Two girls, friends, grow up in Kithamar. They are poor and do whatever they can, including stealing, to get enough money to survive another day, to get a place to sleep and food to eat. Alys is the elder and looks out for Sammish. Sammish is an orphan with no one else to watch out for her and has the ability to fade away in a crowd. After Alys's brother is killed, the two friends' paths start to separate. Alys becomes obsessed with taking up her brother's mission and Sammish isn't interested as she sees what Alys's obsession is doing to her.

A royal intrigue is also taking place. The current prince of the land had an affair with a priestess and a son was born to her. The prince leaves, knowing that if necessary he had an heir that others didn't know of. When he became sick, he sent for the child but by then, others knew and those in opposition kidnapped the child. Now his mother has come to Kithamar to find her son and Sammish is helping her.

This is the first in a planned trilogy by Daniel Abraham. He has been nominated for the Hugo, Nebula and World Fantasy awards. Many know him as James S. A. Corey, the co-author of The Expanse series. In this series, he has chosen to focus on feminine leads. Alys, at first glance, seems to be the leader and the strong one of the friends, but as the story unfolds, Sammish in her quiet way, tends to accomplish what she sets out to do. The royal intrigue seems to be the event that will fuel the second novel in the series. I listened to this one and the narrator did a great job with a clear voice that one could listen to for an extended time if desired. This book is recommended for fantasy readers.

As is often the case with high fantasy, it takes a long time for this story to ramp up. You'd think with a world as complex and obviously well-known and fleshed out (in the author's mind) it would be easy to pick out just the right information to get us what we need, and the plot could take over and sweep us off into adventures and intrigue. Instead, it's almost like Abraham wants to prove to the reader that he knows so much, that every little thing is important. As such, the pacing suffers immensely. I had doubts going into this one because Leviathan Wakes (the first book of The Expanse) was absolutely not my jam, and again it feels like Abraham is writing the world backdrop for a video game or TV show rather than trying to tell a successful story.

There’s a secret at the heart of the city of Kithamar, but I’m not sure that we’ve plumbed the depths of it by the end of the first book in this projected trilogy. We’ve seen it as if through that glass very darkly indeed. I imagine that we won’t get the view face-to-face until much nearer the end.

So what do we have here?

Age of Ash is, at its own heart, a whole lot of setup and worldbuilding, in a world that really, really needs it in order for the reader to see where they are and why it matters. That setup, that story is told from the perspectives of two (very) young women at the bottom of this city-state-world’s economic ladder.

Alys and Sammish are descendants of Kithamar’s indigenous population, the Inlisc. Like most Inlisc they live in the downtrodden community-not-quite-ghetto of Longhill. They are both what the city calls “street-rats”, a term that is applied to all Longhill residents, but particularly to those who are so close to the bottom of the ladder – not that anyone Inlisc or anyone in Longhill is anywhere near the top – that they are one bad break or poor choice or unprofitable “pull” from sleeping on the streets.

(A “pull” in Longhill parlance is a theft or a cheat or a con game. Everyone does it in one fashion or another, if only to get one-up on their friends or get enough coin to spend a night out of the weather.)

But someone in the rich quarters, in the palace of the Prince of the City, has committed what looks like the biggest pull of them all. They’ve managed to steal the city from the direct line of royalty by putting a “cuckoo” in the royal nest.

The forces that are arrayed to steal the city back are deeper, darker and much more dangerous than anyone imagines. The doings of the power-that-be or would-be should be far above the tiny influence of people like Alys and Sammish.

But these two young women find themselves at the heart of a conspiracy larger, deadlier and with more far-reaching consequences than either of them ever imagined.

Neither they nor their city will ever be the same. No matter how much the city itself tries to maintain the status quo that keeps it in power.

