Author Description

On a moon where rain falls only once a year, life must struggle to endure in whatever way it can. Sixteen-year-old Pik, the son of a father relocated on orders, arrives at the start of the annual drought. Trading comfort for uncertainty, it is the fortified Pearl City which he would have to adapt to. Amidst the pulsing neon light, corporate propaganda, and buried secrets, that's a task easier said than done. Pearl City is a place of contradictions: dazzling yet decaying, organic yet synthetic. As Pik and his father Vantrum Chrome navigate the outskirts, they're swept into a sensory storm of genetically enhanced street food, towering megascreens, and faceless enforcers. Vantrum, a disgraced corporate strategist, was sent here on de facto exile, promised a sliver of a chance to reclaim his standing. With a career to save, his son, Pik, must to explore alone. In his urban adventures, the young teen is thrust into a world far beyond his means. It intends to swallow him up. The only remedy is to grow and adapt to the harsh realities of this bold, alien world. Pearl City is only half above ground. It's true face lies in a subterranean maze of steam tunnels, narcotic dens, and carnal chaos. Pik is forced to confront the city's darkest truths-and his own. The deeper he descends, the more surreal and lawless the world becomes: music that shakes the soul, fog that hides violence, and a lounge of aristocratic taste nestled in the belly of the beast. There, Pik meets the last person he ever expected-his estranged older brother Bryse, now a kingpin of Pearl's criminal underworld. Five years gone, Bryse is no longer the boy Pik remembers. For better or for worse, Bryse remembers everything. As the gas giant Lupalis casts its dim glow over the city, Pik must decide who he is, who he trusts, and what kind of future he's willing to fight for. In Pearl City, survival isn't guaranteed-and family doesn't always mean safety.