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Reviewed by Asher Syed for Readers' Favorite
Nicholas Acker’s Pure Light: Shadows That Wait for Me follows Gem, a young woman who wakes beside a river with no memory of her name. A living orb of light she names Diamond leads her through the forest toward Sapphiria, where she discovers a land divided by war pitting Lunaria against the Nocturnia Covenant. Gem soon learns she can use magic, yet the black key-shaped mark in her palm suggests her forgotten past may be connected to something forbidden. After meeting Nyla Thalassa, a young magic-born woman searching for news of her father, Gem travels toward the capital of Lunaria in search of answers. With Covenant followers hunting magic-born people across Noctros, Gem must learn what her abilities mean as questions about who she was grow harder to ignore.
Nicholas Acker’s Shadows That Wait for Me is fantastic epic fantasy, and the author builds Noctros with wonderful imagination. Gem is instantly likable, especially when her curiosity comes through as she tastes Veloran bread for the first time. That same sense of wonder fills her first sight of the Siren’s Veil, Wilfred’s enormous ship on Eclipsian Lake. Nyla is another favorite, with a quick mouth matched by real tenderness when she hides Diamond inside her hair so the little light can travel safely. The worldbuilding is expansive, with the different regions of Noctros giving the story a grand sense of scale. You see that beautifully in Lunaria, where the council sits beneath a domed ceiling painted with constellations as stained-glass windows depict the war between the goddess sisters through their champions. And the settings! They are totally visual, whether it's Eclipsian Lake beneath the morning sun, or the Shrouded Wraithwoods, where fog clings beneath ash-gray trees as rotting branches crowd the path toward the Spire. I would give this book a whole bucket of stars if I could. Very highly recommended.
