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

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Conifers commonly show a regular pattern of growth, producing a whorl of branches each year. So if you follow the main trunk up, you can see a whorl of branches all radiating out from the trunk at the same level, followed by a clear section, then another whorl and so on. From Hugo award-winning, and New York Times bestsellingco-author of the Expanse, Daniel Abraham, Age of Ashisthe first book in anepic fantasy trilogy that unfolds within the walls of a single great city where every story matters—and the fate of the city is woven from them all. Age of Ash is a stunningly written, character driven story, centred on thieves, grief, and dark magic. Abraham certainly knows how to enchant his readers and transport them to the city of Kithamar, a place of beauty and of forbidding secrets Mind you, I love the way Abraham writes. Regardless of the book’s design (he can do chapters, too!), it is always so difficult for me to stop. And this book is truly written like you'd write about a walk through a foreign city that is alien and unknown but becomes more friendly as you start to recognize the most important landmarks and get used to the funny accent of the locals. Or perhaps it would be more apt to state that the story flows like the river that cuts through the city. The current is not that rapid, but it is relentless; it ebbs and flows. That’s why personally, I didn't mind that all we got were three big chunks. In the grand scheme of things, it made sense.

Kithamar is a center of trade and wealth, an ancient city with a long, bloody history where countless thousands live and their stories unfold. Broadleaved trees such as oak, ash, beech and sycamore put on about 1.5–2cm in circumference or girth per year. In open conditions, such as parkland, the growth rate will be nearer 2.5cm annually. So by measuring the trunk circumference and dividing by 1.5, 2, or 2.5 you can get a good idea of age. This method is known as ‘Mitchell’s Rule’, named after the late world-famous UK tree expert, Alan Mitchell.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. But there are some chapters that are SO GOOD. If any of the things I’ve said here have scared you, that’s fair. Not everyone likes to read books that have heady explorations of themes or feature complex story structures. But despite all those elements, Age of Ashremains a relatively accessible read that tells a full and satisfying story, albeit one that leaves the door open for the sequels. “I think a story should be as simple and straightforward as it can be. But I also don’t think it should be simpler than it can be,” Daniel Abraham told us in a recent interview. That hits the nail on the head for this book so far as I’m concerned.

This is the first novel in Abraham’s new Kithamar Trilogy and is described as ‘a monumental epic fantasy’. Which is accurate, but as the action of Age of Ash takes place entirely within the city walls of the titular Kithamar it is not epic in a traditional traveling across a continent sort of way. Having said that, the city is vast with many districts described in vivid detail, each with their own particularities. Abraham’s prose is beautiful and the early chapters where he is building the city for the reader were a joy to read, almost like a printed version of the exploration phase of a vast computer game.Now Age of Ash is a new book by the coauthor of the Expanse. As a huge fan of the series I have always wanted to read his fantasy but this is my first time with it.

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. Her relationship with her mother is strained, her friendships with others become distant, and instead of building bridges she shatters them and forges new ones, but with the wrong people. I received a copy of this book from the publisher in exchange for an honest review. This review is spoiler-free. Abraham's prose is beautiful and the early chapters where he is building the city for the reader were a joy to readThis felt like a gritty, quite dark and sad story and I really enjoyed it. I feel like there is A LOT of potential for book two, and I'll be here for it. Daniel Abraham builds this world up with all the confident craftsmanship you'd expect from an author of his pedigree . . . So hang on to your cloak and dagger, Kithamar is in the hands of a pro. I really enjoyed Age of Ash! It has strong Joe Abercrombie vibes (minus the banter), and the world building was so wonderful. 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. How awful, you want to exclaim. The reader literally knows the ending of the plot before s/he knows that the plot exists! What is worse, after reading the book, one still doesn’t know what would happen had a party other than the one won won. Well, yes and no. We see the glimpses, but the mystery is still there. What we got was as much an introduction as it was a teaser. I will probably regret reading it now instead of waiting for the whole series to binge at will, but there are a few writers who are irresistible, and Daniel Abraham is one of them.

Grief and the inability to move on are central themes in Age of Ash, largely conveyed through Alys’ struggle to come to grips with her brother’s death. Abraham handles this in a realistic way, exploring these emotions and the effects they can have not only on one person, but everyone around them. While no one really goes into a book thinking, “yes, I shall read this for its thematic depth,” I feel it worth mentioning that the thematic work is stronghere. Being able to move on, to lay the past to rest, is explored not just through Alys but in several other unexpected ways throughout the book. The result is that Age of Ashis a thought-provoking read, perhaps the most thematically consistent book I’ve read since Joe Abercrombie’s The Heroes. Earth’s atmosphere contains three isotopes of carbon. Carbon-12 is stable and accounts for 98.9% of atmospheric carbon. Carbon-13 is also stable and accounts for 1.1% of atmospheric carbon. Carbon-14 is radioactive and is found in tiny amounts. Carbon-14 is produced naturally in the atmosphere when cosmic rays interact with nitrogen atoms. The amount of carbon-14 produced in the atmosphere at any particular time has been relatively stable through time. 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.

Spotted an old tree?

Well, it is true. Age of Ash is a slowly unveiling mystery. There are no fireworks in terms of plot, the magic is only very subtle, and the pace, as you can surmise, is very sedate. In fact, it unfurls as naturally as the seasons of the year. You know how winter follows autumn or how imperceptibly spring matures into summer? Sometimes it is impossible to pin down when one ends, and another begins because the grand change is merely an effect of small things that add up. And this story is about small things adding else, until she didn’t know what she was mourning for except all of it. She was overwhelmed by a storm she couldn’t see, but felt it beating at her from every direction.”