It was a true apocalypse, with avenging angels and plagues and lots of deaths. Now the war between Dark and Light continues to play out over a noticeably depopulated earth, where humans and supernats and a whole range of crossbreeds of differing characteristics live in isolated communities under a very real fear of God and the Holy Hosts.

Thorn St. Croix is a neomage, one of the supernats who first arose about a hundred years ago during the Third Plague and are able to manipulate creation energies to work magic. Neomages live together in gilded sanctuaries/cages called Enclaves, with an occasional few sent out under short term licenses and GPS tracking to complete tasks among men. Mage work may be precious but mages themselves are considered anathema. A quirk in her powers means life in the Enclaves will drive Thorn quite literally mad, and her departure years ago wasn't exactly sanctioned. The penalty for being an unlicensed mage caught outside the Enclaves is death. But now the Dark has attacked those she cares about and her body is automatically reacting to new supernats both Light and Dark around her. The days of keeping who and what she is secret as she hides among men are about to come to a very abrupt and violent end...

This is an edgy, interesting read. The world itself is unsettling, where Thorn casually puts on today's world clothes of jeans and T-shirts before going out into a mini Ice Age world where transport has reverted to horseback (although vestigial high tech exists), so she can deal magically with nightwalkers and seraphs. That T-shirt can be more of a jolt than the magic itself, because of how it resonates to tie this post-apocalyptic world closely to our own. There are subplots within subplots and regular sharp surprises in a story that encompasses elements of fantasy, religious fanaticism, romance, adventure and epic battles. An interesting new fantasy, full of action and ideas. I look forward to the next book hinted at by the ending.