Nightrender

The Island of Salvation floats in the middle of nothingness, and reality bends easily there. Villages vanish, forests burn without end, and pockets of warped time are marked off with yellow ribbon. Three kingdoms have fought one another for a thousand years.

A larger danger is spreading. The Malice, an incursion from the demon plane, is tearing through the weakest seams of the world. If those seams split, night and day, light and dark, and life and death will come apart together. Most people pay it little attention.

Their minds are on a wedding. Rune Highcrown, Prince of Caberwill, is to marry Johanne Fortuin, Princess of Embria, a girl known for her cunning and called the serpent bride. The match could end the ancient war. Rune, though, has seen the darkness growing and wants to summon Nightrender, the hammer of the gods, an immortal warrior who is more weapon than girl.

The risk is plain. The last time she was summoned, she killed every royal in Salvation, and nobody knows the reason. This is epic fantasy of war, politics and cosmic threat, with a setting where the rules of the world cannot be trusted. The question it poses is whether she will save humanity from the Malice or drive it further into endless war.