Legacy of Ash

By: Matthew Ward

Narrated by: Suzannah Hampton

Length: 28 hrs and 35 mins

Publisher's Summary

Legacy of Ash is an unmissable fantasy debut - an epic tale of intrigue and revolution, soldiers and assassins, ancient magic and the eternal clash of empires.

A shadow has fallen over the Tressian Republic.

Ruling families - once protectors of justice and democracy - now plot against one another with sharp words and sharper knives. Blinded by ambition, they remain heedless of the threat posed by the invading armies of the Hadari Empire. 

Yet as Tressia falls, heroes rise.

Viktor Akadra is the Republic's champion. A warrior without equal, he hides a secret that would see him burned as a heretic. 

Josiri Trelan is Viktor's sworn enemy. A political prisoner, he dreams of reigniting his mother's failed rebellion. 

And yet Calenne Trelan, Josiri's sister, seeks only to break free of their tarnished legacy; to escape the expectation and prejudice that haunts the family name. 

As war spreads across the Republic, these three must set aside their differences in order to save their home. Yet decades of bad blood are not easily set aside. And victory - if it comes at all - will demand a darker price than any of them could have imagined.

©2019 Matthew Ward (P)2019 Orbit

slow starter

It took quite some time to get into this story. I found it very hard to care about the characters, who failed to interest me. As the story went on, it became more interesting, though, and new characters and situations were added that were more intriguing. The eventual climax made me glad I stick with it.
The performer did a good job. I could distinguish between characters merely based on the voices and she gave them life.

Complex and satisfying

A fine book with complex characters. Sometimes challenging, but deep and well-written enough to reward the hale bing moments. Wonderful characters and interesting and original take on magic and mythology.

In truth I am ambivalent about one of my two complaints, both of which have to do with the audio presentation.

The one about which I am not ambivalent is regarding the editing. The author switches perspective quite often in the narrative and the editor or director (or whatever the relevant job title is) doesn’t provide a sufficient break in between to make it clear that the character providing perspective has changed. Even something as simple as an extra second’s pass would have help.

My more ambivalent “complaint” is about the narrator. She has an appealing voice and gives a fine narration. However, she lacks a certain “dexterity” in distinguishing between characters’ voices and accents and is particularly challenged in distinguishing between the voices of the different genders. This further exacerbates the problem from the editing in distinguishing the changes in character perspective (ie it is often difficult telling to whom the narrative has switched for perspective until the writer identifies the character by name.

This problem does not ruin the listening experience, but it does make it unnecessarily challenging (I read it half in kindle and half in audio. He problem doesn’t exist in the written format).

These critiques notwithstanding, it is a fine book I a, impatiently awaiting the next two in the trilogy.

DNF review

I didn't finish this one. And I feel a little bad about it. The technical quality of the writing wasn't bad at all. The characters were pretty distinct.

I just kept wishing it were over, and I didn't really care about any of the characters. After listening for 18 hrs, I threw in the towel.

The story rating suffers because the book simply didn't grip me, but the overall rating is a bit higher because there were no glaring technical issues.

Really great start! Can't wait for more.

You would think that a book this long would have some boring bits, but no, this one was quite packed with action, magic, and political intrigue from start to finish. I started this 28 hour long beast one day and finished it in just short of four days, which is… really quickly, for me.

This is the story of the Tressian Republic. There are two factions who have been warring nearly constantly for the last fifteen years or so. Josiri Trelan is the son and heir of the former leader of the Republic, a woman who was branded a traitor and killed by Viktor Akadra. Josiri and his sister Calenne have been more or less held prisoner since that time.

When an army from the Hadari Empire comes marching in, both of the faction will need to put over a decade of bad blood behind and unite to fight them off.

We see this story through several points of view, not just that of Viktor, Josiri, and Calenne, though those seem to be the more important of them. The author did a good job making each of these points of view clear, so I never found it confusing, exactly, though I will admit that with so many characters to recall, it did take me a few hours to really feel comfortable with remembering who everyone was. It doesn’t help that several of the characters are known by different names, or by surname or given name, depending on who they are speaking to, or where they are.

The world was really well built and easy to imagine, but this story was very character-driven in my opinion. It has tons of really well written characters in it. I really liked Calenne as a character, because even though she has pretty much been held prisoner her entire life, she still doesn’t let a paltry detail like that stop her from doing her very best to achieve her goal. Her goal of course being to get the hell out of her prison and escaping the name of Trelan and all the awful legacy that the name entails.

I also really liked Viktor. He is the Republic’s champion, and is very well respected but he hides a secret that would see him hanged if anyone knew about it. Seeing from his own point of view was really excellent as well, because you can see how much he grew over the course of the book. Anastasia, Malachi, Rosa, and Melanna were also fantastic characters.

And, this one had that one character that is just so sinister, you can’t help but love to hate her. Ebigail Kiridin, I am looking at you, lady.

Susanna Hampton nailed the narration here. I loved her narration of a few other books, and so I was excited when I saw that she narrated this one as well. She made each character their own, making it a bit easier for me to retain who was who in the long run. Each person from a different faction or a different part of the world had different accents, and I really enjoyed it. Very well done.

All told, I enjoyed my time with Legacy of Ash! It was a fantastic debut that started a fantastic story that I am excited to continue!

Very Similar to ASOIAF, More Magic

Legacy of Ash is absolutely brilliant, and there are undeniable comparisons to be made with ASOIAF, both in the characters, themselves, and the overarching story.

Yet somehow, it ends up being somewhat different than Game of Thrones. It's a bit heavier handed on the magic (which I personally enjoyed), and the story remains hard to put down, despite being one of the heftier reads.

With interesting twists and turns, brilliant characters, and a well-created world, Legacy of Ash is one of the more memorable fantasy epics in recent memory.