Of the City of the Saved... (novel)

Publisher's summary
For Humanity, the War is over...

We all remember Resurrection Day. Even now, three centuries later, we cannot forget that awakening: our bewilderment, our terror and our joy. Each of us had experienced death, imagining ourselves bound for oblivion, Heaven or Nirvana, according to taste. Instead, we found, each member of the many human species -- from tool-wielding australopithecines to posthuman philosopher-gods -- had been harvested, gathered here by the Founders’ unfathomable technologies.

Reborn in our countless immortal bodies, we were given the freedom of the City of the Saved. A single conurbation as broad as a spiral galaxy, she has been our sanctuary from the ravages of the War. That monstrous conflict between inhuman cultures cannot touch us here: we live our afterlives beyond the end of time, in perfect safety.

We may be certain, therefore, that these rumours of a murder (the brutal stabbing of a City Councillor, no less!) are nothing more than lurid fabrications. The supposition that the murder weapon is missing, or that it could have been -- as hysterical conjecture has claimed -- a "potent weapon," capable of injuring a Citizen within the haven of the City, is equally absurd. The idea that a guerrilla war has already begun in one of our less harmonious enclaves need not be dignified with refutation.

Please go about your business, Citizens, as normal. We are perfectly safe, here in the City. Humanity has never been safer.

''Of the City of the Saved... is not a novel of violence and political intrigue, set against the backdrop of humanity’s last resting-place. There is no evidence that it is the second in the series of original Faction Paradox novels.''

Characters

 * Compassion
 * Laura Tobin
 * Handramit
 * Sherlock Holmes

Continuity

 * Given that the City is inhabited by everyone of human (or mostly human) genetic heritage, people who were cloned (either through time travel, mundane cloning technology or Remembrance Tanks and so forth) are there in however many numbers of clones were created. There are five versions of Laura Tobin/Compassion in the City, for example. The original Laura is a detective (and one of the main characters), while Compassion three is a media reviewer. Compassion five is the Timeship but noone knows where she is, except for Laura and a few select handful of others (including, presumably "Grandfather Halfling" who is a half-Human Time Lord (sound familiar?)). There are also multiple Elvis Presleys (some of whom are responsible for the sightings of Elvis after his death) and Sherlock Holmeses (most of whom work for "the Great Detective Agency").