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3.92 AVERAGE
3.92 AVERAGE
Ashes of the Sun is a book that I always knew I was going to enjoy, but I wasn’t prepared for just how much fun it would be. This book was a true rollercoaster ride from start to finish, and I enjoyed every single second of it.
I am always a good sucker for interesting sibling dynamics in my fantasy stories and this particular execution was just pure perfection. The dual POV storytelling worked super well and I absolutely loved seeing how Maya and Gyre’s personal journeys mirrored and resembled each other’s in unexpected ways.
They are both also surrounded by a couple of extremely vibrant and well-developed side characters who are all interesting in their own right. The found family vibes are off the charts and I was cackling at the snarky banter between everyone, they are all just so effortlessly funny.
Also, the sapphic pining in Maya’s storyline is top notch! I loved the slow-burn relationship that slowly started to bloom between her and her love interest, and their scenes together made even my dead and cold heart flutter with joy.
And can’t forget about the absolutely incredible world building, of course! At first this feels like a classic fantasy world, but it very quickly becomes apparent that there are some very cool sci-fi and dystopian elements to discover.
Whether it was the mysterious history, the diverse cultures, the intriguing lore, the dangerous politics within the Order or the incredibly cool and cinematic magic system, everything about this world just felt so innovative and well thought-out.
Yet at the same time, a lot of details are still shrouded in mystery and intrigue, which makes me so eager to read on and discover what other kind of crazy twists and turns Wexler has up his sleeve.
There were maybe a couple too many action-scenes for my liking and some of the character interactions felt a bit more juvenile than I was expecting, but overall I just had such a fun time that I didn’t even mind those nitpicks too much in the end.
I think this book is a perfect transition between YA and Adult fantasy, as it has the epic world building and intricate plot that you’d expect from adult books, but also maintains the fast pace and emotionally engaging character work that you’d find more in YA fantasy.
If you are looking for a fast-paced, action-packed and refreshing fantasy with light sci-fi elements in the world building, a compelling sibling dynamic, cinematic magic, slow-burn sapphic love, and a whole lot of delightful found family vibes, then I highly recommend Ashes of the Sun!
I am always a good sucker for interesting sibling dynamics in my fantasy stories and this particular execution was just pure perfection. The dual POV storytelling worked super well and I absolutely loved seeing how Maya and Gyre’s personal journeys mirrored and resembled each other’s in unexpected ways.
They are both also surrounded by a couple of extremely vibrant and well-developed side characters who are all interesting in their own right. The found family vibes are off the charts and I was cackling at the snarky banter between everyone, they are all just so effortlessly funny.
Also, the sapphic pining in Maya’s storyline is top notch! I loved the slow-burn relationship that slowly started to bloom between her and her love interest, and their scenes together made even my dead and cold heart flutter with joy.
And can’t forget about the absolutely incredible world building, of course! At first this feels like a classic fantasy world, but it very quickly becomes apparent that there are some very cool sci-fi and dystopian elements to discover.
Whether it was the mysterious history, the diverse cultures, the intriguing lore, the dangerous politics within the Order or the incredibly cool and cinematic magic system, everything about this world just felt so innovative and well thought-out.
Yet at the same time, a lot of details are still shrouded in mystery and intrigue, which makes me so eager to read on and discover what other kind of crazy twists and turns Wexler has up his sleeve.
There were maybe a couple too many action-scenes for my liking and some of the character interactions felt a bit more juvenile than I was expecting, but overall I just had such a fun time that I didn’t even mind those nitpicks too much in the end.
I think this book is a perfect transition between YA and Adult fantasy, as it has the epic world building and intricate plot that you’d expect from adult books, but also maintains the fast pace and emotionally engaging character work that you’d find more in YA fantasy.
If you are looking for a fast-paced, action-packed and refreshing fantasy with light sci-fi elements in the world building, a compelling sibling dynamic, cinematic magic, slow-burn sapphic love, and a whole lot of delightful found family vibes, then I highly recommend Ashes of the Sun!
4.5*
I really enjoyed this one!!
Fingers crossed book 2 comes out relatively soon so I won't forget everything that happened in this one by the time I read it (I have a bad habit of starting series and not finishing them because I forget what happens in earlier books and so never get around to continuing.)
I really enjoyed this one!!
Fingers crossed book 2 comes out relatively soon so I won't forget everything that happened in this one by the time I read it (I have a bad habit of starting series and not finishing them because I forget what happens in earlier books and so never get around to continuing.)
