Stormherd

A slyly funny fantasy about a woman who leaves the subterranean sanatorium where she was raised, teams up with a mysterious man from the surface, and accidentally binds her life to a hurricane.

Vera Theodore is not reaping the benefits of the bright utopia her ancestors’ struggles promised. Three hundred years ago, they crossed over to a desolate continent, escaping a human-driven hurricane ravaging their home. Now, a lung disease keeps Vera locked in an subterranean sanatorium where the sick pay for treatment with their labor. 

When she meets Talim Sarada, a topsider inexplicably trapped underground, Vera insists on his help to reach the surface so that she can demand better working conditions. But her humble goal gets quickly derailed when she is accidentally bound to the first hurricane to make landfall on the continent. Vera is now the nightmare her ancestors once fled, and she finds herself with the power to destroy the world as she knows it. 

In spite of his murky origins, Talim convinces Vera to confront the ruling powers aboveground, dragging her hurricane with them. But Vera soon realizes that Talim isn’t who he says, and the history she’s been taught about her ancestors is covering up long-buried secrets. With the storm close on their heels, Vera will need to question everything she knows—and decide if utopia is really worth the cost.