The Metal Wood
The Metal Wood is the first book in the The Metalwood Saga. Set roughly three hundred years after an apocalyptic event known as the Sundering, the novel introduces readers to the floating sky cities—specifically New San Francisco (Newfris)—and the harsh, magical, and stratified lives of the people who inhabit it. The story follows a young underkid named Megan (known by her undername, Phoenix) as she discovers the true nature of her magic, the dark secrets of the city's rulers, and the lies that have shaped her entire life.
Synopsis
The Whiproom Disaster
The story begins deep within the Under, the mechanical and sewage-filled labyrinth beneath the streets of New San Francisco. Megan, an assassin (killgirl) for a powerful gang called Her Majesty's Navy, is on a mission in a depraved topsider club known as the Den. Megan possesses a rare form of magic—she is a forcefinder, capable of creating protective energy bubbles by burning shards of metalwood (specifically metalash).
During the mission, Megan is overwhelmed by an intense fear of fire, stemming from repressed childhood trauma. Her forcefields spiral completely out of control, resulting in the catastrophic destruction of the Den's whiproom. During the chaos, she saves a topsider named Eric, who repays her by helping rescue her girlfriend and fellow killgirl, Beam.
Furious at the destruction, the Navy's leader, Queen, demotes Megan to the lowest squad in the gang: the trashboys. The destruction also causes the anonymous "Den Boss" to terminate his secret metalwood supply contract with Queen, leaving the gang facing eventual starvation.
The Truth of the Sky Cities
Desperate to escape the squalor of the Under and the brutality of the trashboys, Megan attempts to flee to the topside, hoping to blend in as a normal Citizen. However, she learns that without Proof of Citizenship, she cannot get a job or housing, and she is relentlessly hunted by the Department of Civil Service (DCS). In a panic, she uses her forcefields to destroy an entire city block, escaping the DCS agents.
She is rescued by the leader of the trashboys, Dust (Dillon), who reveals he is secretly running a covert squad called the gearheads. Dust has been stealing and modifying topside cars (undercars) to race and eventually overthrow the city's government. Recognizing the immense value of her rare forcefinder magic, Dust recruits Megan.
Dust reveals the shocking truth about their world: the "nanovirus" that supposedly wiped out humanity on Earth is a complete lie. The city's creators, The Planners, orchestrated the Sundering to reduce the population, keeping the city afloat using enslaved mages. To keep the Citizens docile, the Planners use "Monitors"—mindmaster mages who blanket the city in a purple magical mist to suppress questions and dissent.
Rebellion and Betrayal
Under the guise of the gearheads, Megan learns to drive an undercar, participating in a high-speed heist to steal metalwood from a secret Planner Forest. However, the gearheads' activities, coupled with the passage of Measure K (a law designed to criminalize topside homelessness), spark massive riots topside.
Megan's personal life shatters when she discovers Beam is having a secret affair with Queen. Queen violently excommunicates Megan from the Navy. Soon after, Queen discovers Dust's secret gearhead squad and sends the killgirls to slaughter them; Dust and Megan barely escape the massacre.
While on the run, Megan reconnects with Eric, seeking comfort. However, during a drive through the burning Under, she suddenly unlocks her repressed memories and realizes the horrifying truth: Eric is actually Den Boss, and his true identity is Quynn, the Monitor Master and second-in-command of the Planners. Quynn intentionally set the fire that killed Megan's mother and brother fourteen years ago, attempting to use the extreme trauma to force Megan into becoming a mythical "Prime Mage".
The Final Battle
Enraged, Megan fully embraces her trauma. Channeling her anger and fear, she transforms her forcefields into devastating weapons of fire, flying her car and fighting off a fleet of Planner fallcars (flying vehicles) to save Dust and the remaining Underkids.
The battle culminates topside amidst the riots. Queen arrives and uses her own mindmaster magic to force Beam to try and execute Megan. Megan breaks Queen's mental control over Beam with a kiss of true love, allowing Beam to turn her blade and kill Queen.
Quynn immediately steps in, using his overwhelming Monitor magic to instantly knock the entire rioting topside crowd unconscious. In a desperate final gambit, Megan, Beam, and Dust work together to lure Quynn under a massive maintenance pipe. Using her forcefield to pull the release lever, Megan buries Quynn under tons of raw Under sewage, and they stab him to death.
Following Quynn's defeat, Dust's father—the Scientist General Orym—arrives and offers Megan and Beam a comfortable topside life as a reward for stopping Queen and Quynn's destructive plans. Megan refuses, choosing to stay in the Under to help rebuild a true home for the outcast underkids. Discovering she is pregnant with Quynn's child (from her encounters with "Eric"), she decides to keep the baby and name him Rylan, after her late brother. Under Megan and Dust's leadership, the Crew is renamed Shock Crew.
Key Characters
- Megan (Phoenix): The protagonist. An underkid and former killgirl who wields incredibly rare forcefinder magic. She overcomes severe PTSD to master her powers and co-lead Shock Crew.
- Beam: A highly skilled killgirl and fallfoiler mage. She is manipulated by Queen's mind control but ultimately breaks free to save Megan.
- Dust (Dillon / Dill): The leader of the trashboys/gearheads and the son of the Planner Orym. He is a shockstriker mage determined to systematically overthrow the Planners and end the oppression of the sky cities.
- Quynn (Eric / Den Boss): The primary antagonist. The Monitor Master and second-in-command of the Planners. He orchestrates much of the city's misery, including the murder of Megan's family, in a twisted quest to artificially forge a Prime Mage.
- Queen (Princess): The ruthless leader of Her Majesty's Navy and secretly Quynn's biological daughter. A mindmaster mage who uses torture and manipulation to control the Under.
- Orym: The Scientist General of the Planners and Dust's father. He designed the city's technology and fallcars, but secretly wants to dismantle the corrupt Planner system from within.
Magic and Lore Introduced
The Metal Wood introduces the fundamental mechanics of magic in the series, explaining that mages burn specific types of metalwood to channel their Will. Dust reveals five of the seven magical Ways to Megan:
- Forcefinder: Uses metalash to create protective or kinetic energy bubbles (Megan's magic).
- Fallfoiler: Uses metalmaple to manipulate gravity and lift objects/people vertically (Beam's magic).
- Shockstriker: Uses metalelm to shoot devastating balls of blue electricity (Dust's magic).
- Transmuter: Uses metalbirch to transform raw materials into synthetic food, water, and fabric.
- Mindmaster: Uses metalpoplar to manipulate thoughts, suppress questions, and control actions (Quynn and Queen's magic).