When I first read the synopsis for Ashes of the Sun I was incredibly excited to read it because I love books that follow multiple perspectives, especially ones that are on opposite sides of a war. This synopsis especially grabbed me because those two perspectives come from siblings who were separated at a young age.

I liked that the chapters alternated between Maya and Gyre, and they were (for the most part) short and fast chapters which made the book as a whole fly by. This was my first time reading a book by Django Wexler so I wasn't sure what I would be getting into, but I was pleasantly surprised with how smoothly the writing flowed and how FUNNY this ended up being because I wasn't really expecting that. Wexler also managed to avoid a lot of info dumping, instead weaving the background into the story seamlessly. He also kept his descriptions short and to the point, while still giving you enough that you could easily visualize everything.

Wexler's world building was incredible, I really got a feel for this dystopian, futuristic fantasy world especially Deepfire which I found to be one of the most interesting settings. As much as I loved the world building, I do feel like there were some things that weren't explained enough. I know this is a series and a lot of the things I have questions about will be explained later on, but there weren't really too many questions that had answers within this book. For example, I want to know more about the plaguespawn and where they come from/what their purpose is, what is the black spider thing, what is the Thing that Maya has, etc. The Chosen and the Ghouls are mentioned quite a bit as well and we definitely get more information about the Ghouls, so I'm hoping we learn more about the Chosen in the coming books as well.

That said, that's really the only "negative" that I had with this book if you can even consider it to be a negative. I loved the characters, especially Maya and Beq. We also get a F/F romance but if romance isn't something that you like in your books, I can tell you that the romance is very much just something that happens on the side and isn't a main focus of the story, and felt very natural. I liked how we got Gyre's perspective since he hates the Republic and the Order and how it contrasted with Maya's perspective being a centarch and a part of the Order, because it helps you to understand both sides and why Gyre would want to destroy this system built to oppress it's citizens, but at the same time you see Maya and those around her who truly care about people and do what they can to protect them and be there for them. It definitely creates conflict within you as the reader because you find that you love both these characters but rooting for them both at the same time is almost impossible.

Also, the plaguespawn were so terrifying and horrific, scenes with them could easily fit into a horror book. The plaguespawn hunt down humans and animals alike to take their body parts and incorporate them into themselves, so you could easily run into a plaguespawn that has multiple human arms or eyes, or have a head made out of two fused goat heads, and it's so gruesome and detailed that every time they showed up, I would shudder.

When the characters fight (both plaguespawn and other humans) it's fast paced and I really enjoyed the way that Wexler wrote his battle scenes which makes me really want to go back and read some of his older series like the Shadow Campaigns. The different fighting styles were so interesting, especially looking at Maya and Gyre because Maya can also use her magic and has to fight both mentally and physically, whereas Gyre doesn't have magic, but he is extremely cunning and uses alchemicals to help him (mainly with explosions).

There is so much packed into this book - betrayals, petty vendettas, magical duels, creatures that make your skin crawl, friendship, romance, tons of blood, and lots of scheming. There's also a glossary in the back of the book, but I never found myself using it because Wexler made it easy to figure out what they mean just while reading the book. I found that I couldn't put this book down and thought about it constantly. This is almost a 600 page book, and it felt like it was half that because of how quickly I read it. I highly recommend this book and when it comes out on July 21st, you should check it out!

Ashes of the Sun is the first book I’ve read by Django Wexler, though admittedly I own another of his novels and just haven’t gotten around to reading it yet--famous last words. I must say that I really enjoyed Ashes of the Sun. The characters were well developed, there was diversity, creepy villains, and plenty of world-building. I also loved the conflict between brother and sister and their ideals, something I wanted in Ranger of Marzanna, but didn’t get, and frankly, much of the novel was reminiscent of facets of Star Wars, from the basic struggle between good evil, to world-building, and the character relationships.


The story begins on a farm in what seems almost like a post-apocalyptic world, after a war between The Elder races (ghouls and The Chosen) almost destroyed it with their astonishing powers. Before being wiped out after the Plague Wars, The Chosen, who had powers beyond any mere mortal human, established The Twilight Order, to allow humans to use deiat to protect humanity and civilization after their passing. Think of this Twilight Order as the Jedi Order, its most powerful warriors (known as centrachs) as Master Jedis, their trainees (called agathia), as padawan. The centrachs and their agathia wield lightsaber-like weapons, known as Haken, that is powered by Chosen arcana. Only humans capable of drawing on deiat, or the force, can use this power. It’s also worth noting that the Twilight Order is part of, and defends, the Dawn Republic, which has its own forces. Hopefully, if you’re a fellow Star Wars fan, this explanation simplifies matters for you.


