Chronicles of Rust and Sand

Winner of Premio Italia and the Cassiopea award for the best Italian science-fiction novel.

This is Mondo9, a deadly planet utterly alien to humans. Under the sands lie millions of unexpected surprises, waiting only for their victims; unseen monsters hide—enormous and ominous. Here a mysterious disease attacks flesh, turning it into steel; gigantic flowers feed on rust; dunes of fiery sand become a deadly trap; tornadoes gain minds, and strange biomechanical hybrids fly through the skies.

People live here—they turned Mondo9 into a kingdom of machines, metal, and rust. Huge ships travel over the sands, carrying dozens of people; they hunt local wildlife and connect separate cities. Robredo is one of these ships—a wonder of engineering, an incredible mechanism that can preserve its crew even in the event of an accident. And when it happens, at first everything goes according to plan. But soon the team realizes that Robredo is intelligent and holds completely different views about humankind. That’s how the most terrifying Odyssey of Mondo9 begins—one in which people will have to fight not only the hostile world around them, but also what was supposed to protect them. That’s how the legend of Robredo begins—the monster the inhabitants of this planet will not forget for a long time. But it’s only one of the stories, because Mondo9 is full of incredible miracles and dreadful nightmares.

Mondo9

Chronicles of Rust and Sand / Cronache di Mondo9 (2015)

Legend of the Great Wave / Naila di Mondo9 (2018)

Mya di Mondo9 (2022)