A Cavern of Black Ice
core novel 1999 The Book of Words
Record
| First published | 1999 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.89 (9,404 ratings, collected 2026-10-24) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780446524148 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
Frigid winter grips the Northern Territories. As a newborn, Ash March was abandoned, left for dead at the foot of a frozen mountain; she has grown up in Spire Vanis, whose uncrowned ruler steals magic from tortured captives, and where she is haunted by nightmares of ice; as the ruler's interest in her quickens, he sends his living blade, Marafice Eye, to guard her night and day. Raif Sevrance, a young man of Clan Blackhail, also knows he is different, with uncanny abilities that distance him from his clan; when his father, the clan chief, lies dead and the treacherous Mace Blackhail takes his place, Raif is cast out, and his path bends toward Ash's and toward the Cavern of Black Ice, where an ancient evil is buried. The first book of the Sword of Shadows, set in the same world as Jones's Book of Words trilogy.
Where it sits
- Universe: The Book of Words
- Series: Sword of Shadows core; position 1 of 4 in the series' recorded order
- Author: J. V. Jones
Notes
- From the series record (Sword of Shadows): J. V. Jones's frozen-north epic of Raif Sevrance and Ash March, set in the world of The Book of Words.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Sword of Shadows: position 1 of 4: next A Fortress of Grey Ice (2002)
- Internal chronology, within The Book of Words: position 2 of 7: previous The Baker's Boy (1995) · next A Man Betrayed (1996)
Sources
- Series page on the rating platform (ratings and years with titles)
- Kirkus Reviews (A Cavern of Black Ice)
- Risingshadow (series listing)
- Tor Publishing Group (publisher description)
- Tor (publisher description, via ebooks.com)
- Orbit (publisher description, via Worlds Without End)
- Publishers Weekly (review with edition details)
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