Furious gulf
From back cover Warner paperback February 2005:

Trying to escape the relentless mechs, the last humans from the planet Snowglade take their ancient starship on a dangerous course straight into the Eater, the black hole at the galactic center.  Hungry and desperate, the refugees begin to question the leadership of Captain Killeen, who believes the center holds their one hope of survival.  Meanwhile, Killeen's son Toby struggles with the microchips that were implanted in his spine -- a technology that now threatens his sanity.  Caught between their genocidal pursuers and peril in the galactic center, Killeen and Toby bring humanity to its final destiny.
Fathers and sons, Fiction, Space ships, Fathers and sons, fiction, Fiction, science fiction, general
Gregory Benford
Gregory Benford (Gregory Albert Benford) is an astrophysicist and science fiction author who is on the faculty of the Department of Physics and Astronomy at the University of California, Irvine.  He is also a contributing editor of Reason magazine.  Benford is best known for the Galactic Center Saga novels, a series that postulates a galaxy in which sentient organic life is in constant warfare with sentient electromechanical life.

Greg was born in Mobile, Alabama.  He received his Bachelor of Science in Physics from the University of Oklahoma, followed by his Masters and then his Doctorate from the University of California, San Diego.  Having published more than 200 scientific papers, his research encompasses both theory and experiments in the fields of astrophysics and plasma physics.

Greg is a two-time winner of the Nebula Award and has also won the John W. Campbell Award, the Australian Ditmar Award, the Lord Foundation Prize, and the 1990 United Nations Medal in Literature.  

Source: Secular Policy Institute