“Jaedia had once described plaguespawn as the product of a mad taxidermist, given the run of the contents of a butcher shop and a morgue. That was close, but Maya thought that no human mind, however mad, could have matched the awfulness of the real thing. And despite all its deformities, the thing functioned.”



Centrachs, though they have to report to the Council of Twelve (Jedi Order), roam the realm fighting plaguespawn, and hunting down dhak (illegal arcana) and dhakim (humans who use ghoul magic, can control plaguespawn, and are mostly insane--think the Sith). Regular people mostly live underground or in cities with extremely high walls, to keep out plaguespawn. Plaguespawn are disgusting creatures of unknown origin, that take apart other creatures, mash their bits together and use them as their own body parts. They’re disturbing, promising a painful death to anyone who falls victim to them, and I wouldn’t want to encounter one either.

“‘I’m not stupid,’ Gyre muttered. ‘If the order saved her, then she’s been living with them since she was five years old. That’s plenty of time to get their hooks into her….Nothing’s going to fix my family. I just don’t want them to break anyone else’s.’”



Despite the fact that the centrachs fight off these creatures, many of them have become arrogant, and are a source of fear for normal citizens. This is evident for the very beginning of Ashes of the Sun, where a family of farmers is ripped apart forever by a visiting Centrach who is supposed to help cure a young girl. The daughter of the family, Maya has been plagued by bouts of sickness and the Centrach is to take her to the Order for a cure. Afraid, she cries out for help from her parents, who know they can’t resist. It is her brother, Grye, who stabs the Centrach to protect his sister, only to lose an eye as recompense. Not too long after, he lost both his parents too.


“But there will come a time when you have to hurt someone--even kill someone--to protect the rest, whether or not they deserve it. When that day comes, you’ll understand why we have to hide so often. The Order does what must be done, and it does not win us many friends.”


Ashes of the Sun does a great job on focusing on the ideological differences between brother and sister. As Maya was taken when she was merely five years old, most of her life has been spent as agathios in the Twilight Order, with her Centrach instructor, Jaedia being the closest thing to a mother she can remember. Her brother, Gyre, plagued by guilt and hatred for the Order that stole his sister away, becomes a rebel, who will seek to destroy the Order at any cost. Author Wexler does a great job of making you see why each character believes the things that they do, and makes you sympathetic to each of their causes--even though they’re in direct conflict with one another. As such, each of their meetings between brother and sister are fairly tragic and charged with emotion. Although this sibling rivalrdy didn’t rip me up like any of the tragedies in Star Wars, such as Luke and Darth Vader or Anakin and Obi-Wan, it still was pretty well done. I thought Ashes of the Sun would drag out their meeting much longer, but the two siblings reunite pretty early on after the time skip--way before I thought they should have for the purposes of tension--but it was still quite interesting to see their reactions and the reactions of their companions.


All of these companions and side characters are fairly fleshed out, many with tragic backstories of their own or great senses of humor. There was also a well-developed LGBTQ+ relationship in the novel. Despite the fact that the author is a man, it never once felt like his portrayal of his female characters was awkward in the way that male authors often are in their exploration of the feminine perspective. Likewise, his portrayal of a romantic relationship between two women was also well-written. It did not feel like it was added in simply for the sake of diversity, but had a foundation, believable progress from friends to lovers, and did justice to both of the character’s personalities. I still preferred the LGBT+ relationship in The Priory of the Orange Tree, which I thought was more emotionally charged and stronger on the whole, but it’s still really nice to see this kind of representation--especially in fantasy novels, which tend to stick to the straight and narrow.


Gyre’s heterosexual relationship is similarly authentic in its development but I liked it a lot less, personally, since it wasn’t as serious. In fact, in my opinion, the best relationships in the novel are not romantic. The bonds between Maya and her mentor Jaedia are very strong, and reminded me of some of the best Master-Padawan relationships in Star Wars. Similarly, Jaedia’s conflicted friendship with Tanax, a member of an opposing sect in the Order, is also very interesting on many different levels, as was Gyre’s friendship with the other members of the rebel cell.


Despite thinking the world-building was very interesting, and especially enjoying the characters of Maya and her Centrach mentor, Jaedia, I felt that as a whole, Ashes of the Sun was missing a little something extra that would have made me love it. I didn’t squeal with delight at the romances or heave a sigh of relief when a battle scene was over. Though I really enjoyed reading the book, it never provoked an emotional response to me, even when characters died. As someone who is a big crier, this is probably a bad sign. I definitely did not have a strong connection to most of the characters--whether good or bad. And I think the author could have spent a little more time on developing his side characters even more to make the tragedies that befell a lot of them more emotional. Or perhaps it’s simply because many of the characters don’t seem to care much when other characters die and simply go about their business.