Escape Rating B: Oh do I have mixed feelings about this one, but let me get this out of the way first. I listened to the audiobook of Age of Ash, and the narrator did an excellent job with the material. But, but, but I had some serious issues with the material. This turned out to be one of those books where I was content enough to continue the audio because the reader was terrific but had absolutely ZERO compulsion to switch to the ebook because I just wasn’t compelled to finish the story any faster. The couple of times I tried to switch to the text it kind of turned me off so I went back to the audio.

One of the things that bothered me about the story, and I think it’s something that has been growing on me as an issue, is that it seems as if when a male author writes a heroine’s journey the heroine – or in this case heroines plural – is just way more angsty and suffers considerably more, well, angst, but also grief and are just generally more downtrodden than a hero would be going through the exact same circumstances. This was also true in both Engines of Empire and The Starless Crown. Don’t get me wrong, i’s great to see more female-centric stories, but male writers just seem to give their heroines more baggage than is necessary, and it’s baggage that comes from our world’s issues with female centric-stories that are not romances, and not baggage that is inherent in the created world.

There were entirely too many points where it seemed as if the two women were in a race to see which of them would win the TSTL (that’s Too Stupid To Live), award and get themselves killed. I was both amazed and pleased to see them finally get themselves out of that spiral, but it made for some rough reading.

I’m contrasting all of this with T. Kingfisher’s female-centric stories (A Wizard’s Guide to Defensive Baking, Nettle & Bone and pretty much all the women in the Saint of Steel series but especially Bishop Beartongue), because her heroines just GET ON WITH IT, whatever it is. They don’t have the time or inclination to angst about their personal issues and they don’t have to start their stories completely downtrodden. They have a problem and they set about solving it. Like male heroes do. Like women do in real life.

The above is all my 2 cents pitched from the top of a very tall soapbox. But it tasks me. It seriously tasks me.

<Give me a second, I need to summon a stepstool to get down off this box.>

Back to Age of Ash in particular. The part of the story that is both fascinating and completely shrouded in mystery is the nature of the city and its ruling class, which is the secret at the heart of both. I don’t want to spoil it completely, although we do get hints of it fairly early, but it takes concepts from Dragon Age, The Anubis Gates, The Ruin of Kings and even more surprisingly The City We Became and wraps them up into a spiky ball with an overwhelming – but very interesting – swath of collateral damage.

And I don’t think we’ve nearly found out just how deeply awful that whole situation is yet. Probably all the way down to a circle of hell that not even Dante imagined.

Particularly because there’s plenty rotten at the heart of Kithamar, and it doesn’t all have to do with the mystical, magical mess that the plot – and the political plots IN the story – all circle around. It’s like an Ankh-Morpork without Vetinari at the helm to keep the city functional. Even the weather seems to be getting worse.

It feels like Age of Ash is an attempt to show a revolution starting at the bottom, with the tiny pebble starting an avalanche that will eventually consume the city – in spite of the city’s attempts to stop it. It’s certainly a very sympathetic portrait of life at the bottom of an epic fantasy city. By centering on Alys and Sammish barely getting by the reader gets an intimate view of just how firmly the deck can be stacked against people by accident of their birth, and how much effort, legal or illegal, is required just to get through another day in circumstances that can’t be changed easily or at all.

Also, the blurb feels wrong, because in the end this is not Alys’s story. It may start out that way, but by the end it’s Sammish’s story. And it’s the city’s story all along. It always has been. Whether it always will be is something that we’ll discover in the later books in the series.

Which I think will still be worth a listen – if only to discover what happens next.

This was the first time I have listened to a fantasy novel on audiobook. It took some getting used to and I had to focus more then I usually do when listening to audiobooks in order for me to keep the characters straight. I enjoyed the narration and I think that Soneela did a good job of trying to differentiate the characters voices. Ultimately, I enjoyed being able to listen to the audiobook, sometimes when you pick up a fantasy novel the size of the book can feel quite overwhelming.

I find most fantasy novels do a lot of world building in the first book and this book was no exception. I always try to give book #2 a chance to see if the author has moved away from the world building and more into a plot and character driven story. This book started out slowly and did get much more interesting in the later parts of the book. Looking forward to book 2 to see where the story leads and what happens to the characters.

