Ashes of Man by Christopher Ruocchio

4.41 AVERAGE

skycam's review

5.0
adventurous challenging dark emotional reflective sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
Oh my god. Every Suneater book leaves me absolutely speechless. What a book to start the year off with am I right? I purposely waited to read this one after Kingdoms of Death because that book destroyed me and I had guessed what would happen in this one. I never would’ve been able to read them back to back and even imagining this book and that one combined into one makes me shudder. Christopher is such a cruel author 😭😭😭

The first 100 or so pages of this book had me crying on and off the whole time. I haven’t read many books that have done that to me. I thought I’d be crying through the whole book. This series is such a masterpiece. There’s no better word to describe it. It’s epic, gut-wrenching, heart-breaking, earth-shattering, and absolutely beautiful. I am so so glad I gave this series a chance. 

I just realized the ending of this book has me feeling the exact feeling I had at the end of Kingdoms of Death: being afraid for Lorian. Like come on, Christopher we can at least give Lorian a break if we’re not going to give one to Hadrian! 

Also Olorin was such a welcome surprise in this! I had always thought it was weird how we never heard from him again since I had really liked him during the short time we spent with him. I had figured he was still alive but for him to be a Prince?? And to become so relevant in this book?? I was not prepared, but it made me so happy and I needed some happy moments.

Also the way Valka died… no one talk to me. She was never my favorite character, but the reason I so dreaded her dying is because she’s Hadrian’s everything. UGH. I hope Disquiet Gods will be somewhat happier than these last two have been.

🗡️ 👽🌌🪐⚔️💀👨‍🚀🌍🛸👑

jodibwithoutane's review against another edition

5.0
challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: Plot
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated
book_scent's profile picture

book_scent's review

5.0
Loving every entry in this series!

spaceboy_howl's review

3.5
adventurous dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Complicated
Loveable characters: No
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Complicated

finnpoe4eva's review

5.0
adventurous challenging dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes
arcadia42's profile picture

arcadia42's review

4.5
dark emotional sad tense medium-paced
Strong character development: Yes
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: No
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

jdepolo's review

5.0
Every book in this series evokes stronger emotions than the last. Do I, as the reader, suffer from continual gut punches reading this? Absolutely. But all of them are deserved and make sense in the context of the story. Over and over again we are shown that actions have consequences and reminded of just how horrific of a monster war is.

The beautiful prose of the Suneater books also always strikes home. Every chapter is dripping with the pageantry of Empire, brought home as much by the words on the page as by the visuals they inspire. Christopher is an author who knows how to match the text with the theme, in a way that never fails.

While I have one book left in the series, with every book so far the narrative has only gotten stronger. This series has rapidly ascended to quite possibly my favorite science fiction work of all time, something that will be spoken of in future years alongside greats like Dune and Foundation.

I read this entire book in one sitting, and have rarely (if ever) felt so glued to the pages in front of me. Cannot recommend this series enough.

godees's review

5.0
4.5

cortasty's review against another edition

4.5
dark emotional tense medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven: A mix
Strong character development: No
Loveable characters: Yes
Diverse cast of characters: Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus: Yes

matt_furka11's review

5.0
Even better the second time. Absolutely loved the middle of this book. And maybe the most quotable of them all