Elysium Burning

by Drew Bryenton

The human race tore itself apart during the Age of Judgment. We unleashed enough firepower to vaporize whole nations, poisoning the Earth and grinding civilization down to the politics of muscle and steel. Dark days came. War-dog days, like some ethanol-fueled b-movie. Then came word of the Last City. A new Elysium welded together from the carcass of our old technology. A place ruled by a god-machine named Kronos, Guardian Engine of Humanity. Too bad that it's gone insane. Even worse that its two thousand- year-long master program has actually come to fruition, offering a chance to remake the Earth as a paradise. Well, one species paradise is another one's hell. And the experiments of Kronos have garnered a little unwanted attention, from the all-devouring metal metavirus known as the Unity. Their alien enemies are here to help us... but it's the kind of help that often ends with an autopsy. Kaito Kayzi would be worried if he knew all this. But when your best friend is busy pharming adrenochrome from the living brains of junkies, and your next employers look like being a quasi-religious death cult, little things like the end of the world fade behind the static of the Big Weird. The sad fact is, with a new virus turning humans and machines alike into unmentionable sludge, he's the best hope we've got...

422 pages, Paperback

Published October 21, 2016

Reviews

[Michael James Wilbur · Rating 5 out of 5]

The first book in a wonderfully dark and gritty Sci-fi story with a nice hard dose of cosmic horror. A definite must-read for those of us who delight in the darker side of science fiction.