A sprawling epic about civil war in an oppressive monarchy over a small, distant colony. The rebel forces have defected because the monarchy wants to kill the entire native population. The story focuses on a rebel general, her second in command and lover, and a married couple who are helping with the war effort.
Years after the war is won, the general, her lover, and the couple are the only survivors and are living on the beach with a child soldier from the monarchy. The general decides to marry a native and have a child with him, breaking her lover’s heart. The general dies in childbirth, leaving the father and what’s left of her army to raise her son.
Fourteen years later, the son is pressured to take up the general’s mantle as the monarchy returns, attempting to retake the colony. The son’s allies grow as he gains the trust of a traumatized prisoner of war, a lovable former monarchy scientist, a rebel soldier in the first war who was presumed dead, and multiple other prisoners of war who have been cruelly experimented on.
