Aestus, Book 1: The City
- Reads 161
- Votes 5
- Parts 34
Ongoing3h 33m
Last published Wed, Sep 16, 2020
An underground city, built centuries ago to ride out the devastating heat. A society under attack. And a young solar engineer whose skills may be the key to saving her city...if she doesn't get herself killed first.
When Jossey was ten, the creatures of the aboveground took her brother and left her for dead, with horrible scars. Now, years later, she's a successful solar engineer, working to keep her underground city's power running, but she's never really recovered. After she saves dozens of people during a second attack, she is offered a top-secret assignment as a field Engineer with Patrol, but fear prevents her from taking it...until Patrol finds bones near where her brother disappeared.
She signs on and finds herself catapulted into a world that is far more dangerous, and requires far more of her, than she ever imagined. The creatures and the burning heat aboveground are not the only threats facing the City, and what she learns during her assignment could cost her her life: one of the greatest threats to the City may in fact lie within. With thousands of lives at stake, can she act in time?
Aestus is an adult dystopian science-fiction series set centuries after climate change has ravaged much of Earth. An epic story of vengeance, power, shifting loyalties, and survival that looks at just how far people will go to protect what they love, brought to you by science writer S.Z. Attwell, Aestus paints a picture of a world in which far too little has changed.
Reviews for Aestus:
"One of the best books I've ever read." - The Very Bookish
"...at the level of...Dune." - IHeartScifi
All Rights Reserved
#556
military
Join the largest storytelling communityGet personalized story recommendations, save your favourites to your library, and comment and vote to grow your community.
You may also like
CANAISIS ∞ Chronicle One: The Last Living Ship ∞ 1: A New Mission
Volume 1 of CANAISIS ∞ The Last Living Ship trilogy (Chronicles of Canaisis 1) Can a ship, born to sail the ocean of stars to ensure Humankind's survival, save her Captain from the void within his own heart? ∞ ∞ ∞ Canaisis is the last of her kind, a Living Ship forged with Mankind's most advanced technology and artificial intelligence. Together with her Captain, she sails the cold, dark void between stars at multiple times the speed of light-to ensure Humanity's survival. As Canaisis agrees to carry a corporation's entire personelle to their new colony planet, Captain Gareth Levant finds his solitude interrupted by a new culture and a woman whose Gift threatens to unlock the pain caged within his heart. A pain he's carried since before the day he first launched... centuries ago. As if that is not enough, something about Earth's Citizens sanctioning the corporation's relocation rings falsely with undertones that has Captain Levant on edge. He will do anything to keep his ship and passengers safe. Captain Levant loves his ship, as any good captain does since the beginning of time-whether with wind, sail and ocean waves as in the days of old, or in the vast depths of space. But if Canaisis were able to return that love, could it burn bright enough to light the way through the void within the Captain's own heart? Or does it require the Gift of human touch? ∞ ∞ ∞ By @kemorgan65 and @RavenRock2112 ∞ ∞ ∞ A prequel to the pre-story of #ShadowOfThePastTrilogy ∞ The Displaced. ∞ ∞ ∞ SEQUELS: Canaisis ∞ A Captain's Journey Canaisis ∞ A Shard Of Code ∞ ∞ ∞ REVIEW by @Ray_Of_Sunshine9 "...loved the overall themes within the story, and what it meant for me as a person - a mission of delivering hope and finding a new home. ... Engineering, technology...some very detailed information, ...it's done in a way that makes it easy for me to digest...accessible and patient, which I appreciate."Complete
Her Star Mates
When Remsie's boyfriend asked her to go on a tour of the NASA Space Center, she assumed the most interesting thing she would see would be a rocket. But she couldn't have been more wrong... After falling through a top secret portal to another world, Remsie wakes nauseous and disoriented in a world she wasn't built to survive. When she's discovered by a tall alien warrior and brought back to his den mates she's determined to keep them at arms length. But that's hard to do when they believe she's a deity come save their species from extinction. Caught in the complicated pack games of this foreign world, it is not only reality as she knows it at risk of being lost forever, but her life and maybe her heart... ___ #1 in alien on 09/03/25 #1 in science fiction on 10/22/25 #1 in scifi fantasy on 10/22/25 #1 in romantasy on 11/14/25 #1 in paranormal romance on 12/22/25 #1 in why choose on 3/26/25
The Opelux and Other Monsters || Book One
