The wheel is turning

THE TURNING

A trilogy by Jonathan Lu

A convict in a salt mine. A glassmaker's daughter in Venice. A salvage captain over a dying Earth. Ten thousand years apart, all of them serving the same machine, and one of them is finally going to answer it.

The books Play THE TURNING: Dig

One story, three ages

Looking ahead is what winds it

In the salt age, a convict named Ysolde learns that her blood is what keeps starving gods alive, and her rebellion drowns a kingdom that later ages remember only as a flood story.

Centuries on, a Murano glassmaker's daughter grinds those dead gods' bones into lenses that see seconds ahead. Venice rides them into the Battle of Lepanto, and the lagoon starts to shake, because in this world every look at the future has a price, and the price is always the same: the Wheel winds a little tighter.

And six centuries after her people fled a dying Earth, salvage captain Juno Varr finds out why they ran, walks into the machine her family has served for sixty thousand years, and finally answers it.

The trilogy

Three books, one Count

The Salt Crown cover: a pale tally ring on dark salt

Book One

The Salt Crown

A convict in a salt mine learns her blood is what keeps starving gods alive, and her rebellion drowns a kingdom that later ages will remember only as a flood story.

Arriving 2026
The Glass Republic cover: a pale tally ring on dark glass

Book Two

The Glass Republic

A Murano glassmaker's daughter grinds dead gods' bones into lenses that see seconds ahead, and Venice rides them into the Battle of Lepanto while the lagoon starts to shake.

Arriving 2026
The Last Orbit cover: a pale tally ring over a dark orbit

Book Three

The Last Orbit

A salvage captain whose people fled a dying Earth six centuries ago finds out why, walks into the machine her family has served for sixty thousand years, and finally answers it.

Arriving 2026

While the books arrive

Dig into the world now, free

THE TURNING: Dig is the trilogy's game: dream your way down through the salt of the drowned city, read what the dead left behind, and choose what to keep. One dream runs 10 to 20 minutes, in your browser, no account, works offline.

01 · DigHold a direction to cut through the salt. A and D walk, S digs down, Space jumps, F uses things; on a phone the touch pad appears by itself.
02 · ReadFinds come up wrapped in glyphs. Turn the rings of the Grain Disc until every column matches the strip; a hint costs glass.
03 · ChooseKeep the memory and it becomes Ink, wash it for salt and glass, or look ahead and wind the Wheel. Surface before the water rises.
Play THE TURNING: Dig More about the game

Loreturning

The codes will turn here

Every chapter of the books ends with a five glyph code. When the trilogy arrives, this is where those codes will turn: Journal pages, artifacts, maps, and the ages before the salt, shared with the game's Journal. One account, one record.

The count is running

Start with the game. Finish with the books.

Play free in your browser