Publisher's Synopsis
"Some stories ended on a definitive note. Others, with room for interpretation. Some stories ended with a well-placed bullet." Donovan Swan never wanted to be the leader of a group of assassins and spies. He didn't want to be the one to root out conspiracies and stand against powerful forces. The allure was there, but he was a con man at heart, and taking on the role has left his best friend in a coma and on the verge of death while a northern army stands prepared to take him to war. Now it's personal. The legendary Trajaen Luna, commander of the fierce northerners, is in reality a man known to few as Salem. Former slave turned liberator, he has long railed against the tyranny of unregulated criminals while shouldering mountains of guilt for the acts of violence he has had to commit to maintain peace. When confronted with the existence of the United Coast Organization, a faction that thrives on the murder and exploitation of others through countless cities, he knows in his heart that he is the only one with the ability and determination to stop them. Rossi, Salem's closest confidante, is a silver-tongued manipulator who has weaved his own web of intrigue in order to further his own agenda. As two of the greatest powers the Expanse has ever seen maneuver into conflict with each other, can he be trusted? Order will struggle to be maintained. In Sandaria, former soldier Basker has found renewed purpose. Having taken revenge upon his sister's murderers, he now shoulders the command of a constabulary that hates him in order to protect a city that hasn't felt like home in years. He does so to protect the light his sister had always seen in Sandaria's people, a light he has himself discovered in the woman who saved him from the Pits of Des Binoer. Jonah Fauerbach, the bareknuckle boxer-turned-constabulary captain of Arcis, finds his people overwhelmed and outnumbered as Trajaen Luna's generals invade. Forced to set his morals aside and ally with the infamous smuggler Osias Behren, he rallies against a military force unlike any he has ever encountered. No cities will be untouched. From Arcis to the slave city of Tipper; to Vorcuna, the walled bastion of neutrality; to the City of Dusty Dreams itself, Sandaria; blood will be spilled and lives will be lost. When the dust settles and the final body falls, nothing will ever be the same.
