Set in a pseudo medieval Renaissance style world, this richly told tale centres around the would-be assassin Mia Corvere, bent on revenge on the people who killed her family. Mia is immediately a sympathetic protagonist as we are introduced to her as a ten year old witnessing the execution of her father.
What follows could easily be a traditional revenge story with a montage of training exercises under a mysterious sensei type figure, building up to a final showdown where good triumphs over evil. And in lesser hands this is what this book would be. But Kristoff raises the bar here, creating a wonderful world filled with a complex political system, with gods and men and magic and darkness.
A central point of the novel is in the title, nevernight, as the world in the book has three Suns which rarely all set at the same time, creating the time known as 'nevernight', a less than dark time, bathing the world in a half light instead of the true dark which occurs only rarely. This leads to the worship of a god system based on light and dark, of good and evil.
Intertwined through all of this is the place Mia finds herself in the world; a training academy for killers all vying for coveted spots at the top of the class. Murder in all its forms is taught to Mia and her classmates/rivals as she learns what it takes, and what it will cost, to exact her revenge.
And this doesn't even mention Mister Kindly...you'll like him.
Nevernight is published by Harper-Voyager and is out on August 9th 2016 and available at all the usual places.
I received this book from Harper-Voyager as a free ARC in exchange for this honest review.
