On the moon Novena, when the seasons turn deadly, you move, or you die. As the frigid cold creeps in, the country of Ionia prepares to move it’s people to safety only to discover that traitors have stolen their land. Can they win it back before their homes turn to ice? This Sci Fi Fantasy epic follows multiple POV characters. Among them are Stem Shifters : people who can alter Space, Time, Energy, and Matter with their minds. Some, like Sophie Song , are peacekeepers, while others have joined the turncoats setting up a high-stakes civil war. Isaak Kaldera . A Stem Shifter with the ability to peek into the future sees Isaak ending the war. Will Isaak prove to be a hero or has the act of witnessing his future changed its course? Dante Zotto . His father is a corrupt oligarch. Will Dante get sucked into his nefarious world or will he remain true to his Stem Shifter daughter? Renette Imari . A government worker struggling to distribute too few resources to too many people while her own family falls to the charms of a cult leader. Kyra Anderton . An off-world miner who is attacked by Shadow Demons. She cuts off her own leg to prevent infection. Did it work? As Kyra heads back to Novena we have to wonder, is she is bringing a deadly plague with her? Falling Into Shadow is a story of power, betrayal, and revenge, where allegiances shift, and no one knows who is good and who is evil. Fans of Dune, Red Rising, and The Expanse will be swept into this unforgettable debut saga. If you crave epic science fantasy with political intrigue and heart, Falling into Shadow from two-time Emmy Award winning writer Mike Palleschi is waiting for you. Start your journey now! "A richly imagined fantasy adventure full of slashing action and nervy psychological tension." Kirkus Reviews. ★★★★★ Falling into Shadow follows multiple characters: Kyra, Sophie, Dante, and Renette. Each is grappling with survival, power, and the shifting balance of their world. Kyra's desperate flight from Shadow Demons sets a brutal tone. Sophie, an Ionian Knight, carries the burden of protecting others while wrestling with betrayal and political intrigue. Dante is caught between family expectations and his own fractured past. Renette navigates the clash between ambition and the pull of her roots. The threads weave together into a sweeping tale of survival, politics, and looming war in a fragile world that feels as real as it is dangerous. What I loved most was the immediacy of the writing. It feels cinematic, almost like watching a series unfold on screen. The pacing is relentless in places, then slows down just enough to let you breathe, and that kept me hooked. The action scenes hit hard. They're vivid, raw, and sometimes gruesome in a way that made me flinch. Yet, they're balanced with quieter moments that reveal doubts, guilt, and flashes of humanity. I found myself rooting for characters even when they made questionable choices. Kyra's guilt and Sophie's frustration, Dante's longing for approval, Renette's heartbreak; they all felt painfully real. Falling into Shadow is a ride worth taking. It's brutal, imaginative, and packed with heart. I'd recommend it to readers who love fast-paced sci-fi with strong characters and aren't afraid of a little blood and grit. Reading Falling into Shadow felt like a mix of the gritty survival of The Expanse and the mythic, character-driven drama of Dune , only with a rawer edge and a faster pulse. If you like stories that mix political intrigue with personal stakes, this one will pull you in and not let go. - Literary Titan A motley array of competing interstellar groups battle over a futuristic world facing extreme climate change in this sci-fi novel from Palleschi. This epic tale unfolds some 27,000 years in the future on the planet-sized moon Novena, where citizens of the Ionian Republic are migrating south to escape the looming 26-year-long winter. Unfortunately, their refuge zone in the Tawny Desert, which is beginning its lush, rainy 26-year-long spring, has been conquered by Antoine Calicchio, a trafficker in the highly addictive narcotic called Stygian. To keep the Ionians out, he imports two million Osharian religious zealots to settle and defend the region—led by the physically disabled Killian Scuro, who is also a persuasive speaker. Trying to reconquer the desert are the Ionian Knights, whose members have awesome powers channeled through crystalline geodes. Knights Sophie Song and Alex Lucien are in the thick of the action, but are then assigned to train one Isaak Kaldera, a teenage street hustler with precocious skills in geode manipulation and prophesied to play a decisive role in the conflict. They square off against Calicchio's army of geode-wielding Camo Warriors—so named for their chameleonic armor—and Scuro's lieutenant Dark Spectre, a man-shaped cloud who wields a flaming sword and whip. While the rival armies edge toward a climactic showdown, the narrative also follows