A Torch Against the Night (Unabridged)
-
-
4.7 • 68 Ratings
-
-
- $22.99
-
- $22.99
Publisher Description
THE #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER
One of Time Magazine’s 100 Best Fantasy Books of All Time
Book two in the New York Times bestselling series
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.
Customer Reviews
I was disappointed—until I reached the end.
Spoiler-free review:
If you’ve read the first one, “An Ember in the Ashes”, then you’ll enjoy this one. Now I say “enjoy” instead of “love” because there are a few things to be disappointed about.
So, first off, this sequel feels kind of like a filler-book (meaning: it’s primary focus is to push the series onward, rather than further interest readers), initially. It’s much slower than the first fast-paced, action-packed novel. The characters don’t progress as much as I’d like, either. They sort of remain the same they were at the end of the first novel—with just a bit of evolution (this stands for two of the main characters, one of them evolves quite a lot). Here’s a quick spoiler-free warning: if you’re a fan of the characters—now, I mean some of the main characters—then you’ll be very disappointed at the middle of this novel. And no, not for the reason you think. Here’s the reassurance—there’s no resolution to this disappointment—I know, I know, “how is that reassuring?!” Well, lemme finish. There’s no resolution to this disappointment UNTIL the end. I’m not sure why, but for some reason, all of my dissatisfaction vanished when I finished the book and was replaced by the need for the next one. But, back to the slow-pace: so, when you read this you’ll notice that it’s fairly slow-paced and full of disappointments in the storyline—but, towards the middle and end, it gets real intriguing. So just wait a while before throwing the book down and saying, “I’m done with this!”. If you wait you’ll be saying, “I gotta get the next one ASAP!”. I give it four stars for the slowish pace at the beginning and because it wasn’t as great as the first novel.
Now, this is the same worry I had initially so I’ll just clarify: yes, all of the same narrators from the first novel are in this one. iBooks, for some unknown reason, only lists ONE narrator. Which, obviously, is confusing when there’s multiple narrators. But yes, again, there are three narrators in this book instead of just two. And yes, the narration is ABSOLUTELY amazing! At first, the new narrator’s voice is an oddity, but once you’ve listened to her voice for, I’d say, two chapters or so you’ll get used to it. Anyways, happy reading! Please finish the series; you’ll regret not doing so!