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Count Sessine is about to die for the last time. Chief Scientist Gadfium, in conspiracy against the King, is concerned about the mysterious messages she is getting from the Plain of Sliding Stones. Bascule the Teller, in search of his lost talking ant, Ergates, is about to enter the strange virtual world of the "cryptosphere" ("crypt").
The "Encroachment" is about to dim the sun of Serehfa Fastness, where the characters live on and in a mysterious piece of mega-architecture, and plunge the world into an ice age. The King and his advisers know this, but they continue to fight the clan of Engineers. The crypt also knows of the threat, and sends an emissary.
The book is set on a far future Earth where the transfer of mindstates into a world-spanning computer network (known as "the data corpus", "cryptosphere" or simply "crypt") is commonplace, allowing the dead to be easily reincarnated (though by custom, only a limited number of reincarnations are allowed).
Humanity has lost much of its technological background, due partly to an exodus by much of the species, and partly to the fact that those who remained (or at least their rulers) are fighting against more advanced technology such as Artificial Intelligence.
Meanwhile, the solar system is drifting into an interstellar molecular cloud ("the Encroachment"), which will eventually dim the Sun's light sufficiently to end life on Earth. However, the Diaspora (the long-departed segment of humanity) have left behind a device (the "Fearsome Engine" of the title) to deal with the problem; the book follows four characters who become involved in the attempt to activate it, with the narrative moving between the four (who do not meet until very near the end) in rotation.
The quarter of the book told by Bascule the Teller is written phonetically in the first person. This is explained by Bascule's dyslexia
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