J.F. Grimsby

In the Ashen Orbit, there is no sun—only the Great Aurora, a river of luminous air that drifts between fractured asteroid-cities. To lose the aurora is to freeze in minutes. When the light-tide begins to contract, the great powers deploy their square-rigged galleons, unleashing chromatic cannonades that turn the darkness into slaughter. Flag-Lieutenant Baltasar Orellana wants only to guide his weary fleet home, but Signal-Officer Elvira Cestari discovers that every artillery duel in the slipstream bleeds away the very atmosphere keeping the ring-cities alive. As fleets collide in brilliant flashes of shot and sail, four leaders must choose between crushing their enemies or watching their worlds drift into eternal cold.