Thank you to Nazia at Orbit Books for giving me an ARC and allowing me to review this!

Something stirs dark in the Heart of Kithimar itself. An abandoned sister seeking revenge for the loss of her brother, a man that was respected in his community. Murderous Princes vie for the throne of Kithimar, and priestesses, monks and figured shadows all have a role to play in this world of treachery and deceit. Another woman makes her own path throughout this novel. This novel is a bit of a slow burn, but when it picks up the pace, it becomes really good.

Summarising this plot would take some time. But the gist is, that Allys embarks on a journey that changes her forever. It exposes the rot of Kithimar's rich nobility, and that their ideas and ideals of the order are nothing more than devices meant to hold them forever in their power. Corruption runs deep in this city. I was impressed by Daniel's ability to include a ton of worldbuilding for each region of the city that I went into. Be it Longhill, Greenhill and many such locations. I think this novel would have benefited from a glossary - which would be very helpful for the locations and names of other cities. There is a rich array of characters, a rich display of action, and sometimes, even fantastic moments of prose that is hard to replicate anywhere else.

What I liked about this novel the most is that each character has their own motives and their own agendas. And it doesn't need to contrast with Allys's personality. However, I did sometimes end up disliking Allys purely because her quest to discover the truth behind her brother's murder lead her into dark avenues that made her eviler than anything else. But she is young, and at that age, grief can drive any person mad. Sammish was a terrific character that often was far more opportunistic, making her own moves, and driving the story forward. This story is so rich, deep, and complex that at times I am amazed it is has been amazingly written. Really, this is a great novel.

DNF @ 63%

I don't care about anything happening in this book at all. The characters don't interest me and the plot certainly doesn't interest me. However, Abraham's prose is great, and I will certainly read other stuff from him. In fact, I may try this book again at another time when I am more in the mood for something like this. But it wasn't vibing with me at all, I've already essentially forgotten it as I'm writing this review, and so pressing on until the end seems like a bad time. The audiobook narrator was very good, however, so if you are interested in the book, I'd recommend the audiobook!

Thanks to Netgalley and the publisher for the copy in exchange for an honest review!

TLDR
Characters -3
Plot - 3
Setting - 4
Writing - 4
Final Impression - 3.5
-
Packed full of thieves, assassins, and morally grey characters wrestling with their sense of humanity. So this is an interesting concept, one I won't go into because of spoilers, but I did enjoy peeling back the layers of this plot as we journey deeper into the dark and sordid past of the city of Kithamar. I would say this book's greatest strength is the world-building. It was a very bleak world. There was a near-constant feeling of hopelessness surrounding it.
the final third of the book was definitely the best and ultimately made the slow build-up worth the wait.

Full Review

3.5*

Big thank you to Netgalley, Orbit, and Hachette audio for letting me listen to the audiobook ahead of the book's release date. All opinions are my own. Because this was an audio listen, I may spell some of the names wrong. Apologies.

Characters
Packed full of thieves, assassins, and morally grey characters wrestling with their sense of humanity.

Alys is the main character and our guide through this interesting world, and though I enjoyed seeing things from her perspective, she was a little bit of a dull protagonist during the first half of the book. I struggled to find her personality behind her tough girl act. It's this 'strong female' attitude that puts her scarily at risk of feeling like a YA character, and tbh, there were times she didn't feel any different to the countless YA heroines I've read in the past. However, this feeling could well stem from the way the audio narrator, whose primary catalogue seems to be YA fantasy, read the book. Although the narration was by no means bad, the voice may perhaps be better suited to YA. There was definitely a sense of melodrama to the way things were read at times.

There were also times I struggled with Alys. For a long time, didn't like her much, but I enjoyed her characterisation. She reminded me a little of Jinx from Arcane. In her grief and trauma, she's drawn to doing bad things and even talking to her ghosts when she's alone. It made for interesting development. But she's also impulsive and self-centred, and generally not a good person, however she does go a long way in the final third of the novel to redeem herself, and by the end of the book, I found I actually liked her.

