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XNew Novel Pre-release Announcement: “Logos of Cain,” Book 5 in “The Cain Series,” Coming in May, 2026.
March 6, 2026
By Seth W. James
Logos of Cain, book 5 in The Cain Series, is now slated to publish this May, 2026, in ebook, paperback, and hardcover formats. Logos of Cain is an episodic, near-future, cyberpunk science-fiction novel, like every book in The Cain Series, and follows upon the tragic events that concluded book 4. Francesca, no longer employed by the European Seawall Foundation, follows Cain back into the orbital archipelago, to find a new purpose to her existence and forge a new life. Cain unexpectedly discovers that returning to his former life on the shady side of the street is not as smooth as TAVing up to Achilles—and the source of the problem is himself.
Back-cover copy:
“After the events of book 4, The Fall, with Francesca’s now infamous flight from government service, Cain returns with her to the orbital archipelago and to his former life in the commerce in violence. As Francesca struggles to make peace with the consequences of her choices—and with her new reality as a gun-for-hire—Cain, too, finds himself struggling with reentry issues, as the scores that he had once pulled down no longer satisfy him.
Unwilling to accept the role of expendable, Cain soon demands greater control over how he and Francesca pursue the goals of their corporate, governmental, and criminal employers—and immediately find themselves squaring off against the heaviest marks, from raiding a secret Korean cybernetics laboratory to executing a hit on Gate Station Mars.
As a possible new future together takes shape, however, the past proves restless, as an old adversary of Francesca’s appears with a multilayered scheme to undo all that she had built in her former life. Cain and Francesca—along with their handpicked mercenary crew—must then swap scores with the archipelago’s most brazen crime lord, to eradicate the despicable, to preserve the indispensable.”
With Logos of Cain, The Cain Series reaches a major milestone: the completion of the first novel cycle. I previously wrote about how The Cain Series employs the episodic form and classic dramatic structure, include the grouping of novels into cycles—which tell an overarching story in addition to each novel’s independent story—in this blog: https://www.sethwjames.com/stories-within-stories-the-episodic-form-and-novel-cycles-in-the-cain-series/. Novel cycle 2 in The Cain Series begins immediately with book 6, continuing the story of Cain and Francesca as they delve into the deepest underworlds and soar to the farthest flung colonies to challenge the powers of the next century, to wrest from them a future worth living.
It was great fun writing Logos of Cain, despite some of the topics underpinning the stories coming from the troubling headlines of our fraught real world. I hope, though, that this novel will provide readers with, first and foremost, a terrific read—a fast-paced, action-packed, cyberpunk adventure—but also a context for assessing our current reality, something to put your back against as you look around yourself, before pushing off and plunging into the contest against the fascists.
And though the first overarching story, told through books 1 to 5, has now come to its conclusion, Cain and Francesca’s story has not ended: cycle 2 begins with book 6—and it is already underway. I had thought that I would need much of 2026 to plan the specifics of cycle 2, but it turns out that I had so much of it already conceptualized in the back of my mind that I was able to write the timeline, cycle notes, and novel-structure notes in a matter of weeks, rather than months. And so, I am tentatively planning to publish book 6 in The Cain Series later this year, perhaps again in November. 2 for 2026! If it works out, then books 7 and 8 should publish in 2027.
Anyway, that’s it for now. The cover reveal—another beauty from James T. Egan—comes out next month, followed by launch in May. Until then, I’ll see you on the shady side of the street.