Peace is just a pause between wars. And the pause is over. In the Cradle, violence is treated as a disease. History is a cautionary tale. For Kaelen, a scholar of the ancient "Sick Years," war is something that happens in dusty books, not in the pristine, bioluminescent streets of his home. Until the sky falls. When the "Invaders"-a mechanized, merciless force known as the Iron Swarm-descend upon the valley, they don't bring demands. They bring extermination. They burn the libraries, pave the forests, and slaughter anyone who tries to reason with them. Stripped of his family, his mentor, and his philosophy, Kaelen is forced to flee into the frozen Iron Mountains. There, buried in the dark, he discovers the one thing his pacifist society tried to hide. To save the future, Kaelen must resurrect the violent ghosts of the past. He must trade his stylus for a rifle, and his morality for survival. But as he transforms from a scholar into a killer, Kaelen realizes that the greatest threat isn't the army marching on the capital. It's the darkness growing in his own blood. Because when the metal screams, the man breaks. And what rises from the ashes might be worse than the enemy. ___________________ Perfect for fans of Red Rising and The Expanse, When the Metal Screams is a brutal, fast-paced dive into the cost of war.