Judgement

In this taut, character-driven hard science-fiction thriller, an engineer uncovers a conspiracy reaching into the highest levels of humanity's last refuge in space. Perfect for fans of James S. A. Corey and Adrian Tchaikovsky.

"Three times humanity has escaped the Judgement it so sorely needs. The warming of the world, the sentient machines, the Plague. All were sent to separate those who were worthy from those who were not."

Two hundred thousand souls live aboard ELLE4, a vast orbital habitat holding half a billion frozen embryos - humanity's last chance at a future, waiting out a plague-scoured Earth in an exile with no fixed end. Chief Engineer Martal Strand keeps the habitat breathing. He has spent his whole life trying to be worthy of his father, ELLE4's Chief Administrator, and outrunning a guilt he can't escape.

Then a favour for a friend turns up something that shouldn't exist: sabotage buried in plain sight, and falsified records pointing to a conspiracy no one would believe possible. Following the trail draws Martal and his wife Jessycka into conflict with a hidden cult operating inside the highest levels of ELLE4's government. One that believes humanity has cheated judgement three times over, and intends to force a reckoning.

Betrayed by someone he trusted, framed as a terrorist, and with his daughter held captive, Martal has one chance to expose the truth before ELLE4 - and everyone he loves - pays for it.

And orbiting outside, the barges of the Return Fleet wait for an order that could send Earth's last survivors home - or send them all to a Judgement of their own...

Judgement is the first book in a two-part series.