I liked Samish, she seemed like a really dedicated friend and generally a decent person, but she was also a total doormat. Alys constantly took her for granted and didn't often treat her how she deserved to be treated. It was like, whenever Alys needed something from Samish, she suddenly remembered they were friends. And tbh, it just kind of made me dislike Alys a little bit.
But much like Alys, she had a lot of growth in about the final third.


Plot
So this is an interesting concept, one I won't go into because of spoilers, but I did enjoy peeling back the layers of this plot as we journey deeper into the dark and sordid past of the city of Kithamar. There was a lot I didn't see coming, and other ideas I've never seen done before, and which felt wholly original to me.

For some reason, whilst listening, my mind kept comparing it to Django Wexler's Ashes of the Sun. Even though they're totally different books, there was a certain familiar feeling to it. Perhaps it's the secrets and conspiracies aspect, or the brother/sister vibes, but I kept associating it with that book.

I really liked the final gambit, the 'pull' as they call it in this world. Alys finally getting the chance to use the advice given to her by her brother at the start of the novel was so satisfying. I love when foreshadowing comes full circle.

For such a bleak and series book, the ending is actually lovely. I wasn't expecting such a nice ending but it really was packed with feel-good feelings that I didn't expect but which were so welcome. It really brought the book together and really made the whole thing worth the read.

Setting
I would say this book's greatest strength is the world-building. Though we rarely venture far beyond Longhill, the slums of the city of Kithamar, what we are told about Longhill is vivid and fully realised. I never had a difficult moment visualising what the world around the characters looked like. Details were regularly given and it all helped create a perfect image in my mind.
It was a very bleak world. There was a near-constant feeling of hopelessness surrounding it. A sense of stifling oppressiveness. Although I loved the world-building, the way it's described, and the way it's portrayed through various perspectives, I wouldn't say I loved the world itself. Purposely so, it never felt like there was anywhere safe. Nowhere for the characters to retreat to, and therefore as a reader, I had nowhere to become attached to, or enjoy returning to. No little home, or hideout to provide both characters and readers some much-needed respite from the bleak world beyond their door.
But despite that, I can't fault the world-building. Expertly done.

Writing Style
As mentioned above, the vivid world-building is only possible due to the wonderful writing. Very masterfully done. Like brush strokes on a piece of art gradually building up the picture bit by bit as the story goes. There is zero exposition and the flow is so incredibly smooth and natural.

The pacing was a little bit of a problem for me. It just felt a little slow to me. By the time I got halfway through, I realised not a lot had actually happened. It progressed at a snail's pace. I was hoping for more of a hook, something so enticing I wouldn't be able to resist reading more but it was stuck in the same gear for the majority of the book. I think the plot just didn't develop quick enough for me. Alys spent a long time searching for her brother's killer, got sidetracked with the knife business, but as I mentioned in other sections of this review, the final third of the book was definitely the best and ultimately made the slow build-up worth the wait.

Final Impression
A very slow start that really doesn't start to gain much momentum until the latter half of the book, but when it does, it really finds its stride. For a good portion of this book, I was feeling it and already made the decision to not continue the series, but as I've said many times already, that ending was brilliant, and really won me over. I'm certainly a lot keener to continue the series after that ending.

Age of Ash is written by one of the authors who co-wrote Leviathan Wakes under the pen name James S. A. Corey, how cool is that? He’s expanding even more into some epic fantasy. I was very excited to see what he can do and he wrote a story that I flew through. His writing still holds up even when not in space. The story here begins ominously with a funeral procession throughout the city of Kithamar for the prince. I believe it’s the prologue actually and then the story shifts to the past and the rest of the book is like a buildup to that moment. In fact I think it spans a whole year before. We are then introduced to a couple of our main characters Alys who is a young street thief and her brother who is a hired knife and he takes care of them with the money he makes from that. Tragedy unfortunately strikes for our characters, I’m keeping that as vague as possible because I was personally shocked by it and I want you to be as well but a haunting mystery stems from it.

