62 pages • 2 hours read
Jennifer L. ArmentroutA Light in the Flame
Fiction | Novel | Adult | Published in 2021A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Series Context: The Flesh and Fire Saga
A Light in the Flame is the second book in the Flesh and Fire series, developing the saga’s overarching themes of the interplay between free will and destiny, the redemptive power of love, and resilience in the face of trauma. The series is set in a fantasy universe where mortals coexist with gods and magical creatures like draken (humanoid dragons) and wyverns (dragon-like creatures with two legs). The mortal realm consists of kingdoms like Lasania and Terra, while gods rule courts in Iliseeum. The most powerful gods are known as the Primals and have important duties such as judging souls, giving life, and providing wisdom. One of the most distinctive features of the universe is Ascension: a mechanism by which mortals can become gods and lesser gods can change into Primals. The mechanism of Ascension varies but typically involves the mortal being drained of blood until only the last drop remains and then brought back to life with a god’s blood. In A Shadow in the Ember, the first book in the series, Sera, the Princess of the mortal kingdom of Lasania, is fated to be the Consort of Nyktos, the Primal God of Death, as part of a deal between Nyktos’s father, Ethyos, and her ancestor. Sera’s ancestor, King Roderick, had promised the next daughter in his line for Nyktos in exchange for Lasania being saved from the Rot, the disease that is rendering lands barren in all the realms, causing drought and famine for humans.
Unknown to Nyktos, Sera has also secretly been trained to kill him after the wedding so that she can break free from the pact. Nyktos first introduces himself to Sera as a god named Ash. As Sera spends more time with Ash, she begins to fall in love with him. When Sera’s debauched and violent stepbrother, Tavius, has her stripped and beaten publicly for disrespecting him, Ash shows up to defend her and reveals his true identity. Sera kills Tavius, and Nyktos takes her to the Shadowlands, his court. In a series of revelations, Sera learns that Sir Holland, her mentor in Lasania, is an Arae or Fate, an ancient entity preceding even the Primals. Holland has been keeping watch over Sera since Ethyos, the Primal of Life, hid two embers of life in her. Ethyos had suspected that another Primal would try to take them from him. Ethyos’s hunch was correct; his brother Kolis ultimately stole the embers from Ethyos, becoming the King of the Gods and the false Primal of Life. This means that Nyktos—to whom Ethyos had intended to give his embers—may be a worthier Primal of Life than the sadistic, power-hungry Kolis. Holland also discloses that Sera is the latest reincarnation of Sotoria, the mortal girl whom the cruel Kolis has pursued relentlessly through cycles of life and death. These reveals change everything that Sera had assumed about herself and Nyktos and raise questions regarding identity, destiny, and power, which are further explored in A Light in the Flame.
Series Context: Links to the Blood and Ash Series
The Flesh and Fire tetralogy is the spin-off prequel to the popular ongoing Blood and Ash series by Armentrout. In the Blood and Ash books, the mortal young woman Penellaphe (Poppy) Balfour Ascends to the unprecedented title of the first Primal of Life and Death. The Flesh and Fire books provide a vital backstory to Poppy’s origins, as well as the prophecy that foreshadows her Ascension. In Poppy’s world, the Primals and gods have receded from the realms, believed to be sleeping. The practice of Ascension continues, but in a corrupted form, where Maidens (young girls chosen by the gods and raised in complete isolation) are then given to the gods in exchange for Ascending certain important mortals. However, the Ascended in Poppy’s kingdom are not real gods but rather a kind of vampiric life form. As Poppy falls in love with and eventually weds Prince Casteel (Cas) Da’ Neer, whom she first thinks of as an enemy, she begins to grow in power. At first, she assumes that the power is from the blood of Cas (Cas is from Atlantia, the mortal kingdom believed to have the bloodlines of the gods). However, it is revealed that Poppy’s power is because of her ancestry and destiny.
Poppy is the direct descendant of Sera and Nyktos, which is why she can be the Primal of both Life and Death. The two series also contain several parallels that link Poppy and Sera. For instance, both Sera and Poppy grapple with the burden of destiny: While Sera is chosen as a Consort, Poppy is chosen as a Maiden. Love and intimacy help both characters gain confidence and self-acceptance, and both Poppy and Sera have the power to heal the wounds of others and feel their pain. The difference is that Sera tends to be more reckless than Poppy. There are also differences in the dynamics between the Sera-Nyktos and Poppy-Cas pairings. Cas is more impetuous and dominating than Nyktos, while Nyktos is gentler and more reserved. At the end of the Flesh and Fire series, Kolis is defeated by Sera and Nyktos and is entombed, which foreshadows that he will have a role to play in Poppy’s story as well. Sera, Nyktos, and the other Primals plan to ultimately hibernate to stop the misuse of power in their universe, waiting to be awoken by the prophesized Primal of Life and Death, their descendant.
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By Jennifer L. Armentrout
