MACROSCOPE

Grafton / Panther paperback, 1986. Cover illustration by Tim White.

The macroscope is the most expensive, important device ever put into space by the inhabitants of Earth. Many nations have come together to build and run it. 

By using a newly-discovered aspect of radiation, the macroscope is able to give clear images of worlds thousands of light-years away. 

And somewhere - out there - is a civilisation which has learned how to broadcast in the macroscopic band. Some brilliant scientists have already studied the broadcasts, with devastating results. Their brains have been badly damaged. 

There is one person who might be able to cope with the alien broadcasts - Schön, the elusive genius who won't appear if things bore him..."