Rafik, der Puzzler, war ein Kind, bevor er sich in die größte Bedrohung seiner Welt verwandelte. Er gab seine körperliche Existenz auf, doch der Tod bedeutet für Rafik nicht das Ende. Dies gilt auch für den letzten Überlebenden der Gilde der Historiker: Funkelauge konnte Rafik im Kampf nicht besiegen, doch nun erhält er eine zweite Chance: Er kehrt von den Toten zurück und reist in die zwielichtige Stadt der Türme, wo schweres Geschütz und eine große Portion Glück vonnöten sein werden, um zu überleben. Denn Funkelauge wird verfolgt von seiner Vergangenheit, einem tödlichen Geheimnis und einem Mörder aus einer vergangenen Zeit.
Die Stadt der Türme ist ein Ort voller Rätsel. Hier kämpfen Gilden, die über Magie gebieten, gegen Cyborg-Banditen, welche nach Artefakten einer untergegangenen Zivilisation suchen. Jene Schätze befinden sich im Inneren der Stadt der Türme, das von Monstern bevölkert, von Fallen gespickt und voll verschlossener Türen ist. Und genau hier kämpft ein Junge ums Überleben: Rafik ist der einzige Mensch, der die Rätsel der Stadt der Türme knacken kann. Denn er ist ein Puzzler, an dessen Fingern sich wie Schlüssel geheimnisvolle Tätowierungen befinden. Doch was Rafik im unheimlichen Herzen der Stadt der Türme findet, verändert den Jungen - und seine ganze Welt.
'EVOKES CLASSICS OF THE GENRE . . . THROWING IN ELEMENTS OF MAD MAX AND INDIANA JONES'
FINANCIAL TIMES
In a world transformed by technological disaster, the last survivor of the Guild of Historians and his wisecracking mercenary companion once again find themselves searching for a missing child with unfathomable abilities.
Battling through a brutal future and returning to the dangerous City of Towers, they will need brains, heavy weapons, and a whole lot of luck to survive.
But they are also haunted - and hunted - by shadows of the past. The story of a scientist who survived the end of the world holds deadly secrets. And a ruthless assassin from another era is on their trail.
Stunningly creative and breakneck-paced, book two of The Tarakan Chronicles is a science fiction adventure like no other.
A SAVAGE FUTURE. A VANISHED PAST. A MISSING KEY.
Among the ruins of a civilization beyond their understanding, humanity clings to survival. Guilds vie for control of ancient cities, bandits ride glowing highways, and cyborg adventurers hunt for lost technology.
In the City of Towers, once the heart of the fallen Tarakan empire, a historian searches for clues to explain the disappearance of Rafik, a young boy with extraordinary abilities - a Puzzler.
Marked with strange tattoos and gifted with a miraculous connection to Tarakan technology, Rafik could open doors inside the ruins, uncovering treasures and secrets.
As Rafik's story is retold, it becomes clear that one lost boy may be the key to reviving a broken world or unleashing a new wave of devastation.
A brilliantly written and ritiving post-dystopian debut from Eyal Kless, about a society hoping to salvage the technology of a lost generation, a mysterious missing boy who can open doors no one else can, and a scribe who must piece together the past to determine humanity’s future.
More than a hundred years have passed since the Catastrophe brought humanity to the brink of extinction. Those who survived are changed. The Wildeners have reverted to the old ways—but with new Gods—while others place their faith in the technology that once powered their lost civilization.
In the mysterious City of Towers, the center of the destroyed Tarakan empire, a lowly scribe of the Guild of Historians is charged with a dangerous assignment. He must venture into the wilds beyond the glass and steel towers to discover the fate of a child who mysteriously disappeared more than a decade before. Born of a rare breed of marked people, the child, Rafik—known as “The Key”—was one of a special few with the power to restore this lost civilization to glory once again.
In a world riven by fear and violence, where tattooed mutants, manic truckers, warring guilds and greedy mercenaries battle for survival, this one boy may have singlehandedly destroyed humanity’s only chance for salvation—unless the scribe can figure out what happened to him.