“He turned back to his task, shaking his head. It’s not like I haven’t killed….But there was something about the utter casualness of Kit’s violence that gave him pause. Don’t get soft, he chided himself. You’ve done far worse things….And, if he did find the power he wanted, no doubt there would be worse yet to come.”



The only other thing I really didn’t care for in Ashes of the Sun was that some of the fantasy terminology wasn’t very well explained. In a fantasy book of this size, that can be quite problematic. Ashes of the Sun does provide a glossary of these terms, but in the Kindle edition, it was all the way in the back. And we all know how hard it is to maneuver to the back of the novel and then forward to where you were reading in the Kindle. What’s more is author Wexler definitely adheres to the school of thought which assumes his reader isn’t stupid and can put everything together through context--there’s not very much explaining as compared to authors like Brandon Sanderson, who meticulously spell out all of their lore, mythology, magic systems, etc.. I was able to figure out what Ashes of the Sun was talking about, but the glossary would have really illuminated a lot for me if I had perused it first, especially since there’s many terms in Ashes of the Sun, which start with the letter “d”--”deiat,” “dhaka,” “dhakim”--and it was a lot for me to keep straight. I even had to refer to the glossary to write this review.


Ultimately, Ashes of the Sun is a solid fantasy read with interesting world-building (though a lot of its foundations will look very familiar to Star Wars fans, this isn’t a bad thing), and lore. However, if you’re looking for a fantasy book that’s very high stakes, charged, and going to send you on an emotional roller coaster, like A Song of Ice and Fire, this may not be the book for you. I plan to read and am excited for future installments in this series and more of author Django Wexler’s other novels.

Twelve years ago, 8-year-old Gyre tried to keep his little sister Maya from being taken away by a centarch, a member of the zealous Twilight Order which polices arcana they label dark magic. Desperate, Gyre stabs the centarch. The centarch responds by casually slashing Gyre's face to teach him a lesson, destroying one of his eyes. Naturally, Gyre grows up to hate the Order and wants to see them destroyed. However, Maya had been taken from her family because her worsening, chronic illness was an indicator that she could use the magic of the centarchs, and she has spent her life training to become one of them and protect the world from monstrous plaguespawn and evil cultists who use dark magic to prey upon others. When brother and sister meet again as adults, they're on opposite sides of a brewing conflict.

I like world building that feels like it has the weight of history behind it. Even though this epic fantasy is light on the politics and governance that drive the conflicts in which the protagonists are immersed, the world itself is a fantastic place of ruins, wondrous artifacts, and legend. Readers may also enjoy that queer relationships, including queer marriages, are entirely normal in this world; Maya's worry about getting into a relationship has nothing to do with her sexuality and everything to do with whether it's appropriate for her to date as a centarch.

With that said, I think the book has a pretty strong male gaze and a problematic character that dampened my enthusiasm for the relationships in it. We get plenty of the protagonists ogling/fantasizing about women (Maya, in particular, spends a lot of time thinking about her crush/new friend/coworker Beq naked), and it got to be a bit much. Worse, I did not like Kit at all. I get that she's got a burn-the-candle-from-both-ends outlook on life, but she behaves in a sexually aggressive way toward Gyre that is not really any less predatory coming from a woman. Like, they have a business relationship, but she frequently propositions Gyre, grinds on him and shows up naked in his tent, and tries to touch and undress him. Sure, Gyre is attracted to Kit, but a lot of their encounters don't seem all that consensual.

Setting aside those irritating and problematic aspects, though, I did enjoy the book. While Gyre is extreme in his worldview, neither he nor Maya are entirely wrong or right about the world. Maya has been raised seeing the good the Order can do by using its centarchs' powers to protect ordinary people from the monsters and sorcerers that prey upon them. In contrast, Gyre has seen how the Order is designed to protect the powerful and keep themselves in power, by classifying any magic they don't control as "dark magic" (including benign arcana such as healing magic and pest control) and then heavily policing it, particularly among the poor. As Maya begins to realize how corrupt the Order is, her response is to try to work within the system and clean house from the inside. Gyre would prefer to burn it all to the ground and start over, and is willing to accept a lot of collateral damage to do so. I'll be very interested to see how Wexler handles this central conflict over