It takes death to reach a star
(Book)

In the aftermath of the Third World War, an antibacterial-resistant plague annihilates the Earth in just five years. Only one city survived: Etyom, a frozen hellhole in northern Siberia, engulfed in endless conflict. Two groups emerged from the ashes of the old world. Within the walled city of Lower Etyom dwell the Robusts--descendants of the poor who were immune to the New Black Death. Above them live the Graciles--the progeny of the superrich, bio-engineered to resist the plague. Mila Solokoff is a Robust who trades information in a world where knowing too much can get you killed. Caught in a deal gone bad, she's forced to take a high-risk job for a clandestine organization hell-bent on revolution. Demitri Stasevich is a Gracile with a dark secret--a sickness that, if discovered, will get him Ax'd. His only relief is an illegal narcotic produced by the Robusts, and his only means of obtaining it is a journey to the arctic hell far below New Etyom.