Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham: review

3/5 stars on Goodreads 

Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham

Age of Ash starts the Kithamar fantasy trilogy set in an ancient city state where two peoples who once were enemies now live more or less peacefully together, though not as equals. The ruler has died unexpectedly and much too soon, and the book sets out to tell how and why this happened.

This is the first book by Abraham written as Abraham that I’ve read. I loved his urban fantasy series The Black Sun’s Daughter written as M. L. N. Hanover, and while I’ve not read the Expanse books, I love the TV version. Both made me expect fast-paced, character-driven fiction with lot of action. That’s not what I got.

The pace is glacial, and I never became pulled into the world and the story. The book is filled with unnecessary scenes and characters who made random or one-time appearances. There’s a lot of descriptive language, but none of it makes the characters feel like real people. They’re described from above, their emotions told not felt, which is a great weakness for a story that relies on the characters.

Alys in her grief for her brother came across as irrational and selfish, and I spent much of the time just wanting to slap her. Sammish was more interesting, but her slavish attachment to Alys made her work against her best interests. The host of secondary characters and all the minor one-timers who were given their own chapters mostly felt irrelevant, even when they weren’t.

Still, it’s a fairly good book. If you cut it to third of its length, it would even be an interesting book. There was a good closure for the characters at the end, and nothing to entice the reader to continue with the series. I think I’ll leave it here.

I received a free copy from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review.