Her memory was taken. Her skills were not. Her very presence is a threat to everything he has ever cared for. They might make a powerful team... if they don't kill each other first. Once upon a time... In a land where the most powerful can be killed by water, the elite are protected by shape-shifting dragons, and the world is divided into two continents of chaos and false order, a strange girl wakes with broken ribs, three bullet holes in her chest, and a wiped memory, on the front lawn of a manor belonging to an Emperor whose reign is nearing its end. With no knowledge of who she is, the girl is determined to find answers. But everyone is either tightlipped or seemingly afraid of her very existence. When an unknown traitor attempts to assassinate the Emperor right under everyone's noses, the girl finds herself thrown into a world of monsters, magic, peril, and responsibility. But one mistake with the Emperor's formidable Guardian could destroy everything. [Completed] Highest Ranking: #1 in teenfiction #2 in science-fantasyComplete
Callidus Rising | Complete ✔️ | Book 1
[COMPLETED] •Being revised... AGAIN (Progress: Intro-Chap. 3)• "We're going back... Understand? There are more threats out here than we anticipated, and they're all after you-" Lukas' voice erupted into static and chunks... I glared at the man in all black as the light continued to beam and blind me. Without my glasses it was actually painful. And then there was silence. My bare feet hit the metal floor of wherever we had jumped to, and I put my hand up to shield my eyes from the vicious attack of bright light. Not again." Alexi Callidus is living in a post-apocalyptic world... In the 25th Century. The year is 2470. She's been surviving on her own for 4 years and 8 months inside the same building with her only companion without seeing the sun. 5 years after the brutal unexplained murder of her family. 7 years after the genetic disaster of "GASP". 7 years and 4 months after the War of Nations. Everything seems to be barren and empty... But if her super old sci-fi movies didn't teach her that looks deceive, nothing will. Technology, before "GASP" (Genetically Altered Soldiers Program) and the War of Nations, was insane. You could be teleported in the blink of an eye, or healed from a once fatal injury in days. With the majority of the population infected with a viral genetic plague, almost any of the survivors could access this technology... Including Alexi. When a simple quest for survival turns into a journey of a lifetime, will Alexi be able to survive the weight of the gruesome truth when she finally uncovers it? Will our heroine be able to fade into the background and live a quiet life of cunning? Or burst into flames in a sudden blaze of tragedy? -Callidus Rising- •This book's sequel is in progress (Curing Revolution) Highest Ranks: •#1 "secretsocieties" •#1 "armageddon" •#2 "famine" •#2 "plague" •#3 "explorer" •#4 "genetic-engineering" •#5 "artificial intelligence" ComComplete
Ellemoore Academia 𝙸
Rise of the Warrior Angels. Ellerysium was once protected by ten ancient crystals, until betrayal shattered everything. When Seraphina stole four and built her own kingdom, war divided the world. Now, Ellemoore Academia prepares its next defenders. Seven students are chosen to become Warrior Angels. What begins as training soon turns into something far more dangerous. Because in a world built on magic, betrayal, and destiny, some will rise... and others will fall.
Glass Heart
After the Earth's magnetic field collapsed, the planet was bombarded with unfiltered solar radiation. The skies burned. Cities turned to dust. Survivors now live in massive airborne citadels, floating high above the toxic surface in a fragile balance of climate, class, and control. Each citizen's survival depends on a Glass Heart - a biomechanical implant powered by solar energy, calibrated to their social rank. The elite bask in artificial sunlight and live for centuries. The lower castes, confined to the shadowed underlayers, burn out fast - their hearts dimming with every passing year. Aella, born in the shadow-tier, works as a solar mechanic, servicing the light panels that keep the city afloat. One wrong move, and she risks exposure to raw light - a death sentence. She lives quietly, surviving by routine... until one night, she's ordered to repair a core in the upper citadel. There, she meets Cassian, a solar prince with a perfect Glass Heart - blindingly bright, surgically beautiful, and destined to rule the sky. Their connection is immediate. Impossible. Reckless. Every moment Aella spends near him overcharges her failing heart, threatening to burn her alive. Every second Cassian defies his caste by being with her dims his - an irreversible sign of corruption. But as their stolen encounters grow deeper, they uncover a secret buried in the light system: the citadel is failing. The elite's immortality depends on draining the hearts of the poor. Every bright Glass Heart comes at the cost of hundreds of dimmed ones. Including Aella's. They can run - and die faster. Or they can ignite a revolution powered by love, truth, and the one thing the elite can't manufacture: sacrifice. Because love isn't forbidden. It's just fatal.
