Django Wexler

Long ago, a magical war destroyed an empire, and a new one was built in its ashes. But still the old grudges simmer, and two siblings will fight on opposite sides to save their world.

Ashes of the Sun

Sade A

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  "I am seizing you on the authority of the Twilight Order...You stand accused of practicing dhaka. You will have an opportunity to present evidence in your defense"


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  Ashes of the Sun
 has a very promising premise. The world especially, was definitely intriguing. However the execution of this very promising plot was below par. To be honest, I did not think this was the work of a seasoned author.

So the book opens up with Gyre and his sister Maya taking care of the family's farm animals. Fast forward to a random official showing up, Va something something Thousandcuts, Maya is taken against her parents will? maybe not against her parents will? We're never really told. Either way, she's taken, there's much crying, Gyre tries to "rescue" her and gets one of his eyes fucked up for his troubles. 

12 years later, Gyre is older and swearing something that seems like revenge, smells like revenge and talks like revenge but he says it's liberation. Maya is firmly entrenched in the ideals of the Twilight Order and every time she opens her mouth basically sounds like the goody two shoes you'd hate in secondary school.

The nail in the coffin for this book for me is that you could more often than not, predict what was going to happen and quite frankly these characters were dumb as rocks.
 Umm spoilers I guess *shrug*
Maya gets miraculous powers at the end of the book because sure that makes sense. Gyre's brain never picks up on the fact that Kit was one step from betraying him even though it was obvious to anyone with half a brain. But I guess when you're thinking with your penis you can't really think with your real brain.
Wexler dedicates for some weird reason too much time in my opinion to the sex life of Gyre and Maya. Oh, look Maya masturbates, oh look Gyre can't say no to Kit trying to drag his penis out every time she's horny (which is a lot of times by the way). How does this help the book? I'm guessing the point was to show them as regular people, readers could somehow relate to but to be honest, more time should have been spent giving them a brain and making them think smartly....

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All in all, amazing world, great potential but

 execution falls flat...

Long ago, a magical war destroyed an empire, and a new one was built in its ashes. But still the old grudges simmer, and two siblings will fight on opposite sides to save their world in the start of Django Wexler's new epic fantasy trilogy. Gyre hasn't seen his beloved sister since their parents sold her to the mysterious Twilight Order. Now, twelve years after her disappearance, Gyre's sole focus is revenge, and he's willing to risk anything and anyone to claim enough power to destroy the Order. Chasing rumors of a fabled city protecting a powerful artifact, Gyre comes face-to-face with his lost sister. But she isn't who she once was. Trained to be a warrior, Maya wields magic for the Twilight Order's cause. Standing on opposite sides of a looming civil war, the two siblings will learn that not even the ties of blood will keep them from splitting the world in two.

Sahi K

Though I had never read anything by this author before, I dont know why had a bit of high expectations from this one and I guess that’s the main reason it didn’t seem to wow me.

Maya was definitely a standout character with both her badass as well as vulnerable moments whereas Gyre felt a little one dimensional with just wanting to burn everything down. I really didn’t connect much to any other characters and I never got the emotional payoff I always expect from a good fantasy novel. I was also not a particular fan of the writing style, which kinda made it hard for me to read quickly. The world building was okay but nothing really stood out as very different from other fantasy worlds.

I still think this is a fun novel, especially if you like the writing style and the extremely fast pacing of the plot which doesn’t leave a lot of time to explore the nuances of the characters. And I definitely appreciate the queer rep and it’s always exciting to see more f/f main couples in fantasy. I still haven’t decided if am gonna continue the series but I’m keeping an open mind.

Krystal Pollock

not sure if u liked it or not. I will have to let it settle and then re read it. It was okay tho

Anyaconda

It appears that my opinion is going to be an unpopular one.

I was anticipating "Ashes of Sun", but was quite disappointed. My eARC didn't come with a cover, map or glossary, but I've found that other reviewers copies did come with a glossary. I had a hard time imagining the creatures and world and I found some names extremely cringy - "Suddenstorm" and "Thousandcuts" and "unmetal" to name a few made me roll my eyes.

The writing felt more YA to me than the epic adult fantasy I expected.

The plot is loose and we get mission after mission with no real goal in mind (except Gyre wanting to take down everyone). It doesn't feel tied together enough.
Maya was the most interesting character and all the side characters never felt fleshed out enough for me to care if they lived or died (and die they did).

I believe that many people will enjoy this book as the ideas altogether are very good, but I'd urge the publishers to add maps and maybe some illustrations to make sure readers aren't as confused as I was and this ultimately didn't make for a good reading experience.

Thank you Head of Zeus and Netgalley for an advanced readers copy in exchange for an honest review.

Ashes of the Sun

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