Bulwark in the City of Flesh

Half a millennium ago, the people of my planet realized we were drifting toward the event horizon of a black hole. If that seems like a slow-motion apocalypse to you, imagine how many years passed for your planet in the meantime. We experienced generations of denial, despair, riots, and war before Earth was even a wet rock. I was born after the dust settled, and I grew up knowing this: Someday, our planet will reach the black hole, and then everything weve experienced and created will be destroyed. In a way, it never existed at all. You might think life was super grim for us, but the thing is,...