An immense sea wall in the rain, a sluice gate marked 6 at its centre, a flooded district of stilted shacks at its foot and a small figure on an iron stair
Science fiction noir · The Shear, Book One

Gate Six

Every city has a gate it doesn't talk about.

Read a Rook story, freeAbout the book

Two chapters of Low Water. A case in Calder, before Gate Six. Book Two, High Water, is written and in editing.

Gate Six, The Shear Book One, by Ellis Halden
The book

A drowning city. A detective who counts. One gate nobody talks about.

Calder is drowning, and the franchise that owns it says the wall will hold. When a famous physicist vanishes, her daughter hires Tomas Rook, an ex-CivicGuard detective who counts everything. Then the file is closed from above, a navigator in the shape of a pebble wakes up, and Rook starts counting gates.

Gate Six is the first book of The Shear, a science fiction noir and multiverse thriller by Ellis Halden. A complete story, with a series hook.

Series
The Shear, Book One of a planned trilogy
Genre
Science fiction noir
Formats
Kindle and paperback
Status
Forthcoming
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The world

Welcome to Calder

A city of nine million that should have drowned a century ago. A sea wall keeps it dry. How high you live says everything about you.

A lone figure in a dark coat on a rain-soaked concrete terrace between two towers, with the sea wall and a flooded city far below.
High ground

The Lift

Towers, Morrow-Kade, money. Dry shoes.

A tram with lit windows passes under a concrete viaduct between grey office blocks in heavy rain, a fortress-like gate at the end of the street.
The middle

The Shelf

Offices, trams and CivicGuard.

A flooded street of timber shacks, iron stairs and washing lines, with a noodle bar glowing in the rain and the sea wall rising behind.
Sea level

The Sump

Flooded streets, walkways, noodle bars, iron stairs. Rain that never stops.

Explore Calder: the wall, the gates and the Shear
“I would describe that plan as theoretically survivable.”
Fair Weather Friend · navigator · Meet the pebble
The Shear

Reading order

  1. Gate SixBook One. Start here.
    Forthcoming
  2. High WaterBook Two. In editing.
    1. Drafting: done
    2. Now: Editing
    3. Cover
    4. Pre-order
    5. Out

The sea always collects.

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