A History of What Comes Next (Neuvel Sylvain); Penguin, 2021

Always run, never fight.

Preserve the knowledge.

Survive at all costs.

Take them to the stars.

Germany, 1945.

Mia, a nineteen-year-old girl, is sent by the OSS to find Wernher von Braun. Her mission: stop the Russians getting hold of Germany's - and the world's - foremost rocket scientist.

Von Braun is suspicious. And so he should be.

For Mia is no ordinary girl. She only looks human. And helping the Allies win the Second World War is only one part of her plan.

Because there's an even darker conflict taking place on Earth. A secret struggle thousands of years old that has engulfed and taken generations of Mia's people.

Can the firing of rockets finally bring about its end? Will Mia, as the last of her kind, bring the stars down to Earth?

And if she succeeds, what will happen to us?