This is the latest series from one-half of the writers of “The Expanse” books (those under the pen name James S.A. Corey, with Age of Ash being published under the name Daniel Abraham). My partner picked it up because of his deep love of The Expanse, but I stole it and read it before him, and unfortunately ended up influencing his opinion on whether to read it or not.
Publisher’s description: “Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold. This is Alys’s.
When her brother is murdered, a petty thief from the slums of Longhill sets out to discover who killed him and why. But the more she discovers about him, the more she learns about herself, and the truths she finds are more dangerous than knives. 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.”
It’s been a while since I’ve read this one – I believe I read it in February, and have honestly completely forgotten about it (not the best sign!). It’s clear what the author was setting out to do – world-building, world-building, world-building. Abraham spent the bulk of the novel describing Kithamar, trying to give us a sense of the layout/soul/intrigue/history of the City. But he failed to do it. The City is not memorable, and unlike other fantasy cities, I didn’t want to spend more time in it. And the author poured so much into this one aspect that the characters and plot suffered for it. There was one character who had an arc that I wanted to follow (shout out to Sammish, I wish only the best for you), but everyone else was a bore. In the interest of providing some positivity to this review, Abraham’s prose is both strong and lyrical, and he clearly has a vision for the series.
Unsure about recommending Age of Ash. I wanted to say that “at least the world building was good”, but for this first book of the series, that isn’t true. I won’t read the sequel, and this book is the type where it’s doing everything in its power to create a good sequel/series. But as I’ve gotten older, I’ve found that I just don’t have the inclination to power through the first few “slow burn” books in a series in order to get to the good stuff.