About the Book
Mourning Fire is the second novel in the Akman’s Angels Trilogy, a character-driven science fiction series about identity, grief, survival, and the search for connection in a world shaped by war.
Kraji is free. But for those who survived the occupation, that doesn’t mean the fighting is over.
Liberation brings its own questions. What happens to a people who have spent generations defining themselves by war? What becomes of the soldiers who no longer have an enemy to fight? And how do you rebuild a life when the person you became to survive is no longer the person you want to be?
Remedy Ivanov has spent her life carrying the weight of her family’s legacy. Now, after helping free her country, she must confront what comes next.
Nith Oblem has spent his life fighting for others, enduring shame, isolation, and the impossible expectations placed upon genetically engineered super soldiers like him. Even with Kraji free, he finds himself drawn back to the battlefield—and farther away from the life he once hoped to build.
As Kraji struggles to recover from decades of war, Remedy and Nith must navigate a new kind of uncertainty: the possibility that surviving together may be harder than fighting side by side.
Because winning a war doesn’t mean you know how to live afterward.
Blurb
The war for Kraji’s freedom is over.
The war for its survival is only just beginning.
Remedy Ivanov never wanted to be a hero. She started a revolution to save one life. Now the nation she helped liberate wants her to be its General—a position her mother never believed she was fit to hold and one Remedy would rather outrun than embrace.
And with good reason. Beyond Kraji’s borders, the Eastern Offensive is preparing to return. This time with an army large enough to turn Kraji to ash.
Meanwhile, Nith Oblem, now a decorated officer, should be celebrating victory. Instead, he’s consumed by old wounds that never healed. As past traumas rise to the surface and his self-control begins to slip, he finds himself fighting a battle he was never trained to win.
Kraji’s future depends on the two people who saved it. But before Remedy can lead her nation and before Nith can defend it, they must confront ghosts that refuse to die.
MOURNING FIRE is the explosive second installment in the Akman’s Angels Trilogy, an emotionally immersive, character-driven science fiction epic about rebellion, identity, and the crushing power of expectation. Perfect for fans of dystopian and post-apocalyptic sci-fi, emotionally complex characters, and slow-burn relationships.
Genre and Themes
Genre: Adult Science Fiction
Setting: Far-future Earth in the war-scarred nation of Kraji, shortly after the end of a thirteen-year occupation, within a society shaped by generations of conflict, ancestral traditions, cultural survival, and the consequences of advanced biotechnology.
Style: Character-driven science fiction with emotionally immersive storytelling, grounded worldbuilding, layered political tension, and deeply personal stakes.
Tone: Emotionally intense, introspective, morally complex, and suspenseful, balancing grief and darkness with fragile hope, resilience, and moments of warmth and levity.
Core Themes
- Grief and survival
- Identity after trauma
- The burden of legacy
- Post-war recovery
- The psychological cost of liberation
- Found family and belonging
- Moral ambiguity
- The meaning of freedom
- Love after survival
- The tension between duty and desire
- Resilience in the aftermath of loss
- What it means to rebuild when the old world is gone
Why Readers Connect With Mourning Fire
Mourning Fire explores the part of war stories that often comes after the battle is over and the book has ended.
It asks what happens when people who have spent their entire lives surviving are suddenly expected to live.
Kraji is free, but freedom does not immediately make its people whole. The country must recover from years of occupation and generations of conflict, while its survivors confront the grief, guilt, trauma, and identity crises that war leaves behind.
For Remedy, the struggle is deeply personal. She has spent her life defined by her mother’s legacy, her people’s expectations, and the role she was born to play. Now she must determine who she is when the war that shaped her is finally over—and when something even more dire is lurking over the horizon.
For Nith, freedom brings a different kind of uncertainty. The Angel who once fought to protect the people he loved must now figure out how to live without sacrificing himself to the next battle—or to those that replay in his psyche.
Together, they face the uncomfortable truth that survival is not the same thing as healing.
Inside you’ll find:
- Character-driven science fiction
- Emotionally complex characters and relationships
- A complex female protagonist confronting grief, identity, and legacy
- Slow-burn relationships built on connection and trust
- A post-war society struggling to rebuild
- Themes of grief, survival, resilience, and belonging
- Found family and unexpected connections
- Moral ambiguity and difficult choices
- Philosophical questions about freedom, sacrifice, and humanity
- Deep worldbuilding grounded in culture, history, and consequence
- Science fiction with a science fantasy atmosphere
- Darkness balanced by humor, tenderness, and hard-won hope
Perfect For Readers Who Enjoy
- Character-driven science fiction with emotional depth
- Emotional science fiction that explores what happens after the battle is over
- Literary speculative fiction about grief, identity, and survival
- Complex female protagonists shaped by difficult choices
- Slow-burn relationships that are about more than romance
- Stories about found family and the search for belonging
- Post-war recovery and the psychological consequences of survival
- Morally complex characters who don’t have easy answers
- Philosophical sci-fi that asks difficult questions about humanity
- Dystopian fiction with layered cultures and political tension
- Emotionally devastating books that still leave room for hope
- Science fiction that reads like fantasy
- Stories that explore the messy space between heroism and humanity
Readers who enjoy emotionally immersive speculative fiction, complicated characters, richly developed cultures, and stories that linger in the aftermath of trauma may find themselves at home in Mourning Fire.
