Melanie Card

Melanie Card writes fantasy for teen readers that combines mystery, romance, and supernatural adventure. Ward Against Death opens the Chronicles of a Reluctant Necromancer series with Ward de’Ath, an aspiring physician whose forbidden experiments have forced him toward necromancy. A commission to revive Celia Carlyle for fifteen minutes changes direction when Celia insists that someone killed her and asks him to help uncover the truth. Their escape turns a controlled ritual into an investigation involving family secrets, dangerous enemies, and Ward’s uncertain obligations. Entangled Publishing issued the novel as a work of fantasy for younger readers. The sequel, Ward Against Darkness, continues the pair’s story and expands the political and magical conflict surrounding them. Card gives the series a distinctive center by making Ward cautious, medically minded, and reluctant to treat death as a simple source of power. Ward Against Death uses that tension to connect its central mystery with questions of professional ethics, loyalty, and the cost of keeping an impossible promise.