Advances in the Art of Being, by Chris Barnardo, is a Science Fiction Space Opera with world building at its heart.

Earth, 2199 and three close friends, St Mungo, Gundel, and Arkil, are on a mission to save the lives of seventy-eight scientists, a thousand light-years out of Earthside, who have been partially terminated in a seemingly pointless and unprovoked attack on the edge of the Colony Line.

As they sift through the debris, they realise that the attack was anything but pointless, rather it's the last moment of a century-long war being fought over control of our galaxy. As they uncover more, they begin to understand that their actions are being controlled by a secret group of ultra-fast machines, called the Core: and only then do they realise that their designated role has always been to bring home one of the most destructive appliances ever built.