Did not realize how much I liked Science Fantasy! An interesting mix of science fiction and fantasy, this book follows two povs that weave in and out of each other's lives. Full of mysterious technology, awesome fights, and believable modern characters who you can't help but cheer on.
Loved this book. Can definitely feel a Star Wars vibe, but in a fantasy setting. Unique and fun.
Loved this book. Can definitely feel a Star Wars vibe, but in a fantasy setting. Unique and fun.
adventurous
First Impression: The prologue gave me the strong start to a story that I have not encountered in years. Then you find an alternating POV that slowly reveals an incredible world while developing the background of the two main characters. Many of the more recent stories that I have read rely heavily on “info dumps” to jump start the world building and context for the main plot; that is not something I appreciate much. Of course, many other readers have exactly the opposite opinion, which I am sure is why such continues to be popular. If you are somebody who does not enjoy the ambiguity of a slowly revealed world, you can jump to the back and read through the glossary (where IMHO info dumps belong) and then come back to enjoy this remarkable world as it unfolds.
Final Impression: This is an exemplar of the writer’s craft. The author gives us a vivid dystopian world with just a touch of Lovecraftian horror and a built in conflict between the creative powers of elemental magic and life itself … highlighting the corruptive potential of both. Each character encounter revealed just a little bit more of this fascinating world, giving just enough detail to provide the context needed to support the character’s story. Bottomline … I believe the world building here is second to none. Now add the people. Nobody is the villain in their own story. As the author develops the conflict between siblings who suffered a painful separation as children, I find myself empathizing with both of them, which makes the conflict here all the more tragic. By the end, I could see how each of them had developed and grown until the end of their redemptive arc could be seen on the horizon (sequels)? What sets this story apart from many though, is the detail and individuality put into the supporting cast … with whom I could identify as well. All of the characters were flawed. All of the characters had some redeemable value. That all combines to make this story all the more real to me and I absolutely loved it.
The author notes in his acknowledgements that this book was subject to extensive writes and editing, with large portions of it eventually being tossed out … and all of the hard work paid off. This is one of the few books in recent memory that now sits on my favorites shelf while I anxiously await the sequel.
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#AshesOfTheSun #NetGalley
Final Impression: This is an exemplar of the writer’s craft. The author gives us a vivid dystopian world with just a touch of Lovecraftian horror and a built in conflict between the creative powers of elemental magic and life itself … highlighting the corruptive potential of both. Each character encounter revealed just a little bit more of this fascinating world, giving just enough detail to provide the context needed to support the character’s story. Bottomline … I believe the world building here is second to none. Now add the people. Nobody is the villain in their own story. As the author develops the conflict between siblings who suffered a painful separation as children, I find myself empathizing with both of them, which makes the conflict here all the more tragic. By the end, I could see how each of them had developed and grown until the end of their redemptive arc could be seen on the horizon (sequels)? What sets this story apart from many though, is the detail and individuality put into the supporting cast … with whom I could identify as well. All of the characters were flawed. All of the characters had some redeemable value. That all combines to make this story all the more real to me and I absolutely loved it.
The author notes in his acknowledgements that this book was subject to extensive writes and editing, with large portions of it eventually being tossed out … and all of the hard work paid off. This is one of the few books in recent memory that now sits on my favorites shelf while I anxiously await the sequel.
I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.
#AshesOfTheSun #NetGalley
adventurous
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
Curses! I had such high hopes for this series, but alas, I'm giving up - even after finishing over 80% of this book over the past week. I'm so disappointed too, because I really, really wanted to love this. Mr. Wexler's The Shadow Campaigns series is one of my all-time, six-star, favorite reads ever. It was chock full of awesome flintlock campaigns, amazing battles, a fully realized world, very memorable characters (looking at you Winter), cavalry charges, desperate last stands, savage politics, French revolution-esque intrigue, jail break outs, magic powers, and the list just goes on. It's amazing and thrilling stuff and highly recommended. When the series finished I was crushed. When instead of writing more of the same, he began writing a series for children, then another series for children, I was so disappointed. I wanted more of his adult stuff. Writers gotta make money though so I understood. Then the Burningblade series was announced, I got excited, and I patiently waited a couple years to begin reading until all three books were released.
The premise I believed (or convinced myself of) was that this was going to be more swashbucking, nuanced adult fiction. It's not. This is definitely YA. Not only that, it's very dystopian YA. It's a post-apocalyptic war, degraded world, authoritarian governments (if you're lucky), violent, with starving masses, freezing cold, mutant chimera monsters everywhere, and it's just pretty darn bleak. Despite all this I kept reading hoping for it to become more like Shadow Campaigns. It didn't. The good news is that the writing is good enough to have kept me reading for quite some time and if you are in the mood for dystopian YA, ala Hunger Games, then you will probably like this series.
