Scion
Book 1
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- Pre-Order
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- Expected 1 Sept 2026
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- $15.99
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- Pre-Order
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- $15.99
Publisher Description
My name’s Azure. I kill rich idiots for a living. All completely legal, of course, even if it does still make the old-fashioned crowd a bit uncomfortable. Once the ultra-wealthy realised they had a way to live forever—limited resources be damned—there was only ever going to be one real deterrent.
In the end, it's like a lot of people's jobs. I have to deal with a ton of boring planning. Inconvenient hours. Some awkward face-to-face interactions. And, like most of us, I’m only clocking on to crawl out from beneath my debts. It can be dirty work sometimes, sure, but someone’s got to do it.
Luckily, my genetic enhancements make me really, really good at it.
This next job, though…strange, that it got thrown my way. I haven’t had to protect a client in years.
Still, what could go wrong?
‘A high-octane cyberpunk thrill ride.’ Fonda Lee
‘Explosive and delightfully cinematic, perfect for sci-fi fans who love a wisecracking, morally ambiguous protagonist.’ Publishers Weekly [starred]
‘A brilliant page turner by my new auto-buy author.’ Adalyn Grace
‘Full of fierce energy and razor-sharp writing.’ Jeremy Szal
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Bestseller Islington (The Strength of the Few) crafts a captivating corporate dystopia complete with a bit of evil schadenfreude, introducing a world where the ultrawealthy can pay for the immortality-conferring serum Ichor, but normal folks are legally permitted to hire assassins to kill these "lifers," often via crowdfunding. Azure is one such assassin, whose somatic and cognitive "genetic revisions" (or "revs" for short) give him a significant edge in combat. He's surprised when his latest gig is to protect rather than kill, especially given how poorly his last protection job ended, a disaster that still haunts him. Even stranger is that the client, Jasa, is ultrawealthy but appears to be quite elderly, unlike the other lifers he's encountered, who typically choose to stay youthful. As Azure notes, "unexpected in my line of work is... rarely great," but Jasa secures first Azure's grudging obedience, then his loyalty by promising him a file of what actually happened in Oceanus, where his previous protection job went wrong. There are a few more wrinkles, though, like the fact that the firm that employs Azure is the same corporation that is trying to eliminate Jasa, who, it turns out, is Jasa de Alwes, inventor of Ichor. Mayhem and skullduggery ensue, with myriad red herrings and shocking twists all bolstered by the tense and often humorous working relationship between Jasa and Azure. The result is explosive and delightfully cinematic, perfect for sci-fi fans who love a wisecracking, morally ambiguous protagonist.
