of the city in concordance with his theory, which proves valid. Aiah also stumbles onto the knowledge that at periodic intervals, a small hole opens up in the Shield through which plasm-based constructs can be sent. At the same time, she has been having dreams in which she sees entities named the Sun and Moon outside the Shield; these celestial bodies are mostly legend in the world, but there is a belief that the tides seen in the world's seas are caused by the effects of their gravity, which is able to pass through the Shield. Aiah learns that her dreams have similarities with the teachings of a mysterious monastic order in Caraqui, the Dreaming Sisters. At the novel's conclusion, Aiah seems to join the Dreaming Sisters in their curious form of meditation as a way of discovering what her dreams mean in the context of freeing the world from the Shield. Status of possible sequel Metropolitan and City on Fire were published by HarperCollins, a result of Williams attempting to move to a publisher that would pay and promote him better than Tor Books, his previous publisher. However, his editor was fired and the HarperPrism line cancelled soon after City on Fire was published. As a result, Williams would not be able to have a third volume in the series published without retrieving the rights for the first two and finding another publisher for them, along with the third book. Given the difficulty Williams had already encountered, he decided to pursue other projects with a more immediate payoff. The rights for the two books reverted to Williams in December 2010, although he did not learn this until April 2012. He has not yet begun work on a third volume, although he has expressed interest in doing so, and has tentatively titled the third volume Heaven in Flames. On March 12, 2022, Williams announced on his blog that he's currently writing the third book. References 1997 American novels 1997 science fiction novels American science fiction novels Sequel novels