The Star Whalers

THE STAR WHALERS

A Novel by Jason Hawthorn

The sky is falling. Let the hunt begin.

For three centuries, the world has been freezing in the dark. The Great Dimming broke the firmament, and now the stars don't just burn out-they fall.

To the people of the Floating Cities, a fallen star isn't a tragedy; it's payday.

Tycho is a "Spotter" on the Almagest, an industrial star-whaling ship patrolling the pitch-black waters of the Void Sea. It's a brutal life of grease, steam, and freezing salt spray, scanning the horizon for the tell-tale flash of a meteorite crashing into the ocean. When a star hits, the race is on to harvest the glowing "Astrum" core before the terrifying Void Eels rise from the deep to feed.

Tycho's talent is his eyes-he can spot a glimmer in the dark miles before the radar picks it up. But one night, he spots something impossible. A Blue Star that doesn't crash, but lands softly in the waves.

When the crew hauls the "hulk" aboard, Tycho discovers that this isn't a rock of molten energy. It's a girl. Her name is Lyra, and she burns with a light that hasn't been seen since the Old World.

To his Captain, she is fuel-enough refined Astrum to power their city for a decade and make the crew rich beyond their wildest dreams. To the Void Eels and the ghostly Corsairs of the Eclipse, she is a beacon of pure hunger.

But to Tycho, she is the answer.

Now, trapped on a ship designed to process celestial bodies into oil, Tycho must make a choice: follow orders and keep the lights on for his people, or risk eternal darkness to save the only beautiful thing left in the universe.

In a world fuelled by dead stars, one boy is about to ignite a revolution.