Ignifer's Rise (Ignifer Cycle, #1)

The apocalypse is coming.

Ignifer's Mons is the city at the center of the world, swarmed by a thousand strange castes, from debt-collecting Molemen to stone-bodied Balasts. All are crushed beneath the city's brutal law, and watched over by a gaping black hole in the sky; the Rot.

Sen is a boy condemned to death for his caste; complex scars that cover every inch of his skin. Hunted by the Rot, he hides in the city's last abbey, sheltered by misshapen Sisters who lie to keep him alive. But he can't hide forever. His scars predict the coming apocalypse, and offer an impossible path to salvation: only the legendary hero Saint Ignifer can save them.

But the Saint died millennia ago, and the castes he once led into battle are divided. All that remains is a lost and confused boy, piecing together clues he doesn't understand. Yet in the depths of the city's abandoned heart, in the long-buried ruins of an ancient civilization, destiny waits for Sen- for the end is coming, and the Saint must rise again.