
The Fifth Inflection
Winner of the 2025 Ignyte Award for Outstanding Novel!
Gautam Bhatia(Author)
Solaris (Publisher)
Will be published approx. on 28. January 2027
Book
Paperback/Softback
288 pages
978-1-83786-895-7 (ISBN)
Description
What if you've been frozen in stasis for a hundred years for a crime you may or may not have committed?
An impoverished young man, Jagat, is found guilty of murder. For his crime, he is sentenced to the highest form of punishment-the sleep of death for a century, with the promise of revival should his innocence ever be proven.
But his act sparks a bloody conflict in the great city of Peruma, with the Commune, an anarchist collective of workers, revolting against the Council, which has ruled Peruma for four hundred years. Drained by a war without end, Council and Commune negotiate a hundred-year treaty that is to be enforced by an impartial body: the guardians of the Confederation.
And now, a century later, the Charter is a week away from lapsing. Tensions run high in Peruma. As an uncertain future looms, Nila, a young guardian, is approached by a mysterious woman who insists that Jagat's case be reopened before it's too late. Drawn by the prospect of undoing a possible historical injustice at a fraught time, Nila agrees. But as she begins to unearth the past, forces, known and unknown, thwart her at every turn.
An impoverished young man, Jagat, is found guilty of murder. For his crime, he is sentenced to the highest form of punishment-the sleep of death for a century, with the promise of revival should his innocence ever be proven.
But his act sparks a bloody conflict in the great city of Peruma, with the Commune, an anarchist collective of workers, revolting against the Council, which has ruled Peruma for four hundred years. Drained by a war without end, Council and Commune negotiate a hundred-year treaty that is to be enforced by an impartial body: the guardians of the Confederation.
And now, a century later, the Charter is a week away from lapsing. Tensions run high in Peruma. As an uncertain future looms, Nila, a young guardian, is approached by a mysterious woman who insists that Jagat's case be reopened before it's too late. Drawn by the prospect of undoing a possible historical injustice at a fraught time, Nila agrees. But as she begins to unearth the past, forces, known and unknown, thwart her at every turn.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Nottingham
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Rebellion Publishing Ltd.
Product notice
Paperback (trade)
Paperback (UK-B)
Dimensions
Height: 198 mm
Width: 128 mm
ISBN-13
978-1-83786-895-7 (9781837868957)
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Schweitzer Classification
Person
Gautam Bhatia is an award-winning speculative fiction writer, reviewer, and editor. He is the author of The Wall and The Horizon, an SFF duology that was longlisted for the Locus Awards. The Fifth Inflection was originally published in India as The Sentence, and was the winner of the 2025 Ignyte Award for best adult novel. Bhatia has edited the first two volumes of the IF Anthology of New Indian SFF. He is also the co-ordinating editor of Strange Horizons, a weekly online magazine of science fiction and fantasy. During his tenure as co-ordinating editor, Strange Horizons has won the British Fantasy Award, and the Hugo Award. In his spare time, he is a constitutional lawyer, practicing at the Supreme Court of India.