Visceral, gritty, and propulsive…
An engineered mutant soldier and a bitter, alcoholic wasteworker form an uneasy alliance in Blair’s politically charged dystopian novel. Decades after the Genetic Wars, Cincuenta Yuno functions as both fortress and machine. Helia, a powerful Mutant soldier, goes rogue after a failed mission. Hunted by the Department of Sanitation, she teams up with Ari, a Mule from the city’s underbelly. Their goal: survive Cincuenta Yuno and take on the system that’s crushing them both.
Ari brings grit and vulnerability to the story. She drinks to numb, lashes out to protect herself, but her quiet return to feeling is its own act of courage. Helia, meanwhile, is shaped by loss: her lover Emily, conscripted into forced motherhood, haunts her every step. This subtle but piercing subplot drives home the cost of a society that weaponizes reproduction and erases agency. There are no chosen ones here, no tidy resolutions. Blair builds a world where resistance is messy, alliances are temporary, and survival is uncertain. And yet, there’s hope, not in revolution, but in solidarity, in a single act of one character saving another, in pushing back, inch by inch.
A page-turning, emotionally charged tale of power, suppression, and unexpected connection.
Pub date May 13, 2025
Histria Books
ISBN 978-1592115327
Price $19.99 (USD) Paperback, $9.99 Kindle edition
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