Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for giving me a free advanced copy in exchange for an honest review. 4.5 stars

Stars: 4 out of 5

This is the third series I have picked up by this author and I can say with confidence that Django Wexler is a creator of worlds, which is good praise in my books. Each of his series has a very distinct feel, with an original world and engaging characters. 

I loved a glimpse of the world in this book, where humans live on the ruins of a war between two Elder races - the Chosen and the Ghouls, who had been intent on mutual annihilation. The Ghouls unleashed the Plague that wiped out the Chosen, but not before they bombed the ghoul underground cities into oblivion. That was 400 years ago. Humanity inherited a planet full of ruins, broken weapons, and magical artifacts. And also plaguespawn - an unfortunate side-effect of the Plague. These monsters have just one purpose - attack anything living and assimilated it, and they prefer humans. Unfortunately, they are also all over the place, so humanity lives in cities and walled villages, and travel is dangerous...

I also really liked both of our siblings - Maya and Gyre. Even though they are on the opposite ends of this conflict, it's really hard to say who is right and who is wrong. They both believe in their own truths. They are both decent people deep inside. They are also very young, so they still see the world in black and white, even though they allowed a few shades of gray in the end which helped them find a compromise long enough to get out of a very bad situation they were in. 

I liked that they both felt "alive" to me. No, I didn't agree with all of their actions, especially with what Gyre did in Deepfyre, but I understood their motivations. To me, that's the most important part. I might not like the character or agree with them, but I need their actions to make sense with what I know about them. That's exactly what I get every time I pick up a Django Wexler book. 

Of course, there are still a lot of questions left unanswered - who or what is that black spider that Maya keeps encountering. How did it get ahold of Jaedia? What is the Thing on Maya's chest and why does the spider call her an experiment? What are the plaguespawn and are they really the by-product of the Plague? Are the Chosen really gone? And a lot more.

 So this book accomplishes what a first book in a series is supposed to do - introduces an interesting world with engaging characters and left us with enough questions to pick up the next book. Well done, Mr. Wexler, well done. I am definitely continuing with this series. 

PS: I received a fee copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.

It took me longer than I'd like to really sink my teeth into Ashes of the Sun. It might be because it's been a bit since I've read an epic fantasy, or it might be because this book is extremely slow to start. Nothing really happens for the first third of the book -- no real insight into what the plot might be, no huge action, nothing like that. It's primarily world-building, which is fine, considering this is the first book in a trilogy. However, y'gotta give me something. Despite that, I never really considered DNFing this, I just muddled through until it got interesting. The world is what kept me reading -- Ashes of the Sun's setting is wildly unique. Set 400 years after a war, the world is broken, with vast differences in how classes live. The poor live deep underground, barely scraping an existence by, while the rich through extravagant parties without a care in the world. There's magic, science, alchemy, and all sorts of fascinating creatures.

The two main characters -- Gyre and Maya -- are brother and sister. Throughout the book, their plotlines weave in and out from each other, which was a really cool way to piece the story together. I think, overall, I liked Maya's storyline better. Maya is an apprentice of sorts, for the Twilight Order. She's close to gaining her title, at the start of the book, and she's doing everything she can to earn that privilege. She's got a more of a welcoming personality, versus her very grumpy brother who just wants to end the Twilight Order. Their relationship was interesting - I truly can't wait to see where it goes in the next books.

My biggest beef with this book is that it wasn't sure what story it wanted to tell for a long time. It's not until like...halfway through the book that the main plotline actually comes into being. Like I said earlier -- setting up for a trilogy takes a lot of work, but maybe this needed to go back to the drawing board a couple more times to really tighten it up. Maybe I'm the only one who feels this way, who knows. There was a lot of potential here, but a great deal of it went unused. (Though the plaguespawn and the horrors they represented were extremely cool.) You can tell the author is an enormous fan of Star Wars, and that that particular universe was...how shall we say...borrowed from quite frequently. I have nothing against that, as it was used in very cool ways.

The world and everything set up in Ashes of the Sun will definitely have me picking up the sequel, I just hope Blood of the Chosen is a little more well-rounded.

Not exactly what I would describe as a bad book, but had a number of things that really annoyed me personally - my own pet peeves in fantasy. I was glad a lot of other people liked it, but I honestly can't stand the generic, wise cracking, quip for everything, "hero"/"the gang" characters and can't get through anything once it becomes clear that's the central focus. This is not a failing of the author, this is just a simple case of "this book wasn't written for you."

