The Diamond Of Darkhold

Content Warning: This section of the guide includes discussion of illness and death.

The City of Ember series consists of The City of Ember (2003), The People of Sparks (2004), The Prophet of Yonwood (2006), and The Diamond of Darkhold (2008). While the books were published in the sequence noted, The Prophet of Yonwood serves as a “prequel” to the overall story, with its events occurring first in the narrative timeline.

Ember, a city in a massive cavern under the Earth’s surface, is the common bond between the books. Ember is built in the mid-21st century when war and apocalyptic destruction seem imminent. A group of engineers and scientists secretly plan, construct, and outfit Ember as a safe location where the human race can continue for at least 200 years. To ensure that everyone stays in Ember, no information about the world on the surface will be shared with its new generations. 

Besides stocking the city with supplies, the Builders prepare Ember in three important ways: 1) A generator is installed, powered by a fierce underground river, that creates electricity for light and appliances; 2) The Builders, planning for residents’ eventual departure once the surface is habitable again, leave a booklet describing the path out (the Instructions for Egress) in a box with a timed lock on it. Each successive mayor of Ember will keep the box secret without knowing its contents until it opens; 3) To help reestablish society on the surface, the Builders also leave a set of devices with a Directions for Use booklet just outside Ember’s exit.

The Prophet of Yonwood helps to explain the origins of Ember. Around 2050, an 11-year-old girl, Nickie Randolph, travels to Yonwood, North Carolina. While there, Nickie learns that a local woman’s strange vision seems to foretell upcoming destruction from the impending global war. Misunderstanding this vision, townspeople believe sacrifices and repentance may stave off annihilation, resulting in drastic, fear-based choices. The “prophet” of Yonwood later explains how they misinterpreted her vision. 

Meanwhile, a Yonwood astronomer, Hoyt McCoy, makes contact with beings in outer space and shares his discovery with the government. Thanks to his exciting encounter, war does not occur, though its threat prompts the construction of Ember in California by the Builders, one of whom is Nickie’s father. Almost 50 years later, however, the Disaster that will indeed erase civilization looms. Nickie, now 60, is selected to be among Ember’s 100 original inhabitants. These older adults are given 100 small babies to raise, and the group is brought secretly to Ember. Nickie leaves a brief journal behind in Ember’s cave that Lina later finds.

The original inhabitants promise to raise the babies to believe no world exists except for Ember. Once Nickie’s generation passes away, successive generations think that Ember’s sky is naturally dark and that no one can leave because the Outer Regions are too dangerous. However, as The City of Ember opens, Emberites have stayed longer than the Builders planned: The seventh mayor dies before telling anyone that the locked box in his charge is important. Lina Mayfleet, 11, happens upon the box many years later, long after the lock timed out—and just after her baby sister Poppy chews and tears the printed pages inside. 

Suspecting the booklet is important, Lina seeks help from Doon Harrow, 11, a classmate she knows is worried about the state of Ember’s dying generator. Together, they use the booklet’s remaining clues to find the way out of Ember. They bravely follow the path, discover Nickie’s journal, and realize they and previous generations have lived their entire lives under the real surface of the Earth. Lina and Doon throw an explanatory note down into Ember via a crevice; soon, the other citizens follow them out. Now refugees, the Emberites begin walking, never seeing the steel-lined vault since it is so overgrown with trees. Days later, they find the village of Sparks.

In The People of Sparks, the town leaders find ways to incorporate the refugees from Ember, but it is not easy; having no electricity, their lives are already difficult, and food stores are low. A young man, Tick Hassler, fakes cruel messages and other antagonistic acts to spur conflict between the two groups, some blame for which falls on Doon through lies spread by a young boy, Torren. Doon reveals the lies with the help of young Kenny Parton. Meanwhile, Lina stows away on a roamer’s wagon, hoping to see the city of beautiful buildings she has long envisioned. The roamer, Caspar, has brought Torren, his brother, interesting finds like light bulbs. Caspar finds the city in ruins, and Lina returns to Sparks. While the villagers and Emberites make peace with one another, they know they must work hard to prepare for winter.

In the last scene of The People of Sparks, Doon creates a hand-cranked motor that lights up one of Torren’s light bulbs. This light symbolizes the hope that permeates the overall narrative, and Lina and Doon’s inherent sense that the future holds something brighter. It also foreshadows further discoveries in The Diamond of Darkhold.