A debut sci-fi mystery set on an abandoned future Earth, featuring a twisty mystery straight out of a John le Carre novel, a group of larger-than-life characters who'd be at home in the work of John Scalzi, and a deeply weird and dangerous hyperdimensional entity to haunt the dreams of any reader of Kim Stanley Robinson.
Humanity is dying. Banished from the Earth, our descendants eke out lives in orbital habitats and moon colonies-—and look with longing on our former home.
But Earth is deadly. Over hundreds of years, its oceans have transformed into an annihilating liquid entity-—the Caul. Every living creature approaching its shores is irresistibly compelled to enter. . . and is never seen again.
Scientists, some of the few inhabitants left, work in facilities seeking to understand and stop the Caul. And scavenging the shores are the penitents—those who resist its siren lure.
