First published 2024
Minister Shea Ashcroft defies his queen's command to gas a crowd of protesters. His conscience costs him everything. Banished to the remote borderlands, Shea must supervise construction of the largest defensive tower ever built. The project relies on volatile technology stolen from refugees, creating dangerous instabilities that threaten local power structures. Shea battles the regional hierarchy while dodging assassination attempts and confronting his own fractured psyche. Ancient legends surface as he discovers a gateway to a lifeless world. Reality blurs with hallucination. Memory becomes unreliable. Shea questions everything he once believed while fighting to preserve both his sanity and his moral compass. In a world where propaganda shapes truth and two kingdoms march toward war, one man's struggle to remain honest becomes a battle for his very identity.
Genres: science-fiction, fantasy, thriller, political-thriller
Vibes: dark, suspenseful, thought-provoking
Tropes: fish-out-of-water, unreliable-narrator
Setting: Borderlands, Remote Regions
Period: Contemporary
350 pages · Hardcover · Phoenix Pick
Content warnings: mental-illness, violence