Legacy of Ash

Another fantasy debut and this one is a good one! Epic in scope with a sprawling mythos and mythology backing some fantastic world building and character development. Multiple POVs give this doorstop of a novel the chance to bounce around different parts of a country, with political machinations in the capital, invasion in the South and the release of some ancient evil.

The dominant part of the story is set in a province of an empire that has recently had a failed rebellion. The people here are beaten and repressed, held under the thumb of some particularly obnoxious officialdom. The ruling family is somewhat disgraced, but the son and daughter of the rebel leader still live on as figureheads, even if they are both searching for their own ways out.

In between this we have a ruling council that are largely ruthless, cunning and narcistic. One particularly ruthless member is trying to manipulate events to gain absolute control. The ‘good' part of the council recognise the dangers to the realm with invasion of the troubled Duchy and do what they can to assist.

These different elements weave in and out with plenty of moral ambiguity on some characters actions.

Overall I was very impressed with how Matthew Ward wove these elements all together. My main gripe here is that there is just so much thrown at you as a reader. this could probably have been broken down into more manageable chunks - the size of the book shows that there is probably more than one books worth of material in here! However, the frenetic pace is kept up throughout and interest in the story maintained. A fun read and well worth the time devotion required.