The Book of Ruin

Winner of the 2020 IndieReader Discovery Award for Science Fiction Generations after solar storms sent the world spiraling into a Second Dark Age, descendants of American soldiers defend the last NATO stronghold in Germania. From the Asiatic Steppes comes the mysterious Vucari. NATO sends Senior Chief Loveboy Weir and a team of rangers to investigate. Traveling in anti-gravity vessels, they visit the beautiful city-state of New Reykjavik and mountains where Kazaks use giant eagles to hunt enemies. The rangers also journey to the City of Ghost that spews poison and to a floating monastery where monks protect the Book of Ruin. They also encounter Vladimir the Resurrected, the Vucari's warrior prince, who claims to want peace but decimates any population that resists him. Weir struggles to convince NATO not to trust Vladimir. While politicians and clerics make backroom deals to appease Vladimir, Weir prepares for a war he fears is coming... Praise for The Book of Ruin "War, greed, and political infighting still take center stage in W.G. Hladky's wonderfully detailed and well researched dystopian novel, The Book of Ruin, which imagines life after a solar storm sends Earth into a second Dark Age and-with only a half-remembered past-industry and civilization start afresh." - IndieReader