Dark Light of Day
Noon Onyx Book #1
By Jill Archer
Genre: Urban
Fantasy
Publisher: Ace
ISBN: 978-0-425-25715-9
Number of pages: 384
Word Count: 123,000
Book Description:
Armageddon is over. The
demons won. And yet somehow…the world has continued. Survivors worship patron
demons under a draconian system of tributes and rules. These laws keep the
demons from warring among themselves, the world from slipping back into chaos.
Noon Onyx grew up on the
banks of the river Lethe, daughter of a prominent politician, and a descendant
of Lucifer’s warlords. Noon has a secret—she was born with waning magic, the
dark, destructive, fiery power that is used to control demons and maintain the
delicate peace among them. But a woman with waning magic is unheard of and some
will consider her an abomination.
Noon is summoned to attend
St. Lucifer’s, a school of demon law. She must decide whether to declare her
powers there…or attempt to continue hiding them, knowing the price for doing so
may be death. And once she meets the forbiddingly powerful Ari Carmine—who
suspects Noon is harboring magic as deadly as his own—Noon realizes there may
be more at stake than just her life.
Failing is
not an option...
“I’ve
been watching you, wondering, waiting to see where you’d end up. After all,
there are other demon law schools,” Seknecus said, making a moue of distaste
that made it clear exactly what he thought of them. “But I was happy to see
that you chose St. Lucifer’s.”
Technically my mother chose St. Lucifer’s . . . But
there seemed no reason to interrupt just to clarify that bit of misinformation.
Seknecus wandered around the room, picking through papers, flipping open and
quickly shutting the front covers of various leather-bound books, never meeting
my eye. I had no doubt, however, that his attention was fully focused on me.
“So,
you see, seeing your name on my List wasn’t exactly a surprise, although it
appeared much later than I would have liked.”
He
did look at me then, with a frown of disapproval. I did my best to look
expressionless because none seemed appropriate. It wouldn’t do to look amused,
bored or, Luck forbid, rebellious. Seknecus stared at me with narrowed eyes and
then went back to wandering.
“You’ve
got some catching up to do,” he said, addressing a copy of Sin
and Sanction: Codification & Case Law. “It doesn’t matter why or
what excuses you’ve got for yourself. You will be held to the same standards as
everyone else, regardless of whose daughter you are. And you’ve missed a lot of
class already.”
I
opened my mouth to protest, but he cut me off with a wave.
“Manipulation
class,” he clarified. “You’re going to have to work ten times as hard as
everyone else just to pass. Quintus Rochester doesn’t go easy on students and
he’s likely to see your absence during the early part of the semester as a
challenge. You know, failing is not an option. Not if you want to live.”
What do you think guys? Sounds great, doesn't it? From what I have read so far, the plot is a twister, the voice gripping and the characters are ones you wouldn't mind hanging around with for a few more books. Excellent read!!
4.5/5
Dark
Light of Day's Settings
Most people have heard that some settings can have
such story presence or provide such an impact on a reader's experience that the
setting is almost like a character. Consider these places:
· Manderley
from Daphne du Maurier's Rebecca
· Miss
Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children from Ransom Riggs' novel of the same
name
· Le
Cirque des Reves from Erin Morgenstern's The
Night Circus
· Arrakis
from Frank Herbert's Dune
· The
Overlook from Stephen King's The Shining
Those places have a sense of themselves; they feel
like a person, not a place. Creating such a setting takes intricate
worldbuilding, careful sculpting of tone and feel, and effect. The place acts
upon another character or characters, as if it were a character, and so impacts
plot and story.
I'll be the first to admit that Dark Light of Day does not have a setting quite on the level of
those listed above. But I still took care in creating the various places where
Noon Onyx's story takes place. Since this is one of the last guest posts I'm
doing in my blog tour, I figured it might be nice to highlight some of the
settings in the story. Here are the main places where Dark Light of Day takes place:
· HALJA:
Halja is the fictional country within which the entire story is set. The tagline
of DLOD is "Armageddon is over; the demons won." But, though the
story is post-Apocalyptic, it's set 2,000 years after Armageddon, the last
battle of the Apocalypse. So both sides (the descendants of Lucifer's army and
the Savior's) have had time to rebuild their world. Halja is a country ruled by
demons and their Maegesters – humans with waning magic who train as
peacekeepers. Halja has a circa 1900's technology level and its Maegesters act sort
of like "modern day" magical knights.
