bury the truth.
But even the atrocities he has already witnessed cannot prepare him for the terrifying secret of the white devils.

Paul McAuley's profile page

Paul McAuleywas born in England on St George’s Day 1955. He has worked as a research biologist in various universities, including Oxford and UCLA, and for six years was a lecturer in botany at St Andrews University. The first short story he ever finished was accepted by the American magazine Worlds of If, but the magazine folded before publishing it and he took this as a hint to concentrate on an academic career instead. He started writing again during a period as a resident alien in Los Angeles, and is now a full time writer.
His first novel, Four Hundred Billion Stars, won the Philip K. Dick Memorial Award, and fifth, Fairyland, won the 1995 Arthur C. Clarke and John W. Campbell Awards. His other novels include Of the Fall, Eternal Light, Red Dust, Pasquale’s Angel, the three books of Confluence, Child of the River, Ancients of Days, and Shrine of Stars, The Secret of Life, Whole Wide World, and the forthcoming White Devils. He has also published two collections of short stories, The King of the Hill, and The Invisible Country. A Doctor Who novella, the Eye of the Tyger, is due from Telos Books in November 2003, forty years after the author was scared behind the couch by the Daleks, and a third short story collection, Little Machineswill be published by PS Publishing in 2004. He lives in North London.