Shuos Jedao is awake…

…and nothing is as he remembers. He’s a teenager, a cadet—a nobody—in the body of an old man; a general in command of an elite force. And he’s the most feared, and reviled, man in the galaxy.

Jedao carries orders from Hexarch Nirai Kujen to re‑conquer the fractured pieces of the hexarchate. But he has no memory of ever being a soldier, let alone a general, and the Kel soldiers under his command hate him for a massacre he can’t remember committing.
Kujen’s friendliness can’t hide the fact that he’s a tyrant. And what’s worse, Jedao and Kujen are being hunted—by an enemy who knows more about Jedao than he does himself…

Cover art by Chris Moore.

This one is dedicated to Daedala. Pistolium tuum sum.

Thanks to my editor, Jonathan Oliver, and the wonderful folks at Solaris Books; my agent, Jennifer Jackson; and my agent’s assistant, Michael Curry.

Thanks also to my beta readers: Joseph Charles Betzwieser, Cyphomandra, Daedala, Seth Dickinson, David Gillon, Isis, Karanguni, Helen Keeble, Nancy Sauer, and Sonya Taaffe. Additional thanks to Sam Kabo Ashwell for providing an emergency Kindle; to Andrew Plotkin and Helen Keeble for their thoughts on the calendrical lock; to Peter Berman for help with the mathematics of the threshold winnower; and to Lila Garrott-Wejksnora for information on military funerals. All errors and narrative license taken are my own.