From an award-winning author comes an action-packed tale of survival—past, present, and future. || 2025 BookFest Award-Winner || 2026 Independent Press Awards Winner When a monster hunter's last mission is to capture a wasteland girl, their only chance of survival is to turn the hunt around. Hunt the monsters of the wasteland. Bring them back alive. Retire. Ninety years after the devastating global "Fracture," the biosphere has collapsed. The few remaining cities, once bastions of human survival, have become fortresses of power ruled by ruthless corporations. Axel Mercer, a former soldier, explores the hostile plains to recover organisms for scientific research. But the corporations who run civilization want more. As his last mission, Mercer is sent to recover a specimen that could bring eternal life to the corporate elites. He learns this organism is not a monster, but a teen girl—a wasteland fighter hardened by a life of survival. Her spirit and fierce determination challenge everything Mercer has believed about his job, his future, and his questionable past. In a world where power is worth more than life itself, Mercer must decide which side of the fight he belongs on—and what kind of future is worth fighting for.An action-packed dystopian novel with a simple premise, crazy twists, cruel desires, a pinch of humor, and all the blood and violence of an edge-of-your-seat action movie. Content Warning: Violence to adults, children, animals; guns & warfare; elevators
