Here in Toronto, the days are rapidly getting shorter.

The first time I wake up in full darkness is always jarring, and I never quite get used to the sun setting before I finish work. 

But this time of year also makes me think of a sci-fi story that takes place on one of the most unique worlds I’ve encountered: a planet that is half scorched by relentless sun and half frozen in constant night.

Darkness is dangerous in this story, but also leads to unexpected, transformative truths. 

I hope you like it. 

Centuries before this story takes place, humans settled on the tidally-locked planet of January, where one side of the planet is constantly scorched by the sun and the other is frozen in perpetual darkness. 

Human cities straddle the thin twilight strip between the two unforgiving halves, and are carefully managed to keep people safe from the unforgiving planet and the vicious “crocodiles” – what humans call the native inhabitants of January, who live in the eternal night. 

The City in the Middle of the Night follows Sophie: a lower-income student on a scholarship to a prestigious school. 

But Sophie gets caught up with a group of young revolutionaries, and when she’s arrested she is exiled to the deadly, frozen darkness outside the city. Sophie is facing certain death when she is rescued by a “crocodile,” which will change not only her life, but her entire understanding of reality.