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The Last Hero (Volume 3) (The First Sister trilogy) - Hardcover

Buch 3 von 3: The First Sister trilogy

Lewis, Linden A.

 
9781982127053: The Last Hero (Volume 3) (The First Sister trilogy)
Hardcover
ISBN 10: 1982127058 ISBN 13: 9781982127053
Verlag: Skybound Books, 2022

Inhaltsangabe

The flame of rebellion burns across the solar system in this dazzling conclusion to Linden A. Lewis’s stunning First Sister trilogy perfect for fans of Red Rising, The Handmaid’s Tale, and The Expanse.

Astrid is finally free of the Sisterhood, yet her name carries on. She’s called the Unchained by those she’s inspired and the Heretic by those who want her voiceless once more. Now Astrid uses knowledge of the Sisterhood’s inner workings against them, aiding the moonborn in raids against abbeys and Cathedrals, all the while exploring the mysteries of her forgotten past.

However, the Sisterhood thrives under the newly appointed Mother Lilian I, who’s engaged in high-stakes politics among the Warlords and the Aunts to rebuild the Sisterhood in her own image. But the evil of the Sisterhood can’t be purged with anything less than fire....

Meanwhile, Hiro val Akira is a rebel without an army, a Dagger without a Rapier. As protests rock the streets of Cytherea, Hiro moves in the shadows, driven by grief and vengeance, as they hunt the man responsible for all their pain: their father....

Transformed by the Genekey virus, Luce navigates the growing schism within the Asters on Ceres. Hurting in her new body, she works to bridge two worlds seemingly intent on mutual destruction. All while mourning her fallen brother, though Lito sol Lucius’s memory may yet live on.

Yet Souji val Akira stands in judgment on them all, plotting the future for all of humanity, and running out of time before war erupts between the Icarii and Geans. But can even the greatest human intellect outwit the Synthetics?

The emotional First Sister trilogy comes to a sensational climax in this final installment, and is a must-read for science fiction fans everywhere.

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Linden A. Lewis is the Publishers Weekly bestselling author of The First Sister trilogy and author of the upcoming stand-alone fantasy novel Halfheart. They became a writer after learning that tattooed lady at the circus was not a sustainable career path. They currently live in Madrid, where they enjoy LARPing, cosplaying, and being a servant to their cats. Find them on social media @LindenALewis and otherwise at LindenALewis.com.

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Chapter 1: Hiro CHAPTER 1 HIRO
We at the AEGIS find the data sent by Lito sol Lucius from Ceres Satellite #19 to be authentic. Moving forward, we will turn our investigation toward those responsible for the execution and oversight of these horrific experiments. Rest assured that we will stop at nothing to hold Val Akira Labs accountable for its actions.

Rosendo val Chaz, president of the Agency for Ethical Guidance of Icarii Science



I haven’t been this high above Cytherea since I was a child visiting my father’s floor at Val Akira Labs’ head office. Grandfather had just retired, naming my father the new CEO, and he proudly brought our little family to see where he’d be, in his words, “working to change the world.” I was so young, it has to be one of my first memories, yet I still vividly remember standing at the full window, Asuka’s hands on my shoulders and Shinya at my side, as I stared at the surrounding buildings that, to my childish eyes, looked like massive clusters of crystalline shards.

Now that spell is broken. The buildings are just buildings, their streaked, colorful glass more like solar panels than the overgrown rose quartzes and amethysts their designers wish them to evoke. Or perhaps it’s the fact that I’m alone that sucks all the magic from the view. Asuka is somewhere below, crumbling under the pressure of AEGIS inquiries, and Shinya—well, Shinya will never walk these streets again.

I balance across a slender metal catwalk, hazarding a view at the protest I left behind fifteen minutes ago. Nothing is like I pictured as Luce described the route to me. There’s no wind whipping through the narrow corridors between high-rise buildings, no peacekeepers chasing after me, just a rickety construction made out of spare metal, hastily tethered together and zigzagging like a fire escape.

From this height, I can even make out the great onyx Spire in the distance, sucking up all the light from the otherwise bright Cytherean twilight. The dome dims as night falls, casting my path in long shadows and making my mask more of a hazard than a protection. It’s the perfect hour for me to scurry up to the top of a building unseen. The perfect semidarkness for Luce and I to deploy another of our vids to the public.

I test a thin metal sheet with my boot. It bows under my weight, so I skip it, hopping to a sturdier platform. I stick as close to the building as possible. I don’t have a fear of heights, but I’d like to think that anyone this high up would be wary. A fall from here would turn me into a street crepe.

