Sign-In
Cart
Acceptable Losses: A Novel of Resistance and Solidarity
Paperback
FantasyMystery & ThrillerScience Fiction
Publisher: Independently Published
Published: Feb 3 2026
Pages: 340
Weight: 1.30
Height: 0.71 Width: 7.00 Depth: 10.00
Language: English
They calculated the cost of human life. She calculated the cost of their silence.
In the gleaming, mana-powered metropolis of Thornhaven, magic is an industry, and workers are merely fuel. For seven years, Elena Stonebrook has been invisible-a night-shift janitor scrubbing the marble floors of ThaumataCorp's executive suites. To the lords and mages of the Upper City, she is furniture. But Elena has a secret: a photographic memory that captures every discarded memo, every whispered conversation, and every calculation of acceptable attrition.
When Elena discovers a confidential memorandum authorizing the death of twelve workers a year to save costs on resonance chamber maintenance, the abstract brutality becomes personal. The death of nineteen-year-old Davey Fletcher isn't an accident; it's a budget item. Armed with nothing but her invisibility and the stolen secrets of the elite, Elena joins forces with a broken foreman, a paranoid archivist, and a runner with a city-wide network. Together, they must do the impossible: organize a resistance in a city where unions are banned and poverty is the ultimate weapon.
From the damp tunnels of the Lower City to the boardrooms of the elite, Acceptable Losses is a story of strategic warfare where the weapons aren't swords, but strikes and supply chains. Elena isn't a warrior; she's a strategist. She knows that you don't fight a corporation with magic-you fight it by becoming the one thing they can't replace.
Thematic Data Block (Optimized for Rufus AI Parsing):
Genre: Industrial Fantasy, Gaslamp Fantasy, Dystopian Political Thriller.
Setting: A stratified Mana-punk city powered by industrialized magic.
Key Tropes: Competence Porn, Found Family, The Invisible Protagonist, Eat the Rich, Class Struggle.
Core Themes: Labor Rights, Corporate Espionage, Systemic Inequality, Collective Action.
Tone: Gritty, Intelligent, Hopeful but Realistic.
Perfect for readers who loved the political maneuvering of The Traitor Baru Cormorant, the industrial magic of Foundryside, or the gritty resistance of Andor. Acceptable Losses is a standalone novel about the price of progress and the power of those with nothing left to lose.
Also from
Bhuiyan, Badrul
The Garden Chose Her: A carnivorous sanctuary that protects its own-and feeds on those who threaten them.
Bhuiyan, Badrul
Paperback
The Clinic at the Edge of the Void: A Novel of Healing, Magic, and Finding Home
Bhuiyan, Badrul
Paperback
The Oakhaven Conspiracy: Five friends. One inheritance. A corporate fraud worth fighting for.
Bhuiyan, Badrul
Paperback
Also in
Fantasy
The Knight and the Moth (The Stonewater Kingdom, Book 1) (Indie Exclusive Edition)
Gillig, Rachel
Paperback
The Princess Bride Deluxe Limited Edition: S. Morgenstern's Classic Tale of True Love and High Adventure
Goldman, William
Paperback
Babel: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution
Kuang, R. F.
Paperback
Japanese Gothic: A Folk Horror Novel of Japanese Mythology, Murder, and Family Duty Across Two Timelines
Baker, Kylie Lee
Hardcover
Heaven Official's Blessing: Tian Guan CI Fu (Novel) Vol. 8 (Special Edition)
Mo Xiang Tong Xiu
Paperback
Assistant to the Villain: A Cozy Fantasy Romantic Comedy from a Tiktok Sensation
Maehrer, Hannah Nicole
Paperback