Summary

Book 1 begins with a prologue describing the eruption of volcanoes in India's Deccan Traps that preceded the asteroid believed to have killed the dinosaurs. These are compared to the cataclysmic event that occurred just before the novel begins, an event that “was anything but random” (4).

In Chapter 1, the narrator Christine Pizan begins. It is the year 2049 and Christine's 49th birthday. She lives on a space station called CIEL, which is ruled by an oppressive dictator named Jean de Men. On her 50th birthday, she will face “ascension” - a euphemism for death – as resources on CIEL are limited and must not be wasted on the old (7). The people of CIEL graft stories onto their skin like tattoos as a form of entertainment and self-expression. Christine is a storyteller and graft artist. Jean de Men is also a storyteller, and his stories describe...