First published 2007
Nashara runs through the spaceways with a terrible secret buried in her cybernetic body. She is more machine than human now, combat-enhanced and carrying a doomsday device that could tear apart the entire galaxy. The Benevolent Satrapy controls forty-eight worlds through a network of wormholes, keeping humans and other species technologically stunted and obedient. The Ragamuffins, descendants of Earth's lost islanders, have survived as pirates and smugglers operating from the edges of dead space. For years the alien Satraps ignored these unruly humans, but now they want every Ragamuffin dead. Nashara becomes their most wanted target as she races toward home. The weapon inside her grows more unstable with each passing day. She must reach safety before the Satraps catch her, and before the device forces her to choose between destroying civilization and destroying herself. The hunt spans worlds connected by ancient wormhole passages, where entire planets sit under interdiction and humans scratch out existence on the galactic fringe.
Genres: science-fiction, adventure, space-opera, action
Vibes: fast-paced, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: found-family, race-against-time
Setting: Benevolent Satrapy, Dead Space, Earth
Period: Future
316 pages · Hardcover · Tor Books