Every time the final novel in a trilogy is published, we bake a cake in the Black Gate offices. (And yes, we do eat a lot of cake. What’s your point?)

Malka Older’s debut novel Infomocracy made a huge splash in 2016 — The Huffington Post called it “one of the greatest literary debuts in recent history,” and it was named one of the best books of the year by The Washington Post, The Verge, Flavorwire, Kirkus, and Book Riot. The sequel Null States arrived last year, and was not a disappointment. Liz Bourke at Tor.com labeled it “wondrously strange,” and The Chicago Review of Books called it “A riveting science fiction thriller that brings the future of democracy to vivid, divisive life… a hell of a good story.”

The third and final novel in the series, State Tectonics, is one of the most anticipated books of the year, and it finally arrived in hardcover from Tor earlier this month. Here’s the description.

The future of democracy must evolve or die.

The last time Information held an election, a global network outage, two counts of sabotage by major world governments, and a devastating earthquake almost shook micro-democracy apart. Five years later, it’s time to vote again, and the system that has ensured global peace for 25 years is more vulnerable than ever.

Unknown enemies are attacking Information’s network infrastructure. Spies, former superpowers, and revolutionaries sharpen their knives in the shadows. And Information’s best agents question whether the data monopoly they’ve served all their lives is worth saving, or whether it’s time to burn the world down and start anew.

State Tectonics was published by Tor.com Publishing on September 11, 2018. It is 432 pages, priced at $27.99 in hardcover and $14.99 for the digital editions. The cover is by Will Staehle. Read the first five chapters of Infomocracy here, and see our previous coverage here. See all our coverage of the best new SF and fantasy here.