From the #1 bestselling author of The Watchmaker of Filigree Street, a queer sci-fi novel about a refugee from Earth and a xenophobic Mars politician who agree to a fake marriage after a media encounter damages both their reputations.
In the wake of environmental catastrophe, January, once a principal in London''s Royal Ballet, has become a refugee on Tharsis, the terraformed colony on Mars. In Tharsis, January''s life is dictated by his status as an Earthstronger-a person whose body is not adjusted to Mars''s lower gravity and so poses a danger to those born on, or naturalized to, Mars. January''s job choices, housing, and even transportation options are dictated by this second-class status, and now a xenophobic politician named Aubrey Gale is running on a platform that would make it all worse: Gale wants all Earthstrongers to be surgically naturalized, a process that is always disabling and can be deadly.
When Gale chooses January for an on-the-spot p
