Despite owning The Dagger and Coin series for years, this is my first foray into Abraham’s novels, but after being utterly enchanted by his prose, I definitely want to read more. Age of Ash is a stunningly written, character driven story, centred on thieves, grief and dark magic.

She has wit, but it’s based on honed survival skills, not on intelligence (and definitely not on the emotional one! 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. Once the trilogy is all told, the entire tapestry will be revealed, and from there we’ll be able to decide how much we really liked the whole story, and if this entire journey was worth it. Some lose coin, some lose their lives, and she may even lose herself as she plays as a little wolf for the puppetmaster.

Yet at the same time it’s unique in so many ways that only living day-to-day with another culture can bring. However, as the book develops, other POV characters appear with varying degrees of prominence, which feels like it does mix up the flow at times.

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.Additionally I think its very gutsy to set a fantasy story like this in a single city state without an expansive world and cultures for world building depth. I will say that appreciated the largely female cast and how they were all handled; occasionally some of the characters felt a little samey, but none of them suffered from the general fantasy pitfalls of misogyny. Thanks to Netgalley and Orbit for the advanced review copy and opportunity to provide an honest review. And in truth I find it hard to describe exactly why reading it was as wonderful as it was, aside from highlighting broader themes of Abraham’s work. I would like to thank Orbit for sending me a copy of Age of Ash to review, it has been a brilliant introduction to Abraham’s writing.