· NEW BABYLON:
New Babylon is a city that's as old as the Apocalypse. It was built over the
ancient battlefield of Armageddon. By the time Dark Light of Day takes place, New Babylon is a bustling,
cosmopolitan city. It's full of high stone, iron, and glass buildings and it's
home to almost a million Hyrkes – humans with no magic – who go about their
daily lives – shopping, eating, working, paying taxes and offering tribute to
various patron demons in a fairly ordinary way.
· THE RIVER LETHE:
The River Lethe is the large river that New Babylon was built alongside. It
divides Halja in much the same way that the mighty Mississippi River divides
the United States (although the Lethe runs west to east, not north to south).
In real world Greek mythology, the river Lethe was one of the rivers in Hades
and its name means "forgetfulness" or "oblivion."
· ETINCELLE:
Etincelle is the sleepy town of Noon Onyx's birth. It's located almost directly
across the Lethe from New Babylon. Etincelle is a French word that means
"spark" or "sparkle." At night, the town is like the soft,
yellow glow from a lightning bug up against New Babylon's whiter, brighter city
lights. Etincelle is a small village with large estates, old money, and old
magic. Halja's magic users – the equivalent of Haljan nobility – grow up in
Etincelle.
· ST. LUCIFER'S LAW
SCHOOL: I suppose if any of Dark Light of Day's settings have a shot at being a character like
one of the places I first listed above, it would be the "demon law"
school St. Lucifer's, or "St. Luck's" as the students call it. It's
described initially as "lots of heavy, clunky, gothic architecture with an
emphasis on pointed arches, flying buttresses, and gargoyles" – but St.
Luck's is more than it seems. Without spoiling the story, I'll simply say that
the campus is quite old and some of its classrooms have a darker, damper feel
than what most post-grads are used to.
Hopefully,
these descriptions have piqued your interest in Noon Onyx's world and Dark
Light of Day. A big thanks to Dana for
hosting me here at Zombiegirl Shambling!
Author Bio:
Raised in Pittsburgh,
Pennsylvania, Jill earned a bachelor of science from Penn State University
and later moved to Baltimore to attend the University of Baltimore School of
Law, where she graduated magna cum laude. She went on to practice
law as a “dirt lawyer” for ten years, specializing in real estate law,
municipal development, commercial leasing, and anything involving exceedingly
lengthy legalese-like contractual monstrosities.
Jill now lives in rural
Maryland with her two children and husband, who is a recreational pilot.
Weekends are often spent flying around in the family’s small Cessna, visiting
tiny un-towered airfields and other local points of interest.
twitter:
@archer_jill
Tour giveaway details
- At each Interview and Guest blog stop- not promo or review stops- to be drawn randomly from that stop's commenters, one Ace/Roc Science Fiction and Fantasy 2012 Sampler. These are bound, print samplers with a color cover and the first few pages of new work from the following authors/titles: Benedict Jacka's FATED, Alex Hughes' CLEAN, Jacqueline Carey's DARK CURRENTS, Steve Bein's DAUGHTER OF THE SWORD, Anton Strout's ALCHEMYSTIC, and Jill Archer's DARK LIGHT OF DAY. US ONLY
- * Jill will choose the winner.
- * Sampler giveaway will close by midnight the day AFTER the post.
- * Jill will announce the winner via comment on the post the day after the giveaway closes (so two days after the post).
- * Winners have 48 hours to send Jill their street address.
- *Jill’s plan is to mail samplers out every week or so during the tour.
Tour Wide Giveaways
Three signed copies of Dark Light of Day to the blog tour followers who visit the most stops. US ONLY
- $10 eGift Card (either Amazon or Barnes & Noble, winner's choice) to be drawn at random from all blog tour commenters.
- $10 eGift Card (either Amazon or Barnes & Noble, winner's choice) to the person who brings the most people to the party. To enter to win this one, tell a friend about the tour (someone who hasn't yet commented). You'll be entered to win when your friend stops by at any spot on the tour and tells us that you told them about the tour.
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