Thursday, February 3, 2022

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: Age of Ash by Daniel Abraham

 



Full Disclosure:  This book was read as an e-ARC (Advance Reader Copy) obtained via Netgalley from the publisher in advance of the book's release on February 15, 2022 in exchange for a potential review.  I give my word that this did not affect my review in any way - if I felt conflicted in any way, I would simply have declined to review the book.


Age of Ash is the first book in a new trilogy by Daniel Abraham, known for his prior epic sci-fi (he's one half of James S.A. Corey, writer of the Expanse) and fantasy works (i.e. The Long Price Quartet).  Abraham's Long Price Quartet is utterly brilliant, a fantasy of manners/epic fantasy that takes place during the span of a lifetime, with fifteen years between each book, dealing with themes of power, responsibility, empire, gender imbalance, and more, and it is one of those series I recommend to everyone (I'm underselling all the themes it touches).  The Expanse is of course hugely popular as well, although I think it's a bit more popcorn-ish and thus less interesting, which is why I haven't finished it.  Either way, these prior works made the news that Abraham had a new epic fantasy work coming out of huge interest to me.  

And Age of Ash is really interesting as an Epic Fantasy that really takes place along the periphery of what would normally be the setting and story of an epic fantasy, focusing instead on minor characters struggling with love, grief, and a lack or loss of purpose.  It's a book with two (or three) very strong leads, and will absolutely make you want to yell at the most predominant one for making some horrible decisions, ones it turns on its head near the end in a way that feels very real.  It's not quite the Long Price Quartet level, but it's a stand alone exploration of characters among struggling grief-stricken situations that is really worth your time.    


-------------------------------------Plot Summary-----------------------------------------------
Alys' mother warned her when she was a child not to follow her brother Darro's footsteps: to go into the slums of Longhill in the ancient city of Kithamar, and turn to crime to get by.  But as she grew up she followed him anyway, becoming part of a crew of thieves preying on the more privileged on the streets...while Darro tried to protect her when she screwed up.  

Until one day, when Darro is found murdered.  Grieving and desperate, Alys tracks Darro's last steps and finds a magical knife and a mysterious amount of gold, but no sign of Darro's murderer.  Instead she finds something she never expected - a connection to a richer part of Kithamar, and a woman who claims Darro was helping her to save the city, and that Alys can take her brother's place. 

But as Alys begins to help these people and begins to try to keep her brother's memory alive by taking his role, others stop recognizing her as the same person....and soon Alys will have to decide if her actions are worth it, and if she's really honoring her brother in her grief, or if she's just sacrificing herself for a cause she doesn't believe in, for people who might not be worth it..... 
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Age of Ash begins with a prologue that dives into the grand history of the city of Kithamar, which belonged to one people before being taken by another (with that first people being a minority now within its walls) and with the story beginning in media res with the death of the city's ruler, its Prince.  The typical story with this type of setup would reveal the court politics and epic fantasy plot that would lead up to this event, featuring the three characters singled out in the end of the prologue.  But Age of Ash is not the typical story, and only follows one of those three characters (the identities of the other two are never clearly revealed, although I have a pretty good idea of who they are, both are essentially part of their own stories that are generally not relevant to this one), and never really gets into the major epic fantasy stuff going on behind the scenes.  The story follows three main characters - Alys, her friend (who has a crush on her) Sammish, and Andomaka, a political power player whose magical religious cult has been marginalized and pushed to the side...and thus even her plot never really gets into the major events that are hinted at going on in the City.  And even when we jump to other characters from time to time, we never leave the personal small scale stories of growth, of love, of identity and legacy and grief.  

We see that most clearly with Alys and Sammish.  Alys is a girl who followed her brother onto the streets, who disdains her seemingly always drunk mother, and who wants to make her brother's memory never go away even after he dies.  And so it's easy for her to transform into a person she isn't - a rich woman's tool - in the name of fulfilling what she believes to have been her brother's role as a way to keep him alive in her grief.  And in the process Alys becomes a very different person, a worse person unrecognizable to her friends, and kind of loses control in the name of someone she may not have known as well as she realized (something that Abraham hints about early, and then cleverly plays with in the end).  For much of the book it makes Alys kind of unlikable, even as she's understandable.

And then there's Sammish, a poor girl also from Longhill who works various odd jobs and helps Alys' crew with thefts to find enough money for food.  Sammish has an almost supernatural ability to blend in to any atmosphere such that no one notices her, which makes her the perfect getaway person.  And well, she has a crush on Alys the bright, funny and eager thief, and so she helps Alys at first in her quest to find the one who killed Alys' brother.  But as Alys changes to try to embrace her brother's legacy in her grief, Sammish starts to mourn the loss of the girl she loved, and starts acting for herself and for the sake of getting back at the ones she believes took that Alys from her, and begins to take actions at great risk to herself for what's right.  Sammish winds up grieving in her own way, for the girl she never had a chance with, but unlike Alys she knows what was lost.  It makes her essentially the hero of this book, even as she's really the secondary main character.  

Even the third major character, Andromaka, deals with these themes.  Andromaka is part of a magical cult meant to safeguard the legacy of the city, one whose horrifying ritual (which I won't spoil here, but it very much fits into the theme of grief and legacy) has gone wrong.  And so Andromaka is forced to make a choice for that cause, at great cost to herself or else see all she worked for lost for good.  Again there isn't much I can say here without spoiling so I wouldn't go any further, but it works very well as a complement to the two main characters.  

And like again there is epic fantasy magic here along the way and a plot that takes some very surprising turns.  The story here is entirely stand alone, but again there are hints from 1 or 2 characters that more is going on behind the scenes in the places of power, especially with one character who quite clearly knows more than he seems and has an agenda that never comes into play here.  And so these magical and epic fantasy confrontations are saved for a future book perhaps....or maybe not knowing Abraham.  And yet the book does not feel less for it.  


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