Two hundred miles wide and higher than the moon, Sungoback has stood over central Africa for thirty years, a pillar of light by night and of darkness by day. Science cannot explain it; it destroys technology. What secret lies at its centre: aliens, eternal life, distant past, or far future? Most who venture inside Sungoback are never seen again. Why would anybody dare?

They all have their reasons. Pillar of Darkness tells of a party of nine very dissimilar people, who venture into Sungoback together, bound by their motives, their sufferings, and—eventually—their fates.