Kwame Bahati donated his body to science. Pieces of him were removed for this and that; his kidneys were used to test a new medicine, his torso for training surgeons, and various other organs were designated as transplants for those who refused synthetic body parts for religious reasons. But his brain was sent to somewhere else entirely. A short story set in the Universe of War, twenty four years before the events of Symphony of War: The Polema Campaign.
In 1861 the Confederate States of America fired on Fort Sumter beginning a civil war that tore the continent apart. In 1862 southern miners discovered a rare ore that burned ten times more efficiently than coal. It was called ‘mechanite’ for its role in an industrial revolution that changed the face of war. With both sides in possession of terrible steam-powered war machines, the conflict has descended into a stalemate that has lasted twenty-five years. And above and below the arid mountains of Arizona, a battle begins that could decide the fate of America itself.
An enthralling novel about the corruption of power and the power of corruption from the award-winning, bestselling author of The Innocents "POTENT...A VIBRANT HISTORICAL NARRATIVE"—The New Yorker "A FLAWLESSLY CRAFTED NARRATIVE" —Wall Street Journal "MASTERPIECE" —Publisher's Weekly (Starred Review) "CEASELESSLY ENTERTAINING" —Kirkus (Starred Review) "ONE OF OUR BEST WRITERS" —Booklist (Starred Review) In an isolated outport on Newfoundland's northern coastline, Abe Strapp is about to marry the daughter of a rival merchant to cement his hold on the shore when the Widow Caines arrives to throw the wedding and Abe's plans into chaos. That ruthless act of sabotage is the opening salvo in a battle between the man and woman who own Mockbeggar's largest mercantile firms, each fighting for the scarce resources of the north Atlantic fishery, each seeking a measure of revenge on the person they despise most in the world. As their unshakeable animosity spirals further each year into vendettas and violence, the community is increasingly divided and even the innocents in Mockbeggar find themselves forced to take sides, with devastating consequences. Through merciless seasons of uncertainty and want, through predatory storms and pandemics and marauding privateers, it is the human heart that reveals itself to be the most formidable and unpredictable adversary for each person drawn, inevitably and helplessly, into that endless feud. Compulsively readable and uncompromising, The Adversary is a masterful evocation of a lost time, and a shadowed mirror to our modern politics of grievance and retribution.
