"Finally, something to make the hope-punks shut the fuck up.

"A near-perfect blend of implacable horror, gallows humor, and ecological apocalypse. It seems almost absurd that a novel about chaos magic and bureaucrat magicians (even if they are embedded in the sociopathic morass of Canadian politics) can somehow feel more viscerally relevant than all the earnest mainstream novels and Suzuki-Foundation bulletins you could stuff into a ballot box. Pay attention, people: all magic aside, we’re far closer to this future than any of our rulers will ever admit. 

"Rachel A. Rosen is some kind of twisted genius. I wish I had even half her moves." — Peter Watts, author of Blindsight

What does magic want?

A generation has passed since the Cascade transformed the world, smashing the old political order and infesting the wilderness with demons and shriekgrass. As with the climate crisis that caused it, emergent magic proved lucky for some, a disaster for many others, and a source of hope and dread for everyone else.

In Ottawa, a scandal-plagued government clings to power, kept afloat by the manipulations of its precognitive rainman, Ian Mallory. But when his predictions signal only catastrophe ahead, the magic-loathing photojournalist Tobias Fletcher, land rights activist Jonah Augustine, his ex-wife, climate scientist Blythe Augustine, and emoji-spell wielding intern Sujay Krishnamurthy must overcome ideology and bureaucracy to save a future from a present whose agenda spells only doom.