Wednesday, December 11, 2019

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Realm of Ash by Tasha Suri




Realm of Ash is the second in Tasha Suri's fantasy series, The Books of Ambha, after last year's Empire of Sand (Reviewed Here).  I liked Empire of Sand a lot, from its strong lead character to its interesting central themes dealing with a mixed race protagonist in an Empire and the abuses of colonization and the taking advantage of the heritage/lands/accomplishments of a conquered people.  The story ended on a moment of personal triumph and love for our heroine, but one that also portended a major shift in the status quo, with potentially dire implications for those throughout the Empire in question.  And so I was really interested in seeing how the sequel would follow up with this situation, especially as that sequel is focused upon the sister of the first book's protagonist.

The result is yet another strong novel, tackling similar themes to the prior novel from a different angle: whereas the first book dealt with a mixed race protagonist who knew the truth about much of her heritage, our protagonist this time was raised entirely by her parents as if she was solely a member of the majority people, and her perspective is thus very different, especially as the truth of her heritage becomes apparent.  Whereas the first book dealt with the destruction of a system of oppression, this book deals with the aftermath, and the questions of whether what remains and what was is really worth salvaging or restoring.  It's a slow novel, at least at first, but it works rather well, and forms an excellent counterpart to the first novel.

Note:  Realm of Ash can be read as a stand-alone, taking place years after Empire of Sand and revealing what is necessary about that novel over the course of the story.  That said, I think certain reveals for the characters - if not the readers - work better if you have the foreknowledge of the prior book, so I recommend reading Empire of Sand first.


  --------------------------------------------Plot Summary-------------------------------------------------------
Darkness has come to the Ambhan Empire.  Few know that better than Arwa, now a 23 year old widow and the sole survivor of a massacre at one of the Empire's forts - a massacre precipitated by the supernatural.  Only Arwa's secret - her half-Amrithi blood, seemed to save her from death, but she knows her salvation is only temporary....and that the Davia she saw at the Fort will return for her.  With no one left to her - her sister having disappeared years ago, her parents in disgrace - Arwa desperately seeks some purpose to justify her survival, and so when a connection brings her to the attention of the Ambhan Imperial Family....and a bastard prince investigating magical means of saving the Empire, she dives right in.

But that investigation will take Arwa and the bastard prince Zahir to the mystical Realm of Ash, where the souls and pasts of their mutual ancestors still reside.  And as the two of them search for the soul of the Maha, whose death precipitated the curse on the Empire, they will discover the truth behind the golden days of the Empire, and the truth behind Arwa's Amrithi blood.  And in the end, as the two desperately try to survive the chaos caused by both the Empire's darkness and the perils of Court Politics, they may have to decide: is the Empire worth saving at all?
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The Books of Ambha features an Empire that has lasted for ages and in its growth has conquered at least one other people - in particular, the Amrithi people, who are discriminated against or....worse.  Empire of Sand's protagonist, Mehr, was half-Amrithi and was old enough when her Amrithi mother left her to have learned of much of her heritage, and to identify with the Amrithi people, and that led to the plot of the first book, where she had to deal with those who wished to use her for the powers of her blood.  Arwa - Mehr's younger sister - was just a young child when her mother left, and thus knows practically nothing about her Amrithi heritage: she knows her sister disappeared when she knows her blood has power, but that's it, and as such, she identifies as Ambhan, not Amrithi.

It makes her a very different character from Mehr and a good example of another side of a person being mixed-race: whereas Mehr had pride in her Amrithi blood, Arwa was raised to disguise it, and her recent re-discovery of its power - as it seems to have protected her from the wholesale slaughter of everyone in her ordinary married life, has thrown her into fear, confusion, and depression.  When the story begins, Arwa has decided to retreat into a place for Widows, where she hopes she can hide out from anyone she cares about so her blood won't cause harm to anyone else, and where she won't possibly be discovered.  But naturally, even there Arwa can't find peace, and so with hiding no longer an option, Arwa dedicates her life, and perhaps her death, into a purpose of discovering what she can do if anything to help the Ambhan Empire from the dark things that plague it.  And yet, as Arwa does so, she finds herself coming more and more into contact and knowledge of her Amrithi heritage, causing another conflict of her identity as she discovers what the people she identified with were doing to the other people she belongs to.  It's a fascinating transformation along the way of this plot and it works really well, from beginning to end, even if it means the beginning of this book is rather slow.

Our secondary main character, prince Zahir, is a little less interesting than the equivalent character in Empire of Sand, but he's a solid secondary character.  Like Arwa, Zahir is also the product of two peoples - his father was the Ambhan Emperor, while his mother was a practitioner of a "heretical" magical tradition - a tradition she was killed for.  Zahir embraces his mother's magic so as to try and prove his worth despite being a bastard, and with the use of Arwa's blood they are able to explore the titular Realm of Ash and can discover the pasts and memories of those who have came before.  And Zahir's goal is to discover the abilities of the now dead Maha - the antagonist of the last book - causing him to also suffer a crisis once it becomes clear that those abilities are not as upstanding as they seem.

Along the way, our protagonists deal with Court Intrigue, conflicting gender roles - this is a very conservative tradition where unmarried men shouldn't be with unveiled women and where men hold all the explicit power in Ambhan society, which results in some very subtle power dealing by the Women of the Court - and of course, like in the first book, their burgeoning feelings for each other.  The romance is decently done, although I think it works a little less well than in the first book (Zahir's standoffish nature towards Arwa fades rather abruptly I think).  Also, if you've read the first book, you will be waiting for certain revelations and reunions to occur for a long time, if they do at all.  But overall, the plot works really well despite a rather slow pace from beginning to end, and the way Suri deals with the themes and ideas are always interesting.

So yeah, Realm of Ash is pretty strong.  I think this is meant to be the end of this series, but if Suri deigns to explore this world further, I'd be happy to return.  She's well earned it with both of these books.


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