I hesitated so long to review this one because my own personal pet peeves in a book do not equal a bad book. I normally would have tried a book like this, figured out it wasn't for me, and then not read or reviewed it at all. Since you can't do that with Netgalley without being punished, this is the review you get. This is one of the many reasons I think Netgalley REALLY needs to allow potential reviewers the opportunity to read a short sample of a book before requesting it.

I requested this one because I wanted to sample and determine if it was a book I wanted to request for review. However, after reading the first few chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes.

Ashes of the Sun is high on sheer badassery and cool fight scenes, and low on what one might call "plot progression" or "emotional impact."

The Good
– Awesome sensory descriptions
– Awesome combat scenes and descriptions
– Badass lead characters
– Solid writing style
–

The Bad
– The anime hair colours
– Character deaths with no repercussions
– Unintuitive worldbuilding
– Not enough character conflict or tension
– Not enough meaningful plot for a book of 180k words


Story—★★☆☆☆
Characters—★★★☆☆
Writing Style—★★★★☆
Themes and Representation—★★★☆☆
Overall—★★★☆☆

Twelve years ago, a centarch from the Twilight Order arrived at Gyre and Maya's home. He took Maya to the Order's headquarters to heal her chronic respiratory illnesses and to train her as a centarch. He gave Gyre a gruesome facial scar for the audacity to stand in his way. Twelve years later, Maya is a trainee in the Twilight Order, on the cusp of receiving her cognomen and becoming a full-fledged centarch. Gyre is an infamous criminal, working with the daughter of a dead rebel leader in the tunnels under Deepfire hoping to find the legendary Ghoul Tomb and its equally legendary contents—a weapon powerful enough to bring down the order that tore Gyre's family apart.

Here's the thing: I've done a lot of reading with Ashes of the Sun, but despite some fun moments, I don't feel like I got satisfactory payout comparative to the length of the book. I've gotten more intrigue, more character development, more mystery and more fun from shorter books by Wexler, so I know they're things he's capable of writing.

Ultimately, there are two key issues with Ashes of the Sun. First, although this is a character-driven novel, there is very little character conflict or character growth present. Second, very little of what happened affected them or the world around them. Sure, Maya and Gyre are doing things, and those things are pretty badass. But comparing them and the world they live in at the beginning of the book versus Maya and Gyre and the world at the end, the change is minimal—painfully minimal when one takes in the comparative length of their 180,000-word journey. For a book that pits two siblings on opposite sides, their inevitable reunion and clash of ideology fails to live up to its build-up.

The core of Ashes of the Sun is how badass Maya and Gyre are and, in particular, how badass they are in combat. If you want badass characters in badass fights, Ashes of the Sun has both in spades. These fights are the core appeal of the book: Wexler writes exceptional fight scenes, and he writes a lot of them. He's innovative in strategy and masterful with sensory details.

Wexler has conceived a pretty cool world, but our introduction to it and its elements are painfully unintuitive. It feels a bit like we've been dropped halfway into a conversation and we're struggling to find enough context to get a clear picture of what's going on. I'm glad there was a glossary at the end, but I hated needing to use it.

Ashes of the Sun is told in third person, past tense in alternating chapters between Gyre's and Maya's point of view.
Wexler has a really solid, readable style. It's plainer, but quite functional, and the attention to—but not overwhelming focus on—detail really bring the world and characters of Ashes of the Sun to life. As mentioned above, Wexler's strength is during action scenes, and authors skilled at writing action scenes are rare.


Several were described as brown-skinned, but unattached and unaffiliated with any real culture or history (reinforced by the anime-coloured hair; I am talking green hair here, folks). The world seems queer-friendly, if not queernorm. Maya and Beq are both definitely sapphic, and another character Kit is bi or pan. Several characters have physical disabilities or chronic illness, most of them aided-but-not-cured-by in-world magic.


Ashes of the Sun is good "action movie"-type fun: brain off, eyes glazed, swords out, magic go bang. It's just... action movies aren't supposed to be fifteen hours long.


Recommended For...
Those who love a good action scene or general badassery; secret underground long-dead societies; complicated sibling rivalries.

I've been having a run of subpar books and Django Wexler is always a good time for me, so I picked this new series up.

