A Torch Against the Night (An Ember in the Ashes)

Description

THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING SEQUEL TO AN EMBER IN THE ASHES

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER
A WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER

“Spectacular.”—Entertainment Weekly

“Fresh and exciting...Tahir has shown a remarkable talent for penning complex villains.”—A.V. Club

"Even higher stakes than its predecessor… thrilling." —Publishers Weekly, starred review

“[An] action-packed, breathlessly paced story.” —Booklist, starred review


Set in a rich, high-fantasy world inspired by ancient Rome, Sabaa Tahir s AN EMBER IN THE ASHES told the story of Laia, a slave fighting for her family, and Elias, a young soldier fighting for his freedom.
 
Now, in A TORCH AGAINST THE NIGHT, Elias and Laia are running for their lives.

After the events of the Fourth Trial, Martial soldiers hunt the two fugitives as they flee the city of Serra and undertake a perilous journey through the heart of the Empire.
 
Laia is determined to break into Kauf—the Empire’s most secure and dangerous prison—to save her brother, who is the key to the Scholars survival. And Elias is determined to help Laia succeed, even if it means giving up his last chance at freedom.
 
But dark forces, human and otherworldly, work against Laia and Elias. The pair must fight every step of the way to outsmart their enemies: the bloodthirsty Emperor Marcus, the merciless Commandant, the sadistic Warden of Kauf, and, most heartbreaking of all, Helene—Elias’s former friend and the Empire’s newest Blood Shrike.

Bound to Marcus s will, Helene faces a torturous mission of her own—one that might destroy her: find the traitor Elias Veturius and the Scholar slave who helped him escape...and kill them both.An Amazon Best Book of September 2016: With sequels there’s always an underlying worry that the second book won’t live up to its predecessor, but Sabaa Tahir’s A Torch Against the Night not only meets expectations—it surpasses them. Tahir returns to Elias and Laia’s quest to rescue Laia’s brother from an impenetrable prison while eluding the Emperor and Commandant. Helen, now the Blood Shrike, is under the Emperor’s orders to kill them, and it’s clear that she still knows her former best friend as well as ever. The stakes are higher in this novel and the suspense just keeps building from new directions. The characters’ internal conflict is almost painful to read, but that’s part of what makes the story so intense. How can you kill someone you love? And how do you watch someone you love die trying to save you? Packed with cliff hangers, A Torch Against the Night ends with the same feeling as the first: a burning desire to read the next book. Right. This. Minute. --Seira Wilson, The Amazon Book Review