The Shadow of the Moon-Lydia's Tale
From Readers- ''Amazing story, it was truly captivating, enthralling and a wonderful read.'' "Awesome read." "..a really wonderful and ultimately uplifting story." "Well rounded and complex characters, I felt I know them as people." "Just feels epic reading it." "This is an exceptionally good Sci-Fi tale......" During excavations in a deserted temple on the planet moon of Ax an archaeological team unleash a slumbering entity with terrible consequences for its leader. Now awoken, the Nergalrhod, an age old being, forms a strange affinity with the youngest member of the team, shy, studious, Lydia Powell. The last human star fleet, badly mauled in its encounter with a mysterious life form known as The Swarm falls back on Ax and resolves to make its final stand against The Swarms relentless advance across the Universe. When the Nergalrhod tells Lydia of the Aephren, an ancient artefact that can raise the Hammer of the Gods, a weapon powerful enough to crush The Swarm, Lydia joins forces with Faulke, an Empathe and sets out to retrieve the Aephren on a voyage of danger and self awakening. Want to read a really uplifting story of a young girl's coming of age? This is it ! :0) ***Thanks to BobJan70 for another great cover and the rest of the designs.***Complete
Lunar Virus ✔️
Elodie's life changes at the turn of a doorknob when she is forced into joining a secret organization that claims to be protecting the Earth from aliens. But with every step she takes, she finds the organization, or the facility, as they call it, becoming more and more suspicious. When a mysterious death occurs, revealing a well-concealed secret, things quickly go downhill as humanity's future is placed on the shoulders of a single gaggle of teenagers. *** I hear a sigh from the other side of the door, "Miss. Chaucer, you have a wonderful opportunity here, are you going to take it or not?" Now, I am seriously confused, "Opportunity?" She takes advantage of my befuddled state and shoves the door open. Shit. The corners of her mouth pull up, and it's so unnatural, it takes me a moment to realize she's smiling. Major plastic surgery? Probably. Click. Did she just lock the door? She locked the door! I spring towards the house phone, dusty from years of doing absolutely nothing, so I can call the police. I don't make it. Halfway there, I trip on my own pant-leg and face plant on the floor. The woman steps over me and retrieves the phone. She looks at it as if it's a foreign object, "This won't be necessary. All I want to do is talk to you." For some reason, instead of screaming, I stay silent. She smiles and pulls out a chair from the kitchen table for me to sit on. When I don't sit, she says, "If you want to know what's going on, then sit." I think about it for a moment. She hasn't hurt me yet, and I have to admit, I am quite curious as to what's going on. So, call me stupid, but I sit down. "I am from a space organization that protects civilians from . . . outside threats." *** Beautiful cover made by @mahana258! HR: 203 in science fiction (5/8/18) Completed on August 15th, 2018 (Indian independence day!) *******This is not a zombie novelComplete
Volume 1 of CANAISIS ∞ The Last Living Ship trilogy (Chronicles of Canaisis 1) Can a ship, born to sail the ocean of stars to ensure Humankind's survival, save her Captain from the void within his own heart? ∞ ∞ ∞ Canaisis is the last of her kind, a Living Ship forged with Mankind's most advanced technology and artificial intelligence. Together with her Captain, she sails the cold, dark void between stars at multiple times the speed of light-to ensure Humanity's survival. As Canaisis agrees to carry a corporation's entire personelle to their new colony planet, Captain Gareth Levant finds his solitude interrupted by a new culture and a woman whose Gift threatens to unlock the pain caged within his heart. A pain he's carried since before the day he first launched... centuries ago. As if that is not enough, something about Earth's Citizens sanctioning the corporation's relocation rings falsely with undertones that has Captain Levant on edge. He will do anything to keep his ship and passengers safe. Captain Levant loves his ship, as any good captain does since the beginning of time-whether with wind, sail and ocean waves as in the days of old, or in the vast depths of space. But if Canaisis were able to return that love, could it burn bright enough to light the way through the void within the Captain's own heart? Or does it require the Gift of human touch? ∞ ∞ ∞ By @kemorgan65 and @RavenRock2112 ∞ ∞ ∞ A prequel to the pre-story of #ShadowOfThePastTrilogy ∞ The Displaced. ∞ ∞ ∞ SEQUELS: Canaisis ∞ A Captain's Journey Canaisis ∞ A Shard Of Code ∞ ∞ ∞ REVIEW by @Ray_Of_Sunshine9 "...loved the overall themes within the story, and what it meant for me as a person - a mission of delivering hope and finding a new home. ... Engineering, technology...some very detailed information, ...it's done in a way that makes it easy for me to digest...accessible and patient, which I appreciate."
More detailsContent Guidelines