One of the things I really like about Wexler's work is his discussion of tactics and strategy, which probably stems from his gaming background. His Thousand Names series really showcases his ability in this area. One thing to know about this new series is that so far it does not lean in that direction. He can still write a great fight scene, but there are no armies on the march. Instead, this book focuses on two storylines. Another thing to know is that this series sprang from some thoughts Wexler had about Star Wars and how exactly Jedi Knights would work in the Republic.

So, the storylines follow two siblings separately. One was taken from her family young and raised to be a centarch, one of the few people in the world who can manipulate a force that's... kind of like The Force. Her brother, who was injured when he tried to keep her from being taken, has grown up hating the Republic and all it stands for. He's a criminal who wants to burn it all down. What could possibly happen when they meet at last?

I really loved Maya, the young "Jedi". She's a paladin, a holy warrior who feels a vocation to protect those who can't protect themselves. Gyre, her brother, was fine but I didn't love him the way I did Maya, partly because he had what I considered to be bad taste in women. Maya's taste in women, on the other hand, I totally approve of.

Also, this world has one of my favorite things- it's fallen world with ancient technology/magic everywhere, and people delve into ruins to bring out tech to sell and use and... profit! There's both Force-related arcana and biotech related "dhak", which is looked on as perverse and evil, because some people can use it to create hideous monsters called plaguespawn, which is part of what the Chosen warriors are protecting everybody from. There is clearly some history/backstory here that's going to end up playing out with Maya and Gyre.

As hoped, I had great fun with this book. I await more in the series!

What a fun ride! In short, Ashes of the Sun is a dual-perspective, Star Wars-esque novel that follows a pair of siblings, one who was taken at age 5 to join the book's version of the Jedi and the other, who hates said order.

Gyre was 8 when his sister, Maya was taken by the Twilight Order. She'd shown signs of being able to use the magic of The Chosen, so she was taken. She grew up in the order, and while she saw many of its warts, she also saw how vital the protection it provided is. When you live in a world where flesh amalgamations run rampant, having magic-using, lightsaber-wielding folks around can be pretty nice. On the other hand, Gyre watched his sister get taken, lost an eye in the process, and proceeded to watch his world fall apart. He's always been part of the under-class, which means if he sees the Order at all, he sees warts, at best.

The story jumps twelve years into the future. Maya is an initiate who will likely be made into a full Centarch soon. Gyre is a member of a Robin Hood-esque troop in the tunnels under a city. Fate twists, as it does in all great stories, and that's the meat of our story.

Ashes of the Sun is an action-packed story centered on a centuries-old conflict and the pawns in that conflict. It sets up the rest of the trilogy wonderfully while also being a fulfilling package, in and of itself. There's a coming-of-age story and a revenge story intertwined through the perspectives, and there're romances in each that fit their respective storylines, and the conclusion brings everything together in just enough of a way while still drawing the reader in for the sequel. If you're a fan of the big-name fantasy of today, this should be on your radar.

Holy moly... this book. Where do start?? I have read Django Wexler's novels before and though I really enjoy his stories and characters, I found the pace to be a bit slow for me. Although this book took some time to build this incredible, unique, and sometimes terrifying world, I felt like the pace was faster and kept me engrossed in the story. The characters are well done, which is not a surprise. Wexler has a way with well-written characters. I loved the mix of science fiction and fantasy. The world reminded me a bit of Peter Newman's "The Vagrant Trilogy", which happens to be one of my absolute favorite series. I enjoyed this book immensely and will be excited to pick up the next one!

I read Wexler's YA books but none of his previous adult books. This was definitely a good book to start with. It was easy to like the characters & root for them. The pacing is good & the plot is cool.

The concept of this story was really interesting, but I found the story difficult to follow at times. The book had me hooked in the beginning. I couldn't wait to get to know the characters, but the further I get i found it harder to root for them.
I desperately wanted to love this book, but it just didn't work out for me and my personal tastes. I would love to check out more works by this author if any come out in the future.

Mr. Wexler’s imagined world is awesomely well done, his characters fully drawn, and the action does not let up. But I simply could not get past the almost over the cartoonish pictures flitting through my head while reading. It wasn't up to other books from this author and it seems that everyone needs to have the obligatory LGBTQ charcter(s) now.

Meh.. I wasn't feeling this one.

I love complex fantasy worlds, but this one just wasn't as intriguing as I initially believed it was going to be. The world itself was wide and open for discovery, but I just wasn't a fan of the characters. So I ended up trudging through roughly 30% of the way before finally deciding to put it aside.

