Blackbringer (Faeries of Dreamdark #1) by Laini Taylor

Tweet

When the ancient evil of the Blackbringer rises to unmake the world, only one determined faerie stands in its way. However, Magpie Windwitch, granddaughter of the West Wind, is not like other faeries. While her kind live in seclusion deep in the forests of Dreamdark, she's devoted her life to tracking down and recapturing devils escaped from their ancient bottles, just as her hero, the legendary Bellatrix, did 25,000 years ago. With her faithful gang of crows, she travels the world fighting where others would choose to flee. But when a devil escapes from a bottle sealed by the ancient Djinn King himself, the creator of the world, she may be in over her head. How can a single faerie, even with the help of her friends, hope to defeat the impenetrable darkness of the Blackbringer?

Blackbringer by Laini Taylor is the third novel I've read by Laini Taylor and so far she's 3 for 3. Blackbringer by Laini Taylor is the first of the Faeries of Dreamdark series; however, I have to caution you that according to Taylor's website, the publisher has no plans to publish more Dreamdark books so this one and Silksinger, the second, are it at this time.

Prior to Blackbringer by Laini Taylor, I read Daughter of Smoke and Bone (well-chronicled love for that!) and Lips Touch Three Times, both young adult fiction. Blackbringer by Laini Taylor has a very different tone from her later novels, being middle grade and high fantasy - but it has the hallmarks of her style: sumptuous prose and a world so original yet fully realized that I can easily believe these characters existing outside of the covers.

Dreamdark's genesis lore then is fitting: the great Magruwen dreamt the world and all its creatures into existence. But having hidden himself for thousands of years, he is now descending into a sleep of oblivion and forgetfulness. Blackbringer, a powerful, all-consuming demon is devouring Dreamdark as Magruwen sleeps. Mapie, an upstart faerie, braves deadly dangers to wake the Magruwen and save the fraying Tapestry of all life.

"Across the water in the hidden places beneath a vast city, a new thing was taking possession of the darkness. Legions of lesser devils had made their home here for centuries in the underbelly of the human world. Now they fled in panic on their cloven hooves and splayed toes.

"A furious wind howled in the underground passages. Those creatures who paused to look back over their shoulders found themselves swept up by a terrible hungers and ha scarcely time to wonder what was happening before they ceased to exist. Rats, imps, low devils, and quavering transclucent spirits roiled up and out of the sewer gates and made for whatever scraps of shadow they could find in the world above.

"Soon the catacombs were empty and the hungry one prowled on, hunting something far greater than this snack of devils...Vengeance had never been far from his thoughts all the thousands of years of his imprisonment, and now his time had come at last.

"Doom dawned."

There are whimsical flights of fancy, adventures, just the barest hint of a romance, some violence (don't hurt the faeries!), and being a Taylor novel, lots of darkness. Blackbringer by Laini Taylor is middle grade high fantasy at its most splendid.