Django Wexler

This was a bloody good time. I loved the main character because she did what she thought she had to without the constant worry and flip flopping that a lot of other YA characters do. Her decisions were not always right or moral, but something that she stuck to and did not get overly apologetic for.

The story itself was super interesting and unique. I absolutely flew through these pages, eager to see how Isoka would deal with what came at her next.

Portal fantasy meets Groundhog Day. After subjective millennia of trying to be the Chosen One and defeat the Dark Lord, our heroine gets tired of being tortured to death and decides to just become the Dark Lord instead. A certain amount of murder and debauchery follows but (even though repeatedly dying and having the world reset has resulted in a certain amount of derealisation) she retains a strong conscience and isn't actually *that* dark of a lord.

Her constant assessing of new characters show more as potential sex partners didn't ring true for me, but then what would I know, I'm asexual, and also see above re trauma.

I was more frustrated that this turned out to be the first in a series so ended on a bit of a cliffhanger without resolving the question of what is actually going on here. (Though there are sufficient hints that I have theories.) I really need to remember to check new books before I start them because 9 times out of 10 these days of *course* it's going to be the first in a series, almost *no-one* writes standalones anymore. show less

First Impression: The prologue gave me the strong start to a story that I have not encountered in years. Then you find an alternating POV that slowly reveals an incredible world while developing the background of the two main characters. Many of the more recent stories that I have read rely heavily on “info dumps” to jump start the world building and context for the main plot; that is not something I appreciate much. Of course, many other readers have exactly the opposite opinion, which show more I am sure is why such continues to be popular. If you are somebody who does not enjoy the ambiguity of a slowly revealed world, you can jump to the back and read through the glossary (where IMHO info dumps belong) and then come back to enjoy this remarkable world as it unfolds.

Final Impression: This is an exemplar of the writer’s craft. The author gives us a vivid dystopian world with just a touch of Lovecraftian horror and a built in conflict between the creative powers of elemental magic and life itself … highlighting the corruptive potential of both. Each character encounter revealed just a little bit more of this fascinating world, giving just enough detail to provide the context needed to support the character’s story. Bottomline … I believe the world building here is second to none. Now add the people. Nobody is the villain in their own story. As the author develops the conflict between siblings who suffered a painful separation as children, I find myself empathizing with both of them, which makes the conflict here all the more tragic. By the end, I could see how each of them had developed and grown until the end of their redemptive arc could be seen on the horizon (sequels)? What sets this story apart from many though, is the detail and individuality put into the supporting cast … with whom I could identify as well. All of the characters were flawed. All of the characters had some redeemable value. That all combines to make this story all the more real to me and I absolutely loved it.

The author notes in his acknowledgements that this book was subject to extensive writes and editing, with large portions of it eventually being tossed out … and all of the hard work paid off. This is one of the few books in recent memory that now sits on my favorites shelf while I anxiously await the sequel.

I was given this free advance reader copy (ARC) ebook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

#AshesOfTheSun #NetGalley show less

While I do have some issues -- if LT allowed, my rating would be 4.75, not 5, but I rounded up, partially as I share this account with my wife who loved the book even more than I did -- this was an incredibly enjoyable read. The secondary world fantasy meets time loop premise is very neat, the snarky character voice is entertaining and relatively plausible given her backstory, I am a big fan of humorous footnotes when handled well (which they were), and the plot moves at a brisk pace show more throughout the whole book.
The issues are more nitpicks. The novel suffers a bit -- not a lot, but a bit - from the typical comedic story problem of the plot taking up the space in the latter half of the book that the humour did at the outset. The transition is very gradual, which helps, but it is undeniable that while the first 60 pages (out of nearly 400) are consistently hilarious, at least to me, the jokes are far fewer and far less funny by the final, say, 200 pages. Connected to this is the protagonist's increasing emotional investment in her surrounding cast, undermining her ability to be sardonically cynical and brutal in the manner that drove so much of the humour and excitement early on as her internal POV slides slowly from callous antihero to world-weary regular hero. This is perfectly addressed within the story itself, though, but it might cause some readers to expect one thing from the book, and then be delivered something else.
Another small nitpick is that the logic of the magic rocks that fuel this universe are trying to have it both ways, being ineffable Tolkien-esque mystery magic that can do anything when the story needs it and nothing when it doesn't, while also being hyper-defined Sanderson-esque science magic that operates within clearly predictable rules. Wexler is very adroit at not letting this come up in the same scenes, though, so the minor logic holes caused are fairly easily ignored.
Finally, the ending - and, I suspect, though I'd be happy to be proved wrong, the second/final novel that follows -- is very predictable, though Wexler does a very good job of dancing around it for as long as possible. That ending, and the protagonist's surprise at both it and her implicit new challenge that will follow, is the sole exception to one of the things that impressed me the most about this novel: an intelligent narrator. When the protagonist does something the reader can easily see is a bad choice, it is immediately lampshaded by the narrator, and that takes me from feeling annoyed with the protagonist to sympathetic. We all make mistakes, we all make dumb calls; what makes a protagonist annoying to read about is when they remain oblivious to their own screw ups. Our protagonist Davi is a very intelligent character, and her meta-textually calling herself out on it the second she makes a bad call or fails to see something obvious coming makes a world of difference to me as a reader.
Another, related, thing that impressed me was the protagonist's degree of self-awareness. There is a major change in her understanding of the world towards the end of the story, and her thoughts and reactions to this are consistent, insightful and very, very understandable, and make what would have otherwise been a fairly predictable plot device into an incredibly powerful moment of character growth.
All in all, one of the best novels I'll read this year. I'm both excited and a bit trepidatious about the sequel bringing the story to a close -- the premise for it seems much less suited for an entertaining story than did that of this first installment, but I really hope to be proven wrong on that -- and will be reading it sooner rather than later for sure. I'm also now curious about checking out some of Wexler's other, more serious writing. The fellow clearly knows what he is doing. show less