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

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The City of Kithamar is stunningly brought to life, a character in its own right that fully lives and breathes. I may not always have liked their choices, but I understood the characters and really felt for them and what they went through. He (and Ty) rocked my world with The Expanse series and not that it's gone, and I'm in the period of mourning, I can say the Kithamar series has been like a drug for the past few days. In short, the two main characters of this story are secondary and tertiary characters with respect to the important events occurring within the city. The result is a game of intelligence and counter-intelligence as the two friends try to decide how much they can trust the other, and what information they can can share.

It’s really one of the most generic low-magic city fantasies I’ve ever read, from its heroine, a plucky young thief who gets caught up in a job far bigger than she imagined, to its sinister-yet-affable priests who are keeping secrets that underpin the very workings of the city. This is my first experience of reading Abraham’s work but I have been told that this methodical and steady style is typical. While I didn’t necessarily love how these characters behaved at times, Abraham’s does make an effort in justifying their actions. You get bored, you might find your foot tapping impatiently for the pace to increase, for the things to start happening, for the people to do something!A young man from the slums has been killed, but his sister finds an unusual amount of money in his room and a mysterious dagger. Some lose coin, some lose their lives, and she may even lose herself as she plays as a little wolf for the puppetmaster. I can imagine that Age of Ash is one of those books that will make more sense when the whole trilogy is published. The city of Kithamar is as much a character in this story as any of the people we follow - I feel like I know my way through the streets because it just came to life as I was reading.

She loves to read and has always enjoyed fantasy novels, particularly the very dark and twisty ones with mythical creatures.

The power conspiracies and delicate magic of Kithamar are woven through the narrative but become more obvious in the last third of the novel with more time being spent with the antagonistic characters. The plot was also quite good, though I have to say that it meanders for a bit and sometimes it feels like you are just running around with characters. I'd like to thank Orbit Books, Daniel Abraham, and Netgalley for the chance to read and review an early copy of Age of Ash - y'all made my year!

I found myself struggling to connect and actually care about her and instead wanted to spend all of my time with every other character we've met. Alys and her allies (some old friends, some relcutant, some trushworthy and some not) must choose whether the dark truths that lie at the heart of the city are worth the danger in confronting them. However, being as I continue to enjoy Daniel Abraham's works and this was our Buddy Read group's April read, I changed my mind and decided to right something up. I thought they were very likeable and compelling to follow but something held me back from completely falling in love with them and hence enjoying the book that little bit more! 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.The standout theme for me was one of grief, with Alys, our main character, trying to come to terms with the loss of her brother, while also trying to unravel the mystery surrounding his death. Age of Ash 's Kithamar is a spectacular creation, a city brought to life by dense, intricate worldbuilding and subtle magic. This book is a really fun ride full of intrigue, backstabbing and self discovery as we follow Alys and her journey. When Alys' brother is murdered under mysterious circumstances I was initially pretty hooked because it had the potential to be a murder mystery and revenge story. I loved Alys's character, her journey is raw and painful, and although many times she sorely needed to realise the downfall she was heading towards, I understood why she couldn’t.