A scientist facing personal tragedy discovers a sentient black hole targeting humanity in this hard sci-fi thriller from "a superb storyteller" ( Houston Post). Dr. Benjamin Knowlton's private world is crumbling around him. On the threshold of their greatest achievement, the renowned astrophysicist learns that his beloved wife and partner, Channing—an ex-astronaut-turned astronomer—is dying of cancer. Meanwhile, something looms alarmingly on the far edge of the solar system: at once a scientific find of unparalleled importance that could ensure the Knowltons' immortality, and a potential earth-shattering cataclysm that dwarfs their private one. For Benjamin and Channing have discovered "Eater," an eons-old black hole anomaly that devours stars and worlds. Yet its most awesome and devasting secrets are still to be revealed . . . and feared. "A celestial horror tale, a cosmological adventure, a literate end-of-the-world epic, and a story bursting with old-fashioned 'sense of wonder.'" — Orlando Sentinel "Benford spins poetry from textbook phenomena . . . [His] novel proves that scientific wisdom involves the heart and soul as well as the mind." — The Washington Post Book World "The scientific equivalent of a taut police procedural . . . Benford's deft, suspenseful weaving of the struggle between Eater and humanity blends two threads with maximal impact." — Newark Star Ledger "Even in the face of huge events and special effects sequences, Benford manages to keep the characters and the human-scale issues important . . . It's just this kind of juggling that characterizes the best of Benford's work . . . Eater is Benford's most Benfordesque book in quite a while." — Locus