The Dragon Commons: The Consumed Worlds

The year is 2048. In lands beyond a wall-enclosed city known as the Tiered Nations, a war is waging between dragons and Wyrms. Ardyce, a Tree Crown Drake and leader of her people, ventures out to investigate a gaping hole in the land. She is joined by her kin and friend, Sasithorn, who soon must fight for their lives when a Wyrm suddenly attacks. Within the Tiered Nations, a mantra exists: "Live beyond satiation," and consumerism is the only religion. Hadryn and his best friend Thaddius are soldiers, investigating an unusual death at the city's morgue: a limb-hewn corpse, which appears to have been mauled when animals are no longer of this world. Meat products, as well as all foods, are grown in laboratories and manufactured as "cubed food." Before Hadryn and Thaddius can further their examination of the body, two letters arrive for Hadryn. One is from a woman, Oshin Rysing, who is Hadryn's long-time epistolary paramour, living outside the Tiered Nations in a rebel colony which resists the gluttonous ways of the city. The second letter is from his father to notify Hadryn that he will be wedded to an unknown man, as is customary for young women of marital age. Hadryn attends his engagement banquet with the intention of confronting his father, but strange occurrences of people, who seem to be infected with a terrible disease leading to self-cannibalism arise, and a creature out of nightmares emerges.