Fantasy Novella: Echoes of Ash & Tears by L Penelope

 


Echoes of Ash & Tears by L Penelope.

Echoes of Ash & Tears is the third novella side story to take place in the world of L Penelope's "Earthsinger Chronicles", an epic/romantic fantasy series that I came to really enjoy over its four book length.  This novella actually was first published as part of an anthology (Under a Winter Sky) in 2020, although its now available for purchase separately.  The series features a fantasy world with serious themes like refugees, scrambles for power, race, class, religion, and more....and still tends to have decent if not predominant romance subplots along the way.  Still, despite having now finished all four books, I had yet to read any of the three novellas which told side stories about characters in the series, but I liked the series enough that I wanted to give them a try.  

Echoes of Ash & Tears doesn't require any foreknowledge of the series to enjoy it, and features a major character from book 4 in a short romantic fantasy plot long before the main series.  It's a solid novella, if nothing special, although completists from the main stories will enjoy it quite a lot.  It even in one way has vibes of the resolution of Robin McKinley's "The Hero and the Crown", to my surprise.  More thoughts after the jump.  

Quick Plot Summary:  Mooriah has always been an outsider among the cavefolk...since she came from the outside.  Gifted with the death magic of nethersong - a magic disdained by the cavefolk for not being blood magic (as opposed to feared like it is outside the caves) -, Mooriah has studied the ways of the cavefolk and their blood magic rituals, with the hopes of becoming the clan's Shaman and being fully inducted into the clan...and not an outsider.  But her hopes are confronted by two individuals - Ember, one of the clan chieftain's two sons, a boy who has a secret and dangerous fear of blood; and Fenix an outsider with a strange magical power, to whom she can't help also feeling attracted to.  Born outside the caves, and never quite truly in it, is there a place in either of their worlds for Mooriah....in this life or the next? 

Thoughts:  Mooriah in the Earthsinger Chronicles is a character from the long past who comes back, an ancient nethersinger who tries to guide one of the series' heroines...and Fenix who winds up being her love interest there is still around thanks to his strange magic.  But this is not that story; instead it's a story of whether an outsider can truly become an insider in a jealous and insular tribe, and whether Mooriah can find happiness either within or without.  And so we have a love triangle that works fairly well, albeit one without the conventional resolution (I mentioned the Hero and the Crown above, and if you know that book, you can guess the actual resolution here).  For both Fenix and Ember are good people deserving of Mooriah's love - although Fenix's character is perhaps a bit skeevy here if you don't have the foreknowledge of the books - and Mooriah's attraction to both is very understandable.  

The result is a very fun romantic fantasy plot, with very likable characters and a plot that features some recognizable elements (the jealous rival apprentice shaman from a more prestigious bloodline acts just how you'd expect and is kind of lame for it) but otherwise, does diverge on a surprising number of points from how you'd expect it to go.  There's also a very solid sex scene.  Again, the depth of story here isn't quite enough for me to recommend it to non-readers of the series, but readers of the series will enjoy this one quite a lot.