Scions of the Last Hope: COMING JUNE 2026

Some stories survive by being told. Some survive by remaining hidden. This one refused to stay buried.

onceived over 16 years across war-torn Ukraine and first published in Spanish

in 2025 by Caligrama, Scions of the Last Hope arrives in English in 2026 carrying the texture of a culture in the process of surviving.

In a future where hope itself has been institutionalized, humanity’s escape from a dying Earth hinges on the promised refuge of exoplanet Gliese 581c, This future is tightly controlled by the Preceptorium and threatened by the rising League of Corporations. As the great evacuation begins, two scientists, Zara Espen and Gaag Zorb, uncover a forbidden prehistoric marker, Kruberlium, linked to a missing professor and a hidden mystery surrounding their new planetary home. Their discovery ignites a dangerous pursuit, unraveling secrets buried for millennia and exposing fractures in the system itself. What they learn will force them to ask whether anything outside the system is still possible, or whether they are the last keepers of something the world has already forgotten.

Van Shamrai’s debut is infused with the cinematic intensity and philosophical depth of a writer trained in cultural anthropology. A political science fiction with genuine stakes and a distinctive baroque voice.

“A meditation on power, memory, and the fragility of human destiny. A courageous, demanding, and honestly contemporary debut.“ – Publishers Weekly (en español)

“For readers of Yoon Ha Lee, the Strugatsky brothers, and Cixin Liu: A Ukrainian voice

in the Eastern European SF tradition—institutional horror and philosophical depth with cinematic intensity. Roadside Picnic meets Ninefox Gambit, told from the inside of the machine.”