The epic conclusion to The Nethergrim fantasy series! Edmund battles evil with spells, Katherine battles with swords, and Tom with humility and wisdom. Together they've repelled the great wizard Vithric and defeated the otherworldly Skeleth, but nothing has prepared them for the ultimate test--a final, all-out fight against the Nethergrim itself. As the fabric of their world begins to crumble, the salvation of the kingdom hinges on their success. In the great tradition of classic series like John Flanagan's Ranger's Apprentice, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones, Matthew Jobin crafts a magnificent, action-packed fantasy world that feels culled from the pages of history. The Nethergrim was selected for New York Public Library's Best Books for Teens 2014 Texas Library Association's 2015 Lone Star Reading List Finalist for the 2015 Monica Hughes Science Fiction and Fantasy Award Finalist for the 2015 NCIBA Middle Grade Award Praise for The Nethergrim series: "The kind of series that hooks both new and veteran readers." -- Booklist "[A] solid contender for the teen answer to Game of Thrones."--Kirkus "The Nethergrim reminded me of a cross between The Lord of the Rings and Harry Potter... I would really like to see this one on the big screen."-- Brodart's Library Services "Jobin is a fine writer . . . Recommend this to fans of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson or Brandon Mull's Fablehaven series."--VOYA

Originally published in hardcover in 2014 by Philomel Books.

Discover for yourself why reviewers are comparing The Nethergrim to Lord of the Rings, Narnia, and Ranger's Apprentice! The next great epic fantasy is here . . . For the lords of the north, land is power. The Nethergrim, now awoken and free to wreak its evil upon the world, offers the promise of victory to those ruthless enough to accept its foul bargain. One ambitious lord, eager for the chance to conquer and rule, succumbs to temptation and helps to free the Skeleth—eerie, otherworldly beings said to be unstoppable in battle. The Skeleth merge with the bodies of their victims, ruling their minds and turning them into remorseless killers. Worse yet, to kill the man inside the Skeleth only frees it to seize a new host, starting a cycle of violence that has no end. Such chilling tales are not enough to stop young Edmund, innkeeper’s son and would-be wizard, from seeking for a way to turn back the oncoming tide of destruction. Along with his best friends—Katherine the trainer of war-horses and Tom the runaway slave—Edmund searches for a magical weakness in the Skeleth, something that might allow him to break their never-ending curse. The three friends join with the legendary hero Tristan in a battle of courage, wisdom, wits, and sacrifice to stop the Skeleth from ravaging their homeland and all they hold dear. This adventurous tale that marries earthly greed to otherworldly evil is perfect for fans who enjoy the epic worlds of John Flanagan's Ranger’s Apprentice, Robert Jordan's The Wheel of Time, J.R.R. Tolkien's The Lord of the Rings, and George R.R. Martin's Game of Thrones. Discover for yourself why so many are making the comparisons! Praise for The Skeleth "[A] solid contender for the teen answer to Game of Thrones." —Kirkus Reviews "Jobin is a fine writer . . . Recommend this to fans of Rick Riordan’s Percy Jackson or Brandon Mull’s Fablehaven series." —VOYA "With this sequel, Jobin has expanded this fantasy adventure into a series of epic proportions. . . [T]he kind of series that hooks both new and veteran readers." —Booklist "The book ends on a cliff-hanger that will have readers anticipating the next volume. Fans of the first title will enjoy this new adventure; purchase this growing series where middle school YA readers are ravenous for epic fantasy." —School Library Journal

Like photogravures, the images of Murmur and Crush etch memory and landscape into indelible emotional content. The road, once, the fields, now, a boy, an afternoon, wings, horses, orchards, and ladders appear and disappear, woven into reoccurring motifs, always unexpected and elemental. These poems implicate the world broadly but depict it intimately. They exist in the past and present at once. Here, Janson writes, Truth's got a murky taste. As poet Carol Potter says of this collection, "The joy we find... is an earned joy; rapture in spite of the demise of everything." We're all/ pilgrims, Janson writes, Sometimes we're incandescent. Maya Janson's richly evocative poems embody through visible things the turbulent cross-currents of the interior world where even on a good day obsessions pile up/like wrecked cars on a freeway in the fog; where, in the mind behind your mind, one thing spawns another in a wild tumult of images--impassioned, improbable, playful, intuitive, revelatory: the unbidden, the not-searched-for, producing an exuberant vision of beauty outlasting what destroys it: Though the garden is stockpiling beetles, /the rose maintains its posture of durable bliss. - Eleanor Wilner Wide-open love of the world and its mad inhabitants is one of the holiest of the heart's affections. And that's what you get in Maya Janson's Murmur and Crush-total acceptance of the as-is world, seduced into being by that beautiful tag team, Bemusement and Sorrow. I love the arc of these poems, how an image plunges through the opening of each one and begins to transform itself in ways that are always surprising but inevitably true. Splintered, as she says, but not wholly undone. This is a book with energy and verve to spare. - David Rivard