The Last Contract of Isako

Aquilo is a human colony at the far edge of settled space, where four million people live under domes after centuries of isolation from Earth. Beyond the domes lies the Vastness, a frozen waste that kills anyone exposed within minutes. The Company owns everything inside: air, water, work and rank. The badgeless live illegally on its margins.

Isthmus Isako, known as the Quickblade, has spent her life as an atier, a duellist the corporations hire to settle their disputes with blades. Now in her fifties, she loses her long-time client to an unexpected retirement. Her plan is to follow the custom of her trade: walk out into the cold with her head high and her family provided for.

A competitor offers her one more contract, and she cannot turn it down. It centres on Dragonfly Martim, the last apprentice she trained and the worst, who has climbed higher in the Company than anyone expected. The job turns into an investigation touching corporate espionage and duty-bound duels. Behind it sits a secret that could alter how humanity survives among the stars.

This is science fiction for adults, a standalone and Fonda Lee's first in the genre. It pairs corporate samurai with political weight, and the menace is cold and patient, in the manner of a Kurosawa film.