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ergative 's review for:
Age of Ash
by Daniel Abraham
emotional
reflective
sad
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
NB: I received an advanced copy of this book from Netgalley. Inasmuch as I can be sure of such things, I believe that this has not affected the content of my review.
This book is a solid, well-constructed tale about how the poorest people in a city ruled by a corrupted, evil, undying spirit can--if not overthrow the villain and restore justice, at least make things very inconvenient for the evil spirit for a while. The character journeys of our two main characters, Alys and Sammish, their arcs of grief and love and disappointment and reconciliation, were believable without falling into tropes, and their eventual ending points felt satisfying and real, if bittersweet.
The characterization of the city of Kithamar, too, was skilled, with the character of the neighborhoods enriched with a careful attention to the social organization and economic habits of the people who live there. There were many particularly effective details about how hard life is in the poorest neighborhood of Longhill, how people live on the knife-edge of freezing and starvation, develop tricks for balancing the need for warmth and food with not enough money for either, about how they recognize the signs when somone starts losing that balancing act, but can't afford to help, because they're always teetering on that knife-edge themselves. It makes the moment when someone does help that much more affecting--particularly when they help someone who doesn't 'deserve' it, although of course even that moral calculus is suspect, since everone 'deserves' not to starve or freeze to death.
Abraham is very good at what he does. I don't believe this book is quite as good as his Dagger andd the Coin sequence, or his Long Price Quartet, but then it's only a single book, and his works tend to really shine as the story stretches out and complexifies. But I always enjoy his work, even in single books, and I look forward to reading the next book in this series. But I am not impatient for it, because, in a final gift to his reader, Abraham wraps the story up in a very satisfying way. There is room for a sequel, but it's not a cliffhanger. Kithamar will be ready for me when next I'm ready for it.
This book is a solid, well-constructed tale about how the poorest people in a city ruled by a corrupted, evil, undying spirit can--if not overthrow the villain and restore justice, at least make things very inconvenient for the evil spirit for a while. The character journeys of our two main characters, Alys and Sammish, their arcs of grief and love and disappointment and reconciliation, were believable without falling into tropes, and their eventual ending points felt satisfying and real, if bittersweet.
The characterization of the city of Kithamar, too, was skilled, with the character of the neighborhoods enriched with a careful attention to the social organization and economic habits of the people who live there. There were many particularly effective details about how hard life is in the poorest neighborhood of Longhill, how people live on the knife-edge of freezing and starvation, develop tricks for balancing the need for warmth and food with not enough money for either, about how they recognize the signs when somone starts losing that balancing act, but can't afford to help, because they're always teetering on that knife-edge themselves. It makes the moment when someone does help that much more affecting--particularly when they help someone who doesn't 'deserve' it, although of course even that moral calculus is suspect, since everone 'deserves' not to starve or freeze to death.
Abraham is very good at what he does. I don't believe this book is quite as good as his Dagger andd the Coin sequence, or his Long Price Quartet, but then it's only a single book, and his works tend to really shine as the story stretches out and complexifies. But I always enjoy his work, even in single books, and I look forward to reading the next book in this series. But I am not impatient for it, because, in a final gift to his reader, Abraham wraps the story up in a very satisfying way. There is room for a sequel, but it's not a cliffhanger. Kithamar will be ready for me when next I'm ready for it.