The first novel in The Age of Madness trilogy, set a generation after the First Law and the standalones, in a world undergoing industrialisation. The mills and factories are changing everything - who has power, who does the work, and what the dispossessed are willing to do about it. New characters carry the story: Savine dan Glokta, an investor and social climber who is her father's daughter in ways she doesn't fully recognise; Leo dan Brock, a war hero who wants to be more than the Union allows; and Rikke, a young woman from the North with the Long Eye - the ability to see the future, unreliably and at cost. Several characters from the original trilogy and standalones return, older and not noticeably wiser.