RELENTLESS POWER. HARDCORE ACTION. A CLASSIC, HARD-BOILED VIEW THROUGH A FUTURISTIC LENS.

In The City, government is God—in The Sector, anarchy rules.

The Membrane stands between those worlds. Some cross it to The Sector, seeking the forbidden. Some cross it to The City, seeking a chance to see the sky. Some try to stay. Most die trying.

In a world without paper, names are earned. Sector-born Carbon once risked everything for a chance to live in The City, a world with fresh paper and retinal enhancements that required a price beyond the ability of any Sector-born to earn alone. Captured, he entered prison.

Now, released to find a killer whose pattern threatens the government itself, Carbon’s real search is for the money stashed by his former gang.

But only one woman knows that location, and she isn’t willing to trade information unless she gets something in return—her abducted child. The child is somewhere in the Pure Zone, a wild place where sorcery works but firearms do not.

Trapped between hostile worlds, Carbon will enter the Pure Zone—hyper-focused and fatal to anyone blocking his path.

“This is a fantastic departure for Vachss. Lean as a prehistoric corpse and full of magic without an overabundance of gee-gaws and wizard hats. One of his most original and among his best. And that’s saying something.” — Joe R. Lansdale, Edgar award-winning author of the Hap & Leonard Series

“Carbon is a stupendous piece of work, a genre-busting masterpiece that is a whole new direction in fiction. As astonishing as it is compulsively readable and as always with Andrew Vachss, the compassion and empathy for the vulnerable and victimized is heart-wrenching. May be the finest work yet from the master of the art.” — Ken Bruen, award winning author of the Jack Taylor Series.

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