AGAINST A DARK BACKGROUND was published in 1993.
It is science fiction, but not Culture, and was first drafted in 1975.
She came from one of the more disreputable aristocratic families.
Sharrow was once the leader of a personality-attuned combat team in one of the sporadic little commercial wars in the civilisation based around the planet Golter.
On an island with a glass shore – relic of some even more ancient conflict – she discovers she is to be hunted by the Huhsz, a religious cult which believes she is the last obstacle before their faith’s apotheosis.
She has to run, knowing her only hope of finally escaping the Huhsz is to find the last of the ancient, apocalyptically powerful but seemingly cursed Lazy Guns... but that is just the first as well as the final step on a search that takes her on an odyssey through the exotic Golterian system. It results in both a trail of destruction and a journey into her own past, as well as that of her family and the system itself; a journey that changes everything...
German Cover
Iain said, “This was meant to be a fantasy novel with a totally rational scientific background, almost taking the piss out of fantasy in a way. Not that this comes over in the book at all, except towards the end where a baddie’s got his diamond crown but Feril says ‘it’s part of a triple filament drill, actually.’ ‘But look at the runes, the runes around the side!’ ‘That’s the serial number, actually...’ The whole thing about a team of people with special attributes reforming and then going off on multiple quests is meant to be like a fantasy novel but not in a fantasy setting. It’s probably the one that’s changed the least out of all the novels.”
Responding to a query in April 1995, Iain wrote, “The epilogue to Against a Dark Background doesn't exist anywhere else. I suggested using it for the paperback, but nobody - pals or publishers - seemed to think it added that much, so I didn't bother. It still might be added, if some future publisher/editor thought it best.”
Click below to read the epilogue.
Read the epilogue