Age of Ash: The Sunday Times bestseller - The Kithamar Trilogy Book 1

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I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free. A huge part of that is the premise. Age of Ashtakes place in the fantasy city of Kithamar, a bustling metropolis filled with thieves, politicians, and stark social divides.Unlike most other fantasy series, which are simply longer stories cut up into multiple books, Kithamartakes a single turbulent year of upheaval in the city and then examines those events from different angles. Age of Ashis told primarily from the point of view of two thieves trying to survive their desperate situation, but future books will explore these same events from vastly different perspectives. It allows the author to tell a complete story that wraps up major character arcs in a very satisfying way. Since we know that the next two books will more or less follow this pattern of being a full story, it seems likely that each book will be satisfying in its own right, but also build into something bigger through the mosaic nature of the series.

Swept up in an intrigue as deep as the roots of Kithamar, where the secrets of the lowest born can sometimes topple thrones, the story Alys chooses will have the power to change everything.

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Recommendations: if you love subtle, immersive world-building and highly character-driven novels, then Age of Ash will be right up your alley. I loved my experience with Long Price Quartet and so far Kithamar is starting out just as strong.

Why did I say that the novel is not character driven? Mainly because you could argue that the two leading characters are boring. If you feel particularly snarky, you can even argue that both have so little to no reason to get involved in the main plot, which is why they frequently ask themselves what and why they are precisely doing. Now Age of Ash is a new book by the coauthor of the Expanse. As a huge fan of the series I have always wanted to read his fantasy but this is my first time with it.I liked some of the side characters as well, we also get quite a bit of Sammish's POV, one of Alys childhood friends who is secretly in love with her (love a bit of sapphic pining T_T) who is trying to save Alys from herself for a lot of the book, whihc is often a fruitless task. I liked seeing their friendship and all the angst alongside the exploration of how high political stakes and constant threat put close relationships under a lot of strain. This outstanding series debut [. . .] instantly hooks readers with dual mysteries [. . .] Readers will eagerly anticipate the sequel' Publishers Weekly

Kithamar is a spectacular creation, a city brought to life by dance, intricate worldbuilding and subtle magic. Fans of Scott Lynch . . . will enjoy this one’Django Wexler, author of Ashes of the Sun

Threats and conservation

How awful, you want to exclaim. The reader literally knows the ending of the plot before s/he knows that the plot exists! What is worse, after reading the book, one still doesn’t know what would happen had a party other than the one won won. Well, yes and no. We see the glimpses, but the mystery is still there. What we got was as much an introduction as it was a teaser. I will probably regret reading it now instead of waiting for the whole series to binge at will, but there are a few writers who are irresistible, and Daniel Abraham is one of them. Now that I have finished Age of Ash not only I am excited to continue with the sequel ( Blade of Dreams, coming out in Summer 2023), I cannot wait to return for an Age of Ash reread. One thing to note about Abraham’s works is that the early volumes in his series (see also The Long Price Quartet and The Dagger and the Coin) always read better in conversation with the later books. Of course, this means that sometimes beginning a new Daniel Abraham series can be a struggle because the importance of characters, events, and themes may not become apparent for another two, three, or even four books. Abraham absolutely loves to plant little plot seeds and nurture their growth over the course of a series. You can see that happening in Age of Ash where things that seem quite prominent (including the mysterious Daris Brotherhood) feel a bit underexplored and underdeveloped, while also feeling like a satisfying reading experience. I absolutely cannot wait to see how Abraham continues to expand the culture, politics, and peoples of Kithamar.

This outstanding series debut [. . .] instantly hooks readers with dual mysteries [. . .] Readers will eagerly anticipate the sequel’ Publishers WeeklyThere's plenty of intrigue and politics, mostly seen through the eyes of people in well over their heads, and Abraham's latest is certainly an intriguing introduction to a series, hinting at plenty of larger events to come Another thing I love is the deep character immersion that only happens when an author isn’t self-conscious about taking his time to really immerse you with his characters. I thrive on that kind of connection and found myself despairing, angry, and a whole myriad of other emotions right alongside them. I talked to the book a couple times, which for me is a sign of true investment. And the cool thing is he probably hasn’t even scratched the surface on what’s planned for this series (with upcoming perspectives for characters we saw only on the periphery here), and that’s incredibly exciting. Age of Ash is a stunningly written, character driven story, centred on thieves, grief, and dark magic. Abraham certainly knows how to enchant his readers and transport them to the city of Kithamar, a place of beauty and of forbidding secrets.