The Fifth Inflection: A Novel by Gautam Bhatia (Paperback) (PREORDER)

Fiction - Science Fiction - Crime & Mystery - Alternative History - Thrillers - Legal

RELEASE DATE: 2/16/2027  (WILL SHIP DIRECTLY FROM OUR SUPPLIER'S WAREHOUSE) 

An Ignyte Award–winning speculative novel about a young woman tasked with defending the man convicted of the political assassination that sparked a bloody revolution.

A century ago, an impoverished young man named Jagat was found guilty of assassinating the director of the great city of Peruma. His alleged crime sparked a bloody revolution, partitioning the city into High Town, a hi-tech metropolis for the wealthy run by the Council, and the Commune, an anarchist collective of workers. Jagat himself was sentenced to the highest form of punishment—a hundred years of cryostasis with the promise of revival should his innocence ever be proven, or else culminating in death if it is not. And as he slept through the decades, tensions between the Council and the Commune grew.

Just a week before Jagat is officially due to be executed, Nila, an ambitious law student, is asked to reopen his case. It’s the opportunity of a lifetime, one with the potential to not only save a man’s life but also influence the escalating conflict between the Council and the Commune. With Jagat’s time running out, Nila must reach back into the past to understand what truly happened a hundred years ago. But as she investigates the case, she clashes with shadowy forces who would do anything to let the truth die with Jagat. As her peers compete for accolades and class rankings, Nila’s case could determine the very future of Peruma.

AUTHOR BIO: 

Gautam Bhatia is an award-winning speculative fiction writer, reviewer, and editor. He is the author of The Wall and The Horizon, an SFF duology that was longlisted for the Locus Awards. The Fifth Inflection was originally published in India as The Sentence, and was the winner of the Ignyte Award for best adult novel. Bhatia has edited the first two volumes of the IF Anthology of New Indian SFF. He is also the coordinating editor of Strange Horizons, a weekly online magazine of science fiction and fantasy. During his tenure as coordinating editor, Strange Horizons has won the British Fantasy Award, and the Hugo Award. In his spare time, he is a constitutional lawyer, practicing at the Supreme Court of India.