Tears clung to Hixon’s face, clustering by her nose in a bubble. Hart reached out, wiping them away. Naomi drifted closer, pressing her hands against the window. To her right, Lebedeva was inscrutable as always, her cheekbones standing out in stark relief against her white skin. Both of them had shaved off their hair when they were in quarantine. Hart had taken out her braids and cut her hair short months ago, and Hixon had a pixie cut since she was twelve. The Russian had buzzed her own blond hair into a bristle before snipping Naomi’s dark locks. Naomi had watched them fall to the ground, realising she wouldn’t be able to take gravity for granted much longer.
Valerie gave a whisper of a sigh before hardening. “Hixon.”
The pilot nodded, coming to attention, her military background embedded deep. She pulled herself down to the console and started the sequence to disengage the Atalanta from the construction hub.
An error message blared, harsh and jarring in the quiet. A red flash against the blue-white.
Hixon tried again. Another burst of red.
“They’ve locked the ship to the hub from the ground. That’s a recent spec change.” Valerie pointed to the world with her chin. “Oh, they’re so spitting mad. I love it.”
As if her voice conjured it, a different beep sounded—an incoming message from Houston.
“Do we answer?” Hart asked, chewing at the edge of a fingernail.
“Of course not,” Valerie said. “Lebedeva. Lovelace. Dig out the EMUs.”
Naomi worked through her words. “You can’t mean—”
“Manual override. Worked it into the design. Figured they’d pull this kind of shit. They’re going to send up a Dragon or send people from the Gateway to come arrest us. You want to be here when they do? Now’s your chance to speak up.”
Silence save for the insistent beep from the men trapped on the crust of the Earth.
“Suit up,” Valerie said, giving them another wide, white smile. “Spacewalk.”
BY M. R. CAREY
The Girl With All the Gifts
Fellside
The Boy on the Bridge
Someone Like Me
THE RAMPART TRILOGY
The Book of Koli
The Trials of Koli
The Fall of Koli
FELIX CASTOR NOVELS
(WRITING AS MIKE CAREY)
The Devil You Know
Vicious Circle
Dead Men’s Boots
Thicker Than Water
The Naming of the Beasts
Praise for the Novels of M. R. Carey
The Trials of Koli
“[Carey builds] a broken world that is both marvelously expansive and claustrophobically menacing.… Fans of postapocalyptic science fiction will find plenty to hold their attention.”
—Publishers Weekly
“This series just gets better and better. Clever, compassionate, and genuinely immersive.”
—Joanne Harris
“Absorbing, stunning, and emotionally rich.”
—Locus
“This is a bold, unique world—be prepared to be engrossed.”
—SciFiNow
“This novel should please Carey’s existing fans as well as fans of the postapocalyptic subgenre in general.”
—Booklist
The Book of Koli
“A beautiful book. Gripping, engaging, and absolutely worth the time it takes to burrow yourself into its reality. I can’t recommend it highly enough.”
—Seanan McGuire
“M. R. Carey hefts astonishing storytelling power with plainspoken language, heartbreaking choices, and sincerity like an arrow to the heart.”
—Locus
“The cadence and pacing of [Koli’s] voice adds a depth and richness to the strange and malevolent world.”
—Booklist
“A thought-provoking and deeply engaging story. Profoundly and doggedly humane.”
—C. A. Fletcher
“An exciting post-apocalyptic coming-of-age trilogy.”
—Shelf Awareness
“Narrator Koli’s inquisitive mind and kind heart make him the perfect guide to Carey’s immersive, impeccably rendered world.… A captivating start to what promises to be an epic post-apocalyptic fable.”
—Kirkus
The Girl With All the Gifts
“Heartfelt, remorseless, and painfully human.”
—Joss Whedon
“Original, thrilling and powerful.”
—Guardian
“Haunting and heartbreaking.”
—Vogue
The Boy on the Bridge
“A terrifying, emotional page-turner that explores what it means to be human.”
—Kirkus
“[A] brilliant character study as much as a tense, satisfying post-apocalyptic thriller.”
—B&N Sci-Fi & Fantasy Blog
“A tense story with superbly rendered characters and the same blend of tragedy and hope.”
—SciFiNow
Fellside
“An intense, haunting thriller with heart. You will not want to put this down.”
—Laini Taylor
“A fantastic, twist-upon-twist, shape-shifting novel. Gripping, deeply affecting, and arrestingly beautiful.”
—Miranda Dickinson
“The next fantastic novel from M. R. Carey.”
—io9
Someone Like Me
“A spooky, wrenching, exhilarating ghost story–cum–thriller.”
—Washington Post
“A taut, clever thriller that left me utterly bereft when I’d finished. It’s a masterpiece.”
—Louise Jensen
“This wonderfully strange and creepy tale is a thrilling, genre-defying treat.”
—Kirkus