In the floating city of Caer Thalos, where stars are harvested for magical power and boundaries between realms are maintained through ancient magic, Aeryn Vale has always been an outsider. A scholarship student with no apparent magical ability, she's stunned when she's inexplicably chosen as one of five initiates granted access to the legendary Library of Hollow Stars?a place sealed for a thousand years after it mysteriously devoured an entire generation of mages.
When Aeryn crosses the Library's threshold, a strange mark appears on her skin, and the Library begins speaking to her. As she and her fellow initiates?aristocratic Lysander Nightveil, practical inventor Mira Dawnseeker, shadow-touched Dorian Wraithwood, and dreamy diviner Elara Skydweller?venture deeper into the impossible architecture of the Library, Aeryn discovers she's not who she thought she was.
She is the daughter of the Queen of the Hollow, a powerful being who sealed herself within the Library a millennium ago to maintain the boundaries between three realms: the Astral Realm of conscious stars, the Void that exists between them, and the Material World where humans dwell. But these boundaries are failing, stars are dying, and an ancient entity called the Hollow grows stronger with each weakened connection.
As Aeryn recovers her buried memories and awakens to her true nature as a Nexus?a living bridge between realms?she must make an impossible choice. She can follow her mother's path and sacrifice herself to maintain artificial separation between realms, or she can pioneer a new approach: a distributed network of balanced connections that might heal the cosmic structure itself.
But powerful forces resist this transformation. The aristocratic Nightveil family has spent generations seeking to ascend to the Astral Realm, regardless of the cost. The Council of Nine that governs Caer Thalos fears change to the power structure that has privileged them for centuries. And entities from all three realms pursue their own agendas as the boundaries between them grow increasingly thin.
The Library of Hollow Stars is a captivating dark academia fantasy where magic meets cosmic philosophy. With rich world-building and complex characters, this novel explores themes of balance, connection, and the courage to transform rigid boundaries into interfaces that allow for both distinct identity and necessary exchange. Perfect for fans of Olivie Blake's The Atlas Six and Samantha Shannon's The Priory of the Orange Tree.
