Ventus is a large-scale hard SF adventure novel in the tradition of Larry Niven, Vernor Vinge, and Arthur C. Clarke. Karl Schroeder, a physicist and writer, is a winner of Canada's Aurora Award. His novel The Claus Effect, written in collaboration with David Nickle, was called the best first fantasy of the year by Science Fiction Chronicle, and now his first SF novel launches a major career in SF.

In the far future an artificial intelligence of godlike power goes rogue. It is finally destroyed by only after terrifying struggles. And it has already sent out seeds of itself throughout the galaxy.

A human investigator, Calandria May, is sent down to the surface of the terraformed planet Ventus, on which the Al terraforming programs (the godlike Winds) have fallen silent for generations. She must attempt to communicate with the world itself, to prevent its infection. She quickly find that an extension of the rogue Al, a cyborg called Armiger, has planted a strange and powerful device in a native young man named Jordan Mason.

Jordan Mason has visions. He is desperate to find the meaning and source of his visions—desperate enough to risk calling down the powerful Winds that destroy technology to protect their created environment.

Ventus is an epic journey across a fascinating planet.