Rakesfall is a groundbreaking, standalone science fiction epic about two souls bound together from here until the ends of time, from the author of The Saint of Bright Doors.
Tracing two souls through endless lifetimes, Rakesfall is a virtuosic exploration of what stories can be. As Annelid and Leveret reincarnate ever deeper into the future, they will chase the edge of human possibility, in a dark science fiction epic unlike anything you've read before.
Some stories take more than one lifetime to tell. There are wrongs that echo through the ages, friendships that outpace the claws of death, loves that leave their mark on civilization, and promises that nothing can break. This is one such story.
Annelid and Leveret met as children in the middle of the Sri Lankan civil war. They found each other in a torn-up nation, peering through propaganda to grasp a deeper truth. And in a demon-haunted wood, another act of violence linked them and propelled their souls on a journey throughout the ages. No world can hold them, no life can bind them, and they'll never leave each other behind.
Short-listed for Nebula Award for Novel 2025 (United States)
“A work of boundless creativity. Every mind-expanding chapter is another twist of the kaleidoscope. This is a fearless, hallucinatory novel that takes colonial (and all) power structures on with art and style.” —Ray Nayler, Locus Award-winning author of The Mountain in the Sea
“Chandrasekera's characters' journey through fantastical worlds across millennia is reminiscent of This Is How You Lose the Time War . . . Recommended for fans of ambitious speculative fiction that tackles systems of oppression in fresh ways.” — Library Journal, starred review
“Luminous, wrenching, intense — Rakesfall left me breathless... If this is not considered a work of genius, we have lost the meaning of the word.” — Premee Mohamed, author of The Butcher of the Forest
“Rakesfall is a story that aims to give its reader the impossible sensation of falling through worlds and lives in a never-ending cycle of reincarnation tied to a cosmic war, and is every bit as epic, challenging, and discombobulating as that sounds. There's nothing quite like a Vajra Chandrasekera novel.” — Indrapramit Das, author of The Devourers
“Readers... will be rewarded by this rich and sweeping epic.” — Publishers Weekly
Vajra Chandrasekera is from Colombo, Sri Lanka. He has published over fifty short stories in magazines and anthologies including Analog, Black Static, and Clarkesworld, among others, and his short fiction has been nominated for the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award. He is also the author of The Saint of Bright Doors.
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