In the Shadow of the Luminaries (States of Inversion, #1)

Memories remain foggy about events preceding the disaster. Gravity suddenly reversed, in a swath encircling the globe. Two-thirds of the world’s population fell victim to the cataclysm that followed, as flora, fauna, and loose debris were catapulted into the heavens.

Five hundred years later, the survivors of the inversion event have reclaimed much of what was lost, but the world is a very different place. Some live in the floating cities of the swath. Others remain earthbound on either side of the swath. The divergent factions blame each other, walking a fine line between cooperation and outright declarations of war. Through it all, questions remain about the origin of the swath and its mysterious purpose.

As a child, Valtteri Knox stumbled across the threshold between normal and reverse gravity. He was flung into the sky, and had the misfortune of being saved by the Aerish. Valtteri is an outsider, of no caste and no worth, but it was decided he should be raised by the navy and groomed as a tool to infiltrate the earthbound.

On his first mission as an adult, Valtteri is completely unprepared for what he encounters. He understood what it meant to be a pariah, but no one told him he was also Iridogen, one of those rare individuals with a genetic trait mentioned in fragments of pre-inversion history.

He’s determined to find answers, and expose a plot that could start a global war, but first he’ll need to find a way to survive in a world that doesn’t trust him.