Nightrender (The Salvation Cycle #1)

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. Agent: Lauren MacLeod, Strothman Agency. (Jan.)