“Still disappointed I didn’t get high-tech gloves that make me stick to the building like a chameleon,” I say, recording my voice and uploading it to Hemlock’s server with a flick of my eyes. The com-lenses are especially useful since my hands are occupied, though I had to turn off all the entertainment functions so I’m not distracted by news articles and colorful ads.

Luce’s response comes after a few seconds’ delay. Her dry chuckle is the first thing I hear. “You always picture things like an action vid.” Despite the distance between us, her voice comes through as clearly as if she were standing next to me.

“Maybe it is an action vid.” I hold tight to the railing as I skirt a wobbly section. “Shadowy group that wants to kill us? Check. Sexy assistant? Check. Roguish hero? Check, by yours truly. And my father humbly accepts the role of evil wizard in his giant tower.”

Luce snorts. “?‘Sexy assistant’? Please tell me you’re not talking about me.”

“Of course not, I’m talking about Hemlock.” My cheeks ache from grinning. “By the way, what’re you wearing?”

“Just get to the roof, roguish hero,” Luce responds, but I can hear the amusement in her tone, and I know I’ve made her smile—no easy task nowadays. “When our ‘evil wizard’ goes before the AEGIS tomorrow afternoon, I want people to remember why.”

And that means we remind them with one of Luce’s vids.

“Roger, team leader.”

The words are hardly out of my mouth when a sheet snaps beneath me.

I stumble forward, hands flailing, but my fingers slip over the closest beam. It happens so fast, just three seconds, and I’m tumbling down—

I catch the railing of the platform below, elbows and shoulders jerking taut, joints aching from catching my full weight. My mask is not so lucky, the black tactical covering fluttering to the streets below. The entire structure groans beneath me, threatening to collapse, though it’s hard to focus on that when my vision flashes red with agony.

“??!” My left shoulder, the one connected to my prosthetic, aches like someone slipped a blade between skin and metal. But I can’t just hang here, so I force myself to move, ignoring the groaning of both the catwalk and my body as I pull myself back onto the safety of a lower platform.

I sit there for a good minute and a half, catching my breath and rubbing my shoulder. More pressing than the current throbbing of my joints is an overwhelming fear. Thanks to Mara, the agent of the Synthetics on Autarkeia, I had a handle on my pain—but what if this accident fucks it all up? What if the daily agony returns?

I dig my fingers into my flesh biceps, nails tight enough to bruise through my jacket, and focus on my breathing. In and out. In and out.

Slowly, the pain subsides. It doesn’t depart completely, but now that I’m not hanging on for my literal life, I adjust. I’ll likely need to ice my joints later, but I’m hopeful that I didn’t undo whatever careful balance Mara granted me when she reprogrammed my prosthetics. Or if I did, that it’ll be a black hole like my leg after the duelist on the Leander ran me through with a mercurial blade. I can’t feel anything with my metal foot, but that’s way fucking better than phantom pain.

It’s only after I convince myself I need to keep moving that I realize Luce’s reply has been waiting for almost five minutes. But I don’t listen to it. Don’t respond. I disengage from Hemlock’s server, not needing any more distractions. Pretend as I might with Luce in my ear, I’m alone on Cytherea, partnerless, with no one to catch me when I fall. The words of my first commander on Ceres come back to me, unbidden: A duelist alone is nothing.

I test every plank before I put my weight on it, tug every ladder before I climb. When I finally reach the top of the building, another fifteen minutes have passed, though it shouldn’t have taken more than five. Better to be safe than sorry, I guess.

The rooftop is covered in a rainbow of graffiti. Colorful protest slogans and various images blanket every inch of space. I step across a trompe l’oeil of a hole that leads to a forest full of golden light and come to a larger-than-life nude of a bald woman in a breather mask: La Peste, Luce herself.

I have to hand it to her, this spot the Keres Truth Society found is perfect for our needs. It’s within a three-block radius of the protest at Val Akira Labs, but not so close that it’s being regularly patrolled. We can have our drone descend directly over the protesters instead of launching from the ground, where peacekeepers are sure to shoot it down before it gets high enough to project.

Of course, the more times we hazard this little stunt, the harder it is to pull off. Whatever route we use will be cut off to us the next time, and this is already our fifth...

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Verlag
Skybound Books
Erscheinungsdatum
2022
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
1982127058
ISBN 13 
9781982127053
Einband
Gebundene Ausgabe
Anzahl der Seiten
624
Kontakt zum Hersteller
Nicht verfügbar
Verantwortliche Person
Simon and Schuster Netherlands BV
info@simonandschuster.nl

Herculesplein 96
Utrecht
3584 AA
Niederlande