Defy the Dusk

Twenty years ago, magic wielded by a woman named Lirien fractured the world. In the aftermath, nocturnal creatures brought civilisation to its knees. The survivors now travel in convoys, and each one has to outrun the dusk to stay alive.

Lirien is taken captive by Vox, the king of the feralists. He gives her two options: fight the creatures that hunt the night, or be fed to them. The woman whose magic broke the world is now the one he wants on his side against what came after.

Defy the Dusk is a post-apocalyptic fantasy and the first book of The Sundering Duet, a two-book series by Danielle L. Jensen. The setting is built around nightfall and the threat it brings, so the book looks set to carry a steady sense of danger from the start.

The story offers little beyond this premise so far. The convoys, the feralists and the creatures are its main ingredients, with Lirien caught between a king and the monsters of the dark.