In the nation of Terria, those who have the ability to control heat with only their minds take a test on their sixteenth birthdays. The outcome determines their career for the rest of their lives -- if they will work in their native villages, or if they will slave for the king in an unfamiliar capital which possesses the only summers in all of Terria.
Luka was labeled with this gift as a child -- termed "cinderworker" -- and somehow she has never been able to summon the gift at the strength and power that seems so natural to others with the same ability. And yet on the day of her sixteenth birthday, she is given the highest score on the test. This lands her on a train to the fate that so many dread -- the work in the capital that is shrouded in mystery and lies. No one truly believes the tales of grandeur that are spun around this work. And Luka cannot understand why she of all people would be given the score that only goes to the most capable of all cinderseekers, when she can’t light a candle to save her own skin.
When she arrives at Alderven, capital of Terria, she is exposed to a completely new life, where teenagers are slaves for an elite who hold an entirely different kind of power than fire, and where whispers of a concealed national history give Luka more reason to find out why the weakest cinderworker may be the strongest hope for a revolution.
The story is dystopian fantasy -- the result of a faulty society in another universe. There are many, many flawed characters. There are unexplained mysteries taken for granted and whole histories hidden by the sheer force of weather control. And heat manipulation is as common a gift as dragons were common five hundred years before the story picks up. Underneath fire, winter, and what may or may not be extinct, A Falling Ember is about love, war, family, politics, and the never-ending secrets wound inside every nook and cranny of humanity.
Trailer Disclaimer: I own only the book, the map, the pictures of the girl and the knife, and the trailer video itself. I made the trailer with much help from Google Images and iMovie. Thanks to both, and to Inkshares for the amazing opportunity.