From the publisher:

A burning woman stalks the streets. Ten stories tall, her naked body a whirlwind holocaust of fire.

Aiah watched the woman die, and now the scene is burned in her memory. It is all she can see as she sleepwalks through her dead-end job and her dead-end relationship. She spends her days metering out the powerful substance known as plasm–a myserious substance created by geomancy from the intrinsic power of the city's structures–and ticketing the outlaw plasm divers who burrow through abandoned cellars looking for untapped sources. But Aiah has learned that plasm is more than an energy source; it resonates within the human mind, giving power to heal, to fuel dreams and visions, and to kill. So when she finds an undiscovered, unlimited supply that could write her ticket out of boredom, she begins to draw a plan. A big plan.

What's the worst thing in a city that covers the world? To live forever with the object of desire, and not possess it.

In a daring move, Aiah arranges a meeting with the powerful Metropolitan known as Constantine, a handsome, mysterious rebel with big plans of his own. Together they can use the plasm to rally forces to overthrow not only the government but an entire culture that has been living in its shadow for centuries. They know the dangers of their maneuverings. they have no idea how dangerous it will be to fall in love.


Metropolitan marks an astonishing leap forward in Walter Jon Williams's already remarkable career. He offers up a world where hard-edged geomancy continually redraws the interface between dream and reality, technology and magic, just as quantum science continually revises our vision of the cosmos around us.


Jacket design copyright Richard Rossiter
Jacket illustration copyright Phil Heffernan
Author photograph copyright Larry Gutierrez