Where the Axe Is Buried

By: Ray Nayler

Published by Picador USA, 2026-04-07

All systems fail. All societies crumble. All worlds end. Following the success of his debut novel, The Mountain in the Sea, Ray Nayler launches readers into a thrilling near-future world of geopolitical espionage where an authoritarian Federation ruled by a near-immortal President is beginning to crumble, paralleled by the collapse of AI-governed Western societies. In the authoritarian Federation, there is a plot to assassinate and replace the President, a man who has downloaded his mind to a succession of new bodies to maintain his grip on power. Lilia, a brilliant scientist on the run from the authorities, may have invented a way to bring down the President and escape a near-impenetrable web of Federation surveillance. Her fate is bound up with a worldwide group of others fighting against the global status quo. All systems fail. All worlds end. But what will rise to take their place? A cybernetic novel of political intrigue, Where the Axe Is Buried combines the story of a near-impossible revolutionary operation with a blistering indictment of the many forms of authoritarianism that suffocate human freedom.