Cover of A Torch Against the Night

A Torch Against the Night

core novel 2016 An Ember in the Ashes

Record

First published2016
Original language EN
Work typenovel
Canon statuscore
Reader rating4.21 (207,309 ratings, collected 2026-08-20)
Page count460
First-edition ISBN9781101998885

Synopsis

The second novel opens immediately after the events of the first, with Laia and Elias, now a deserter from the Empire's military, fleeing together toward the feared Kauf prison, where Laia's brother Darin is being held for his valuable blacksmithing knowledge. Their escape is complicated by the new Emperor Marcus and by Elias's own mother, the ruthless Commandant of Blackcliff, both of whom want Elias found. Helene Aquilla, Elias's closest childhood friend, has been made the Empire's Blood Shrike and is reluctantly ordered to hunt him down, aided by loyal soldiers and hindered by a rival agent assigned to watch her. As Laia and Elias press toward the prison, they are also stalked by dangerous supernatural creatures whose interest in Laia has no clear explanation.

Where it sits

Notes

  • From the series record (An Ember in the Ashes): The four-book main quartet set in the Martial Empire, following Laia and Elias/Elias's successor Helene across the whole arc; the primary reading unit and the work this universe is admitted for.

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.

Sources

← An Ember in the Ashes dossier · All universes

Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.