The first book in Helen Brain’s trilogy, The Fiery Spiral. Set in Cape Town, South Africa in 2055, this dystopian series for young adult readers draws from South Africa’s past and present and imagines a futuristic post-apocalyptic, post-technological world. 

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Book One: The Thousand Steps

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At age sixteen, Ebba Den Eeden is unexpectedly released from the underground bunker where she and 2,000 of South Africa’s last surviving teenagers have spent their lives. But when she comes to the surface, she discovers that the bunker’s leaders have been lying for years, and that Cape Town—supposedly inhabitable for sixteen years since a nuclear holocaust caused massive sea level rise and flooded the city—is alive and well.

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But that’s not all Ebba learns. Soon, she finds out she’s the heir to a massive fortune, not to mention an ancient prophecy from her celestial ancestor, the Earth goddess Theia, to save the remaining human race. In a new world she doesn’t understand and surrounded by strangers each intent on gaining something from her, Ebba is forced to navigate her newfound power and the schemes of the evil High Priest and his handsome son Hal, while trying to unite four supernatural amulets and prevent a second global apocalypse. And when her three best friends are condemned to execution in the bunker, Ebba must uncover the secrets of her family lineage and return to the one place she spent her whole life hoping to escape.

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A dystopian, climate fiction trilogy with a hint of the mythological, The Thousand Steps is the exhilarating first chapter of Helen Brain’s Fiery Spiral trilogy—and a testament to the power of a single human life to prevent the widespread destruction of the planet we call home.