Usually, a coming-of-age ceremony would entail feasts, music, and merriment, but in The First Cycle, a gripping science fiction epic, the journey from child to youth is paved with dread and shame, should Anibel Azure fail The Test. A heavy burden, and one the future Head of the Vaine Body must bear. Though Anibel is not the first, as old and new conflicts arise and ancient secrets bubble up, she may be the last. But she trades one test for another. In a time of warmongers subjugating and hurling humanity into the unknown, Anibel is the only one who can stop it.