Age of Ash

• Author: Daniel Abraham
• Genre: Fantasy
• Publication Date: February 15, 2022
• Publisher: Orbit
• Series: Kithamar #1

Thank you to Orbit and Angela Man for sending me an ARC of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Every story matters, and the fate of the city is woven from them all.

From New York Times bestselling and critically acclaimed author Daniel Abraham, coauthor of The Expanse, comes an ambitious and profound epic fantasy trilogy that unfolds within the walls of a single great city over the course of one tumultuous year.

Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long and bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories endure.

Alys is simply a petty thief from the slums of Longhill, but when her brother is murdered, she sets out to discover who killed him and why. The more she unearths 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.

This is a new author to me, although he’s written prolifically. The summary sounded like a fantastic one, especially in the hands of the right author. So here’s what I thought of this one:

To start with, Abraham writes beautifully. I don’t usually see this kind of wonderfully descriptive writing in male writers, so it was a nice surprise. For the most part, he manages to keep his descriptions at “just right,” although at times he seems to get lost in descriptions. 

When it comes to characters, I was split down the middle with the MCs. Alys was so used to closing herself off as a coping mechanism, it was nearly impossible to feel close to her as a character, and it made her feel unlikable. Sammish comes across as nearly a polar opposite, who relies on her unique ability to blend in for her safety. I found her to be a much more likable character, even if her storyline wasn’t nearly as intriguing to me.

As for the main storyline, Alys and Sammish support themselves through petty crime. But when Alys learns that her older brother Darro has been murdered, she focuses all her attention on discovering who killed him and why. But the storyline is incredibly slow to develop. Darro’s murder doesn’t even occur until way farther in the book than I thought it would, and there’s a distinctive lack of big action scenes in the book. 

Overall, this is a slow-paced, character-driven story that focuses on some heavy themes, such as child neglect, parental alcoholism, grief, loneliness, and loss. I had some issues with the book, which stem from my own personal preferences. However, there are also some positive aspects to the book that I really enjoyed, such as the transportive and lyrical quality of the writing, the robust world-building, and the wonderful character development that occurred across the course of the story. So ultimately, things come out even.

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