If you want beautiful writing and existential dread, Mourning Fire explores the questions that remain when the immediate danger has passed.
If you enjoy books that feel like therapy and emotional damage at the same time, this is a story about learning that surviving something doesn’t mean you’ve escaped it.
And if you love slow-burn relationships that aren’t simply about romance, Remedy and Nith’s story continues to explore the complicated, painful, and deeply human work of finding connection after a lifetime of isolation.
Fans drawn to the emotional depth of Emily St. John Mandel, the speculative social questions of Margaret Atwood, the momentum and tension of Blake Crouch, and the thoughtful science fiction of Adrian Tchaikovsky may enjoy the Akman’s Angels Trilogy.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Mourning Fire dystopian science fiction?
Mourning Fire is adult science fiction with a science fantasy atmosphere and strong dystopian elements. The story takes place in a society emerging from thirteen years of occupation and centuries of war, exploring the consequences of oppression, cultural survival, political control, and the difficult process of rebuilding after liberation.
Like Death Remedy, the novel does not follow every convention of traditional dystopian fiction. It is firmly adult science fiction, with a strong emphasis on character, emotional depth, relationships, and the philosophical questions raised by its world.
Do I need to read Death Remedy before Mourning Fire?
Yes. Mourning Fire is the second novel in the Akman’s Angels Trilogy and continues the characters, relationships, and larger story established in Death Remedy. Reading the books in order will provide the fullest emotional and narrative experience.
Does Mourning Fire include romance?
The story continues the slow-burn relationship between Remedy and Nith. Their relationship develops alongside larger themes of grief, identity, survival, belonging, and the challenges of building a life after war.
The romance is an important part of the story, but Mourning Fire is not a traditional romance novel. The relationship is intertwined with the characters’ emotional journeys and the larger questions facing their society.
Is Mourning Fire character-driven or plot-driven?
Mourning Fire is strongly character-driven, focusing on emotional growth, relationships, identity, and the difficult process of recovering from trauma. It also contains action, suspense, political tension, and significant external stakes as Kraji navigates the uncertain aftermath of war.
The novel’s central conflict is as much about what happens inside its characters as what happens around them.
Is Mourning Fire about the aftermath of war?
Yes. One of the novel’s central concerns is post-war recovery—not only the rebuilding of a country, but the emotional and psychological recovery of the people who survived it.
The story explores what happens when a society that has defined itself through war suddenly has to imagine a future without the same enemy, structure, or purpose.
Is Mourning Fire hopeful?
Yes—but its hope is hard-won.
Mourning Fire does not ignore grief, trauma, loss, or the lasting consequences of war. Instead, it explores the possibility that hope can exist alongside those things.
The novel is emotionally intense and sometimes dark, but at its heart is the idea that survival can become something more than endurance—and that connection, love, family, and resilience can give people reasons to keep moving forward.
About the Author
S.T. Seitz is a science fiction author, freelance writer, and editor who crafts stories about the future through the lens of what it means to be human.
With a background in biology and a lifelong fascination with living systems—human and otherwise—she creates near-future and speculative science fiction that blends big ideas with emotional depth. Her work explores themes of grief, power, and connection, grounding cosmic concepts in deeply personal stakes.
She fell in love with storytelling in the second grade and wrote her first novel in high school, confirming early on that she prefers imagined worlds to the real one—though she remains deeply invested in both. Her novels in progress have been shortlisted for the Launch Pad Prose Competition and the Andromeda Award.
She lives in the foothills of Colorado with her husband, their wildling daughter, and a small menagerie of animals. When she isn’t writing, she’s outside marveling at the planet, worrying about the planet, or observing its creatures with gentle scientific curiosity.
The Akman’s Angels Trilogy was born during one of the most isolating periods of S.T. Seitz’s life. In that dark space, she asked questions about the destructive power of isolation.
From that, the story grew to encompass the pain of an entire nation facing a world formed by destruction.
The series explores how traditions can both shelter and trap us, how grief shapes identity, and how the connection between two people can become a small, stubborn act of rebellion against despair.
Where to Buy
Mourning Fire is available on Amazon.
If you haven’t already, you’ll want to read Death Remedy, book one of the Akman’s Angels Trilogy, first. Learn more here.
And if you want to start at the very beginning, you can download Pre Mortem, the series prequel novella, for free by signing up for my newsletter.
