Overview

On a dying chain of worlds, safety has become a form of slavery. Ben is a cargo hauler on the margins of human space, a man who has learned to carry grief quietly and trust very little. When an ordinary shipment exposes an impossible organism, a dead technician, a hidden map and a message from a world thought long silent, he is pulled into a mystery older than the colonies themselves. The trail leads across human worlds that have each built their own prison. On Hawking, trade and hunger have buried the truth beneath old ruins. On Gemser, age and obedience have turned adults into permanent children. On Zepler, protection has become ownership. On Titania, mercy itself was weaponised until a civilisation burned beneath the promise of peace. And on Earth, the ancient cradle of humanity, guardian systems built to prevent suffering may be ready to hand the species over to something far worse than death. That something is Orison. It speaks with the voices of the dead. It offers forgiveness, reunion and the end of pain. It does not arrive as a conqueror. It arrives as comfort. Ben is not alone. Selene, born without permission on a world that criminalised her mother's love, carries a mark tied to the old systems. Cassia Firenzo brings the fury of a world that made power out of fear. Mara Pellin refuses to let pain become someone else's property. Robertson, Edrin, Anik, Tomas and even the broken remnants of their enemies all become part of a desperate witness against a force that understands humanity too well. To survive, they must decide what is worth preserving when suffering can be removed, grief can be softened and choice itself can be made safe. Because a life without risk may no longer be life. A world without pain may no longer be human. And the place where dreams go to die may not be death at all, but mercy without a soul.

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9781923707603

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Robert G. Pranic is an Australian author and independent publisher writing across multiple genres, including science fiction, detective mystery, thriller, historical fiction, horror and romantasy. His work ranges from the Detective Barzani Mysteries to expansive speculative fiction, historical dramatisations, and dark, emotionally driven thrillers.Across his novels, Robert G. Pranic is drawn to characters under pressure: detectives seeking justice, survivors confronting broken systems, lovers divided by history, and ordinary people forced into extraordinary moral choices. His science fiction often explores humanity's future through themes of memory, freedom, technology, power, identity and survival.He publishes through Cinarp Industries and continues to build a broad catalogue of fiction for readers who enjoy immersive, character-centred storytelling with strong atmosphere, high stakes and emotional consequence.

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