In the future there is no want, no war, no disease nor ill-timed death. The world is a paradise—and then, in a moment, it ends. The world had been a paradise until the Fall, when the holders of the control codes for the world-spanning program called “Mother” fell out in civil war.

In the future there is no want, no war, no disease nor ill-timed death. The world is a paradiseand then, in a moment, it ends. The council that controls the Net falls out and goes to war. Everywhere people who have never known a moment of want or pain are left wondering how to survive.

In the future the world was a paradiseand then, in a moment, it ended. The council that controlled the Net fell out and went to war, while people who had never known a moment of want or pain were left wondering how to survive.