In this "excellent fantasy debut, with engaging world-building and a good mix between action and character" (Brandon Sanderson, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Stormlight Archive series), a story of secrets, rebellion, and murder are shattering the Hollows, where magic costs memory to use, and only the son of the kingdom’s despised traitor holds the truth.
Michael is branded a traitor as a child because of the murder of the king’s nine-year-old son, by his father David Kingman. Ten years later on Michael lives a hardscrabble life, with his sister Gwen, performing crimes with his friends against minor royals in a weak attempt at striking back at the world that rejects him and his family.
In a world where memory is the coin that pays for magic, Michael knows something is there in the hot white emptiness of his mind. So when the opportunity arrives to get folded back into court, via the most politically dangerous member of the kingdom’s royal council, Michael takes it, desperate to find a way back to his past. He discovers a royal family that is spiraling into a self-serving dictatorship as gun-wielding rebels clash magically trained militia.
What the truth holds is a set of shocking revelations that will completely change the Hollows, if Michael and his friends and family can survive long enough to see it. In a "symphony of loyalty, greed, family, and betrayal" (Tamora Pierce, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Tempests and Slaughter) this spellbinding novel "creates a solid foundation for (hopefully) a much longer narrative to come" (Kirkus Reviews).