Falling Sideways

Book excerpt: From the moment the first Homo Sapiens descended from the trees, possibly onto their heads, humanity has striven towards civilisation. Fire. The Wheel. Running Away from furry things with big teeth and, after a great deal of time, coming back and bravely nuking their descendants from orbit, are all testament to man's ultimate ascendancy. It is a noble story, a triumph of intelligence over adversity and, of course, completely and utterly wrong. For one man believes he has discovered the hideous truth: that every great civilisation in history has, rather embarrassingly, been founded, run and then cunningly manipulated by a small gang of devious frogs. More information on this book and others can be found on the Orbit website at www.orbitbooks.co.uk