Sadly for me though, I was not in the mood for either YA (not really interested anymore in investing hours into people freaking over their first kiss, etc) nor dystopian (reading climate change disaster headlines today just makes me want escapist fantasy where the climate is benign). I also really didn't like Kit, Maya, or Gyre (the main characters) very much. I read roughly 500 pages of this book hoping their story arc would have them develop into people I felt engaged and compelled by, but so far they haven't changed at all. Part of my issue is that they're annoying teenagers, but also Gyre and Kit just aren't very good people, and Maya is too young, idealistic and caught up in her first romance to be engaging for me. So my final verdict is simply that this will be good reading if you're into dystopian YA with flawed protagonists. If you want something more nuanced and adult you risk being disappointed. If you wanted more Shadow Campaigns type stuff like me, then you're definitely going to be disappointed. In fairness to Mr. Wexler, this type of stuff probably sells better so I get why he is writing it.
There was another issue with this book though that I felt bothered by. I see it in many books coming out now. It's the blatant sprinkling of LGBTQ stuff throughout the book in order to...appeal? appease?...I'm not sure. Look, I've been a liberal for 56 years. I've been a book lover for 56 years. I've got no problem with LGBTQ people/issues. There's been awesome LGBTQ fiction written over the last 50 years and all sorts of interesting explorations of gender, sexuality, and humanity in Sci-fi since Sci-fi began. There's room for everyone in Sci-fi and fantasy. But, damnit, if you're going to go there it should serve. the. story. Like I said, I read fantasy to escape. Most people do. I'm exhausted watching my country descend into madness, by losing the climate change battle, and by the ceaseless idiocy, the anti-science, alternative facts, and the culture war nonsense that pervades the news today. I'm firmly in the rainbow flag group, but authors, please don't pander to us by decorating your story with LGBTQ virtue signaling like you would decorate a Christmas tree when it has absolutely no relevance to the story. There was a lot of it in this book and perhaps that is what is needed today to appeal to a YA market. I don't know. I do know that the author spent a lot of time mentioning hair color i.e. blue hair, green hair, etc. but didn't explain any further. I don't know if it was dyed or that's the way people are born on this world. Ursula k le Guin would have explained, and Nicola Griffith would have explained, and they would have explained because it would have had some significance. But here it wasn't explained, ever, and I began to feel like this was simply pandering to young people who like to dye their hair different colors. It certainly had nothing to do with the story. It was just thrown out often and repetitively and felt jarring every time. I can tell you I felt downright irritated at around page 500 when a certain rotund, female caravan mistress was idly described in passing as having a green beard (the first time in 500 pages female facial hair was ever mentioned). OK, so are we going to do an exploration of what it means to be male/female now? Is this some prelude to story-relevant gender identity questions? Nope, it was just thrown out there with no explanation or relevance at all much like when my cat pukes on my shoe. It's just kind of there and disturbing in a "why did this just happen?" kind of way. So, authors, please: just tell good stories - don't preach at us or pander to us or put meaningless details in your books that break suspension of disbelief. I want to escape the culture wars not have my book be a casualty of them. If a woman gets a beard in your story I'd really like to know why, not to have it be a throw away, meaningless detail. Mr. Wexler, I know you can do meaningful, impactful LGBTQ - remember Winter? Winter was the most nuanced, kick ass, real life, adult, hero/sergeant/general dealing with real world problems, fighting battles and logistics, monsters and injustice, charging cannons and inspiring others. She was also lesbian, and that was relevant to the story certainly, yet also you showed how being a lesbian had little to nothing to do with her humanity, capability, passion, compassion, and heroism. How did we go from Winter to some fat lady has a a green beard? You are a writer of brilliance, capability, and generosity, and I know you have to make a living, but it pains me to have gone through five books with Winter and to hope for more works on par with Shadow Campaigns and then watch you target other audiences. I wish I was a wealthy man and could give you a pile of cash and say "go write something that surpasses Shadow Campaigns and knocks the world on its ass" because I know you could ot it.
