Annaliese Avery: The Nightsilver Promise (Scholastic 2021)
In Annaliese Avery’s novel, a very special world comes to life before us. We are in London, in the Empire of Albion. Above the city, special buildings and neighborhoods float, such as the new Greenwich Observatory or Kensington Park. Engineers watch the Celestial Mechanism – the gears that move the celestial bodies – and tell the people which Track lies in the stars that the Chief Designer had planned for them. Alchesmiths make a material that can defeat even the dragons – the black Nightsilver.
Paisley Fitzwilliam hopes that her stars will hold a fate similar to her father’s and that she too can be an explorer. However, when she finally got the prophecy, she didn’t get what she wanted at all. Meanwhile, her scientist mother is making a big announcement about a comet heading for Earth, which some say is a Great Dragon, Malgol, whose coming has long been predicted. In this chaotic world, Paisley and his brother, Dax, find themselves facing an enemy no one has yet dared to confront.
The author has spent most of her life between stories: working as a manager in a library and as a writer at home. She has Master’s degree in Creative Writing and also holds workshops across the UK. The Nightsilver Promise is the first book in a truly fantastic trilogy. The author was inspired by several things in writing the story: a love of astronomy, an interest in mythology, and a lot of thought about fate and whether our destiny was truly predetermined. This is also the main issue of the novel. The book was published with different covers: it was designed by Natalie Smillie in the UK, Alyssa Winans in the US and both are beautiful. The second volume just recently hit the store shelves. You can also read about it later on BogiWrites.
