HarperVoyager
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London SE1 9GF
First published in Great Britain by HarperVoyager 2019
Copyright © Richard Kadrey 2019
Cover design by Jeanne Reina © HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd 2019
Cover illustration © Will Staehle and Shutterstock.com
Richard Kadrey asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work.
A catalogue copy of this book is available from the British Library.
This novel is entirely a work of fiction. The names, characters and incidents portrayed in it are the work of the author’s imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or localities is entirely coincidental.
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Source ISBN: 9780008288853
Ebook Edition © May 2019 ISBN: 9780008288860
Version: 2019-05-17
To Drexel and Conan,
both of whom should have been
around a lot longer
There were a few short, wonderful years of euphoria when the slaughter was over. Of course, nothing had been settled and we knew it but, in its own way, watching the cataclysm hurtle toward us made the madness of the wild time even sweeter.
—Günther Harden, Cocaine and Bullets: My Lost Years
CONTENTS
COPYRIGHT
DEDICATION
MAP
CHAPTER ONE
THE CITY. THE AIR.
CHAPTER TWO
THE SECRET FETE
CHAPTER THREE
A CURSED PLACE
CHAPTER FOUR
ABOVE THE CITY
CHAPTER FIVE
HINTERLAND
CHAPTER SIX
CHAPTER SEVEN
THE REFUGEE ROAD
CHAPTER EIGHT
EUGENICS
CHAPTER NINE
SERVANTS AND WARRIORS
CHAPTER TEN
AT THE STREET MARKET BY THE CROSSROADS
CHAPTER ELEVEN
XUXU: ARTISTIC MOVEMENT OR ACADEMIC PRANK?
CHAPTER TWELVE
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
CHAPTER FOURTEEN
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
THE WALKING WOUNDED
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
CHAPTER NINETEEN
THE WONDERS OF THE SOUTH
CHAPTER TWENTY
THE SHAPE OF THE WORLD
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE
THE CORRUPTER OF INNOCENCE, ACT 1
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
FOOTNOTES
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
ALSO BY RICHARD KADREY
ABOUT THE PUBLISHER