“One of the most imaginative and hilarious writers I've ever read.”—Matt Dinniman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Dungeon Crawler Carl

A small-time scrapper and his pet robot will fight their way out of the junk-heap in a tournament that will either make them richer than gods or rip them apart in the first book of Django Wexler’s lightning paced progression fantasy adventure for fans of Cradle and Dungeon Crawler Carl.

Taj lives in a junkheap, scavenging scrap to keep his family fed and dodging the monsters who live among the wreckage. His only edge is a smart-ass construct named Star he built himself.

Taj dreams of winning big with Star in the construct fighting circuits, but victory always seems just beyond his reach and the debt collectors are at the door.

His world changes forever when someone there makes him an offer that seems too good to be true: a chance to fight in the Ascent, the ultimate fighting tournament, for a prize beyond his wildest fantasies. But things that seem too good to be true usually are, and Taj finds his new benefactor comes with plenty of new enemies.

As he ventures beyond the only world he's ever known, he discovers it's not just his money on the line in the Ascent—it's his life. When you start at the very bottom, the only way out is up …

Django Wexler graduated from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh with degrees in creative writing and computer science,  and worked for the university in artificial intelligence research. Eventually he migrated to Microsoft in Seattle, where he now lives with two cats and a teetering mountain of books.  When not writing, he wrangles computers, paints tiny soldiers, and plays games of all sorts.