I’ll be honest. This story is very sad. It’s deep. And it’s written in a very prophetic sort of way and though that’s the case, the book begins so fast paced and really exciting, there’s thieving happening, very mysterious light magic/ kind of witchy stuff at play. The city being described felt so alive and disgusting at the same time. The amount of times poop is mentioned is a lot so be warned. Actually I can even show you on the cover here that most of the story is taken place in this bottom section, it’s basically the slums. This giant stone city above, we don’t see a ton of. Maybe that’ll be in future books but the story is really centered on our lowborn characters. I wish we could have expanded upon more parts of the city but for 450 pages, we are here.

Next I want to talk about the amount of perspectives and how the story is told through them because it will definitely be the end all be all for readers. This will make it break it for people. I kept track of all of them and there were 8 different perspectives by page 100. The changing perspectives reminded me a lot of the red knight but where in that book it was a negative for me because it was so convoluted, in this case it works and is much easier to follow. Like it’ll change to a perspective that isn’t going to be a main character but their going to be interacting with them and still tell their story. I hope that makes sense and I think it made things more interesting. I know that can be alarming but, it’s also what kept the book moving so fast. The chapters are so short and writing style super fluid so I blew through these 450 pages very quickly.

Speaking of the writing style, it’s incredibly beautiful. Almost on the verge of flowery which I know is a term readers like to use for very descriptive detailed sentences and this is like that. It was almost too much for me. There were quite a few times I just wanted to move onto the important story bits but the author was still talking about the snow that was on the ground like okay, let’s get a move on.

Another problem I had were the 2 main female characters who are friends/rivals I guess. Their personalities are incredibly similar, there wasn’t much of a difference between them so that made it hard for me to care for them or maybe lean towards one more than the other, they are literally the same character.

Honestly I was hovering between 4 and 3 stars for this book the whole time because there’s many things about it that still makes it a great read but the ending is what solidified my 3 stars and I can’t even say why because it concerns how it ends but just know, the whole book is a buildup to a certain moment and the reader still doesn’t know the how or why of something. You'll just have to read it for yourself and form your own thoughts.

I am still very interested in continuing with this story because there is potential for it to be even better. Like the foundation is set now it needs to be built upon.

3/5 stars. This was clearly a first book in a trilogy and struggled a bit to find it's footing. Though the author did leave some paths open for a book 2 and left the reader guessing which way the narrative would continue on in.

Full review to be published on FanFiAddict shortly, link will be uploaded when it's live.

3.5 stars rounded up



Audio ARC provided by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review



Audio review: Great narrator who managed to keep the very slow burn narrative gripping and bring a range of character voices to the book.





Book review: I did enjoy this, but I suspect that I'm slightly outside the target audience. This is more fantasy by virtue of being a completely different world with a few extra oddities, as opposed to being full of magic and mystical beasts. The world building is very strong - although anyone who's read Tamora Pearce, Trudi Canavan, The Lies of Locke Lamora etc is not going to be surprised by the slum setting for much of the book. The character work is excellent and yet somehow I never fully connected with any of them. I did enjoy the nuance layered through characters' actions and why they might act as they did, the emotional drives that fuelled their decisions. And this book is pitch perfect in terms of what it has to say about grief and family, loyalty, betrayal and blind faith. It's a good book with very accessible and yet still clever prose. My main issue was that even at the 70% mark, I was still waiting for the story to get going. I like slow burn fantasy with plenty of substance, but I guess it just wasn't quite the right substance for me. Apparently this is a common approach for this author and I imagine there's lots of readers who will love this. And as I said, I did like it a lot. But something was missing as far as I was concerned. If you're into epic world building and slower paced fantasy, then this will probably be right up your street.

I requested this one because it might be an upcoming title I would like to review on my Youtube Channel. However, after reading the first several chapters I have determined that this book does not suit my tastes. So I decided to DNF this one.