aqadams writer

Outskirts of Oblivion by A. Q. Adams

Under the iron grip of The Keep, the world is fractured, each piece ruled by a tyrant. In Xeon Eleven, peasants huddle near the throne for their daily bread—but every morsel comes with a price. Rebellion is nearly impossible, yet a few gifted dreamers dare to challenge the regime. Phaidon Tteldran is one of them. Forced to flee the city with his friends, he trades the suffocating streets for the run-down outskirts, where freedom is a dangerous gamble. Kale Vess, overlord of this realm, could use his precogs to detect crime before it happens—but he prefers a crueler game, purging the guilty and innocent alike at random. Colonel Grant “Brimstone” Brim is a prisoner in a remote facility, moved from the battlefield to a deadly game of wits. Freedom is the ultimate gambit—but Dr. Volkov and her subordinates are already reaching for checkmate. As Phaidon and his companions fall under Vess’s predatory gaze, the horizon looms with a climactic showdown. Do they have what it takes to stay uncaged? This story is only the spark. Beyond it stretches a universe of monstrous intricacy—humming, coiled, and waiting to explode.