The premise I believed (or convinced myself of) was that this was going to be more swashbucking, nuanced adult fiction. It's not. This is definitely YA. Not only that, it's very dystopian YA. It's a post-apocalyptic war, degraded world, authoritarian governments (if you're lucky), violent, with starving masses, freezing cold, mutant chimera monsters everywhere, and it's just pretty darn bleak. Despite all this I kept reading hoping for it to become more like Shadow Campaigns. It didn't. The good news is that the writing is good enough to have kept me reading for quite some time and if you are in the mood for dystopian YA, ala Hunger Games, then you will probably like this series.
Sadly for me though, I was not in the mood for either YA (not really interested anymore in investing hours into people freaking over their first kiss, etc) nor dystopian (reading climate change disaster headlines today just makes me want escapist fantasy where the climate is benign). I also really didn't like Kit, Maya, or Gyre (the main characters) very much. I read roughly 500 pages of this book hoping their story arc would have them develop into people I felt engaged and compelled by, but so far they haven't changed at all. Part of my issue is that they're annoying teenagers, but also Gyre and Kit just aren't very good people, and Maya is too young, idealistic and caught up in her first romance to be engaging for me. So my final verdict is simply that this will be good reading if you're into dystopian YA with flawed protagonists. If you want something more nuanced and adult you risk being disappointed. If you wanted more Shadow Campaigns type stuff like me, then you're definitely going to be disappointed. In fairness to Mr. Wexler, this type of stuff probably sells better so I get why he is writing it.
There was another issue with this book though that I felt bothered by. I see it in many books coming out now. It's the blatant sprinkling of LGBTQ stuff throughout the book in order to...appeal? appease?...I'm not sure. Look, I've been a liberal for 56 years. I've been a book lover for 56 years. I've got no problem with LGBTQ people/issues. There's been awesome LGBTQ fiction written over the last 50 years and all sorts of interesting explorations of gender, sexuality, and humanity in Sci-fi since Sci-fi began. There's room for everyone in Sci-fi and fantasy. But, damnit, if you're going to go there it should serve. the. story. Like I said, I read fantasy to escape. Most people do. I'm exhausted watching my country descend into madness, by losing the climate change battle, and by the ceaseless idiocy, the anti-science, alternative facts, and the culture war nonsense that pervades the news today. I'm firmly in the rainbow flag group, but authors, please don't pander to us by decorating your story with LGBTQ virtue signaling like you would decorate a Christmas tree when it has absolutely no relevance to the story. There was a lot of it in this book and perhaps that is what is needed today to appeal to a YA market. I don't know. I do know that the author spent a lot of time mentioning hair color i.e. blue hair, green hair, etc. but didn't explain any further. I don't know if it was dyed or that's the way people are born on this world. Ursula k le Guin would have explained, and Nicola Griffith would have explained, and they would have explained because it would have had some significance. But here it wasn't explained, ever, and I began to feel like this was simply pandering to young people who like to dye their hair different colors. It certainly had nothing to do with the story. It was just thrown out often and repetitively and felt jarring every time. I can tell you I felt downright irritated at around page 500 when a certain rotund, female caravan mistress was idly described in passing as having a green beard (the first time in 500 pages female facial hair was ever mentioned). OK, so are we going to do an exploration of what it means to be male/female now? Is this some prelude to story-relevant gender identity questions? Nope, it was just thrown out there with no explanation or relevance at all much like when my cat pukes on my shoe. It's just kind of there and disturbing in a "why did this just happen?" kind of way. So, authors, please: just tell good stories - don't preach at us or pander to us or put meaningless details in your books that break suspension of disbelief. I want to escape the culture wars not have my book be a casualty of them. If a woman gets a beard in your story I'd really like to know why, not to have it be a throw away, meaningless detail. Mr. Wexler, I know you can do meaningful, impactful LGBTQ - remember Winter? Winter was the most nuanced, kick ass, real life, adult, hero/sergeant/general dealing with real world problems, fighting battles and logistics, monsters and injustice, charging cannons and inspiring others. She was also lesbian, and that was relevant to the story certainly, yet also you showed how being a lesbian had little to nothing to do with her humanity, capability, passion, compassion, and heroism. How did we go from Winter to some fat lady has a a green beard? You are a writer of brilliance, capability, and generosity, and I know you have to make a living, but it pains me to have gone through five books with Winter and to hope for more works on par with Shadow Campaigns and then watch you target other audiences. I wish I was a wealthy man and could give you a pile of cash and say "go write something that surpasses Shadow Campaigns and knocks the world on its ass" because I know you could ot it.
3 1/2 stars. I enjoyed the world building and the magic system. The fights were too long for my liking. But overall, quite good.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes