I was quite surprised by this. Beyond the Night by Colleen Gleason is the first in her Heroes of New Vegas saga, although you can also find it listed as first in the Envy Chronicles on Goodreads. I feel its best described as post-apocalyptic sci fi, but there are fantasy elements in there.

So in this timeline, 2010(ish) rolls around and everything gets wiped out. Like EVERYTHING.  There are first a rash of natural disasters: earthquakes, floods, fires, storms, etc.  The land mass of continents are reduced by like half.  Then a helluvalotta people just drop dead for no apparent reason.  Once things calm down, maybe like 1% of the world population survives.

Elliot and his buddies were cave diving at the time. When the first earthquake hit, they were knocked out or something and held in a type of stasis for fifty years before walking out and seeing the world as they knew it was gone and hey they got some nifty new powers!

And they also learn that humans are no longer alone on the planet. Strangers, beings who were human or at least look human, who have crystals embedded in their skin and are practically immortal.  They came after the destruction of the old world, they pass themselves off as friends and allies, but not everything believes their intentions are good.

As the first in the series, Beyond the Night is a lot of background info, world building, etc. I honestly did not think I would be able to get through this book, until the word ‘Atlantis’ came up.  After that
I was hooked, I’m such a sucker for anything Atlantean.  And the overall events/story interested me enough that not only did I finish this one, but I’m probably going to pick up the rest of the series.

But until then we’re going to check out Infinity Blade: Awakening by Brandon Sanderson next.

 

Trained from birth in swordplay and combat, a young knight named Siris has journeyed to the Dark Citadel with a single purpose: fight through the army of Titans to face the tyrannical God King in one-on-one combat. This was his father’s sacred mission, and his father’s before him, going back countless generations in an effort to free their people from enslavement. But when Siris somehow succeeds where all those from his bloodline previously have failed, he finds himself cast into a much larger world, filled with warriors and thieves, ancient feuds and shifting alliances, Deathless immortals and would-be kings. His quest for freedom will take him on an epic journey in search of the mythical figure known as the Worker of Secrets – the one being in the world who can unravel the secrets of the Infinity Blade.