Xeelee: Vengeance Av Stephen Baxter

<P>Half a million years in the future, on a dead, war-ravaged world at the centre of the Galaxy, there is a mile-high statue of Michael Poole.<br><br>Poole, born on Earth in the fourth millennium, was one of mankind''s most influential heroes. He was not a warrior, not an emperor. He was an engineer, a builder of wormhole transit systems. But Poole''s work would ultimately lead to a vast and destructive conflict, a million-year war between humanity and the enigmatic, powerful aliens known as the Xeelee. <br><br>The Xeelee won, but at a huge cost. And, defeated in a greater war, the Xeelee eventually fled the universe. Most of them.<br><br>A handful were left behind, equipped with time travel capabilities, their task to <I>tidy up</I>: to reorder history more to the Xeelee''s liking. That million-year war with humankind was one blemish. It had to be erased. And in order to do that, a lone Xeelee was sent back in time to remove Michael Poole from history . . .</P>