Lives of Bitter Rain

2026 Locus Finalist for Best Science Fiction Novel

Shortlisted for the Hugo Award for Best Series

Lives of Bitter Rain unfolds in a world where city-by-city, kingdom-by-kingdom, the Palleseen have vowed to spread ‘Perfection’ and ‘Correctness’ to a world they see as flawed. Before these merciless Tyrant Philosophers send in their legions, they dispatch Outreach – the rain before the storm.

Outreach is the facet of the Pal machine dedicated to diplomacy — transforming foes into allies, accomplishing through dialogue what an army of five thousand cannot. It urges the oppressed to rise against their tyrannical priests, malevolent necromancers, and avaricious rulers who subjugate them.

Angilly, a twelve-year-old child of Pal soldiers stationed in occupied Jarokir, is unaware that a series of accidents and questionable life choices will bring her to Outreach. As she journeys from Jarrokir to Bracinta, Cazarkand, Lemas, The Holy Regalate of Stouk, and ultimately Usmai, she discovers that her nation's triumph is accompanied by compromise and missed opportunities, and that the falling rain is perpetually bitter.

The world of the Tyrant Philosophers is steeped in magic of all kinds: divination, demonology, necromancy, alchemy, gods, monsters, and portals to other dimensions. This magical chaos meets an unwavering adversary — the Tyrant Philosophers — intent on imposing reason, logic, and ‘perfection’ upon it.

• City of Last Chances: portrait of Ilmar, a city under Palleseen occupation.
• House of Open Wounds: depiction of the Palleseen war machine in action.
• Days of Shattered Faith: portrayal of a kingdom systematically taken over by Palleseen diplomatic manoeuvring and espionage.
• Lives of Bitter Rain: a prequel novella to Days of Shattered Faith, illustrating a life within the Palleseen diplomatic corps.
• Pretenders to the Throne of God: depiction of a city under siege.
• The Grave of Perfection: return to Ilmar, the 'City of Last Chances', the origin of the narrative.