I may try picking it up again in the distant future, but for now, it's a DNF.

The world building in this book was my favorite part! The divided city, messy politics, and people fighting for power made for an intriguing and driven story.
I really loved the characters in this story. Maya was my favorite because she always undoubtedly believed she was doing the right thing and I loved that about her! All of the characters were well developed.

This is my first of Django Wexler’s books, though I’ve been aware of him for years. It’s not going to be the last, and not just because this is first in a trilogy. This book was a great way to end my 2020 year in reading.

This book is set in a world a few hundred years after the end of a war between elder races, who wiped each other out. Human society was built by the Chosen, who arranged things so civilization would continue after they were gone (albeit with a lower standard of living). But the world is still infested with plaguespawn, an ever present danger left over from the plague the ghouls unleashed to kill the Chosen at the end of the war.

The two protagonists are a pair of siblings, Gyre and Maya, who haven’t seen each other since Gyre was 8 and Maya 5. Maya was taken away from her home by the Twilight Order, which was set up by the Chosen to protect civilization. The Order maintains the magic that humans can still use, hunts down the dangerous ghoul artifacts that remain, and protects humanity from the plaguespawn. Maya was born with the ability to use Chosen magic, and so she was taken to be trained as Centarch of the Order. This was against her wishes (though, as she points out herself, she was 5; her wishes should only count for so much). Gyre, the big brother protector, was desperate to keep her from being taken.

In the twelve years since, Maya has nearly reached the end of her training. Though she knows the Order isn’t perfect - it’s divided among rival factions, and has its share of corruption and zealotry - she also knows that they do a great deal of good in the world. The protection they provide is absolutely needed, and it’s thanks to the Order that humanity has flourished as well as it has since the end of the war.

Gyre sees things differently. As far as he’s concerned, the Twilight Order is a bunch of hypocrites and tyrants. The only power they approve of is that which they control. Any powers that originated with the ghouls (even something as innocuous as the pesticides Gyre and Maya’s father kept carefully hidden in a shed back home) is anathema and punishable by death. Except of course for the ghoul magic that’s simply too useful to ignore; that’s ok, but only when Order-approved. The Order holds humanity back, keeping them shackled to the desires of a race long dead and gone and answerable to none.

I happen to think they’re both right.

And that is a recipe for a hell of a good story.

It’s not a spoiler (because it’s freaking obvious, and actually says so right out in the blurb) that Maya and Gyre cross paths over the course of this book. They disagree on pretty much everything, but they still love each other and neither wants to hurt the other. I’m extraordinarily interested in seeing where this goes in the rest of the trilogy. The book itself reads like a mix of many of /r/Fantasy’s favorites. Fans of Brandon Sanderson, Joe Abercrombie, and Scott Lynch will all find things in this that appeal.

Ashes of the Sun was a great read for me. I love big, high fantasy novels that delve deep into their own lore. Something that was really great about this book is the first chapter was so well written and so enticing that it hooked me, which is hard to do for such a long novel. The story was well crafted and I look forward to reading the next book in the series when it comes out.

Set in a world where a magical war a generation ago or so destroyed an empire, only to have another grow in its place that is stuck in place with little to no progress. Gyre saw his little sister be taken by the magical order that has been in place since the war. He made it is life’s work to try and take down that order. But Maya, his sister, is now a member of that order and both will have to reconcile how they view the world when their loved one is on the other side of battle. Maya also struggles with how she sees the order she is a part of and what the leadership does with their power. I really enjoyed the magic systems and the intrigue in this book. The characters are pretty solid as well. If you enjoy stories with the little guy fighting against tradition and trying to figure out a better future, this is for you.

I love many of Django Wexler's other books, but I just couldn't get into this one. I liked the summary a lot, and the world was extremely complex. However, I felt like I didn't have enough background knowledge going into every scene. I had no idea what some of the animals were or what they looked like, and I wasn't really clear what the different sides were or what they stood for. I really wanted to enjoy this one, but I was constantly confused.

an adult fantasy that centers around two siblings on opposite sides between two ancient races. i love the worldbuilding and characters, i enjoyed their interactions with each other. cant wait for the next book the series.

i really enjoyed reading this book, it had what i was looking for in a scifi novel, the characters were great and I enjoyed the storyline.