[2] Robson attended the Clarion West Writing Workshop and was first published in 1994 in the British small press magazine The Third Alternative, but is best known as a novelist.

Robson's novels have been noted for sharply-drawn characters, and an intelligent and deeply thought-out approach to the tropes of the genre.

Stuff is Unity's manifestation in 4-D, appearing as an atomically undistinguishable mass that responds to intense thought and adapts itself to satisfy implicit need or desire.

For example, Stuff appears as an instantaneous transfer FTL engine to a stranded inter-stellar ship, and transforms into a weapon needed by a scientist to defend himself against torture.

They are maintained by Unity created engines, similar to today's computer games which implement a rule based virtual reality.

Sidebars include Metropolis (the DC Comics Justice League of America), Dindsenchas (historical Celtic), Sankhara (Buddhist Saṅkhāra).

An ancient galactic race boot-strapped itself into 11-D and Unity, leaving a mechanism built of stuff as two artificial moons around an earth-like planet.