Fire Against the Dark

It is written for readers aged nine to twelve, and it reads aloud well to younger children from about seven. The peril is real but never gory, and there is plenty of humour.

A chimney-sweep orphan called Wren finds a brass lamp that burns without oil and cannot be sold. When the city's wall of lamps fails and shadow-creatures called Hollows pour in, she and her friends must decide what the lamp is for.

Old Ash teaches it in Chapter 8: it cannot be bought, stolen or earned, only given. And its second half: what is given, grows.

Yes. Like the classic Christian fantasies, it tells the gospel's shape as a story rather than a sermon: grace that cannot be earned, a light the darkness cannot put out, and a Lampwright whose story readers will recognise. It never names God or quotes Scripture directly.

Wren Ashby, a quick-tongued sweep and thief; Tobin Harrowgate, the Warden's clever son, who is secretly afraid of the dark; Old Ash, the last true Lamplighter; and Cinder, his ember-fox, who sneezes sparks.

In the old stories he came down from the Bright Mountain with true fire, lit lamps for anyone who asked and never charged, and was snuffed out on Cinder Hill, until on the third morning the Flame burned again on the mountain. Readers may notice that he is closer to the story than anyone thinks.

Fifteen chapters and about forty-eight thousand words, much the length of a classic children's fantasy. Each chapter is a good evening's reading.

Yes. It is the first of six books in The Lamplighters of Gloamhaven. Each can be read on its own, and together they follow the long road to the Bright Mountain.