Nightrender
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3.9 • 8 Ratings
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- $1.99
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- $1.99
Publisher Description
Kingdoms will fall, gods will die, and hearts will be broken in this sprawling new fantasy from New York Times bestselling author Jodi Meadows.
"INTRICATE... UNIQUE... COMPELLING."—YA Books Central
In the middle of nothingness is the Island of Salvation.
Reality bends easily here. Villages disappear. Forests burn forever. Pockets of inconsistent time are everywhere, their boundaries strung with yellow ribbon. And the three kingdoms of Salvation have been at war for a thousand years.
But the greatest threat is the Malice, an incursion from the demon plane slowly tearing its way through the world’s weakest seams. Seams that—once split—will lead to the total unraveling of night and day, light and dark, life and death.
Not that the human world takes much interest. Of more concern is the upcoming marriage of Rune Highcrown, Prince of Caberwill, and Johanne Fortuin, Princess of Embria—the serpent bride, a girl of famous cunning—which offers a possible end to the ancient conflict. But Rune has noticed the growing darkness, and he is determined to summon mankind’s only defense: Nightrender, the hammer of the gods, an immortal warrior more weapon than girl.
There is only one problem. The last time she was summoned, she slaughtered every royal in Salvation, and no one knows why. Will she save humanity from the Malice… or plunge it deeper into the fires of eternal war?
A YAVA Award Nominee!
"Tantalizing."—The Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books, Starred Review
"Lush."—Publishers Weekly
"Wild."—Booklist
"Rich."—Kirkus Reviews
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Millennia ago, the Bright Land's divine Numina battled the Dark Shard's demonic rancor to prevent mortals' extermination. Then the aperture to the Bright Land started closing, forcing the Numina's retreat. Before leaving, though, the Numina drove the rancor back toward the Rupture from which they emerged; erected a spherical Malstop to contain them and their reality-corrupting energy, called malice; and created an immortal champion, Nightrender, to defend the surviving kingdoms—Embria, Caberwill, and Ivasland—should the Malstop falter. It's been centuries since anyone woke Nightrender; though her last campaign inexplicably ended in royal slaughter, the kingdoms are too busy attacking each other to notice the Malstop weakening. But when Embria's Princess Johanne Fortuin becomes trapped in a malice pocket days before she's promised to marry Caberwill's Prince Rune Highcrown, jeopardizing their peoples' fragile alliance, a desperate Rune defies his parents and summons Nightrender, hoping the gamble pays off. Action and court intrigue fuel the pace of this duology-opening fantasy from Meadows (the Fallen Isles trilogy). Woolly worldbuilding and superficial characters lessen the tale's impact, but readers will revel in the lush prose and melodramatic plotting. Most characters cue as white. Ages 14–up.
