A brand-new novella-length entry in Ian Douglas's Warstrider * universe!*

Warstrider: The Ten Billion Gods In Heaven

Decades after their declaration of independence, the colony planets that formed the Confederation remain outnumbered by Earth's Japan-dominated Empire. But a new discovery could shake the balance of power. A solar system-spanning fragment of the galaxy-wide artificial intelligence called the Web has been located within reach of human civilization, but no one knows whether it's peaceful, hostile, or entirely indifferent to events on a human scale. Confederation and Imperial forces race to make contact and attempt an alliance with the alien machine that could swing humanity's conflict one way or the other. But if this proves impossible, each force will settle for making sure the other side does not survive the confrontation, by any means necessary.