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A review by novoaust
A Sea of Cinders by Adam R. Bishop
adventurous
funny
hopeful
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
3.75
This read was quite comforting. Cellagor is a land that is segregated and on the brink of war. Set nearly a hundred years after The War of the Fallen (a great battle between humans and elves), we are thrust into a story with ever rising tensions. This story feels familiar while still feeling unique. We have big battles, elves, multiple warring kingdoms, and a quest like path some of our MC's take, but Bishop manages to weave in some great and nuanced social commentary.
While I did enjoy the writing from the get go, it clearly improves as the story goes on. The dialogue is well written which is always impressive from a new author. Each character felt unique, often due to the words that they spoke and how they spoke them. I particularily loved following Will and Baldric due to the witty banter shared between the two of them.
As mentioned before, this book explores what is essentially racial prejudice in a great way. The themes are subtle yet effective, and we are able to see the importance of not judging groups based on what we have been told. Characters have their prejudices challenged and the development of these characters end up feeling natural and realistic.
The loss of stars comes primarily from two things.
- It took me a long time to actually get absorbed into the story. The beginning hundred or so pages were slow going, and I felt we had a ton of characters just thrown at us. Some of these characters may play a more important role in later books, but seemed odd to introduce here since they didn't seem to have much of a roll. It sadly just took me too long to get invested in the story.
- The ending was exciting, but it was done too fast in my opinion. The whole novel seemed to be converging to this epic battle where all the multiple POV's come together, and while it does happen, it is quite short lived. I just wanted more action, as I found it well written.
Overall, a really solid debut and a great start to The Voice of No Quarter.
While I did enjoy the writing from the get go, it clearly improves as the story goes on. The dialogue is well written which is always impressive from a new author. Each character felt unique, often due to the words that they spoke and how they spoke them. I particularily loved following Will and Baldric due to the witty banter shared between the two of them.
As mentioned before, this book explores what is essentially racial prejudice in a great way. The themes are subtle yet effective, and we are able to see the importance of not judging groups based on what we have been told. Characters have their prejudices challenged and the development of these characters end up feeling natural and realistic.
The loss of stars comes primarily from two things.
- It took me a long time to actually get absorbed into the story. The beginning hundred or so pages were slow going, and I felt we had a ton of characters just thrown at us. Some of these characters may play a more important role in later books, but seemed odd to introduce here since they didn't seem to have much of a roll. It sadly just took me too long to get invested in the story.
- The ending was exciting, but it was done too fast in my opinion. The whole novel seemed to be converging to this epic battle where all the multiple POV's come together, and while it does happen, it is quite short lived. I just wanted more action, as I found it well written.
Overall, a really solid debut and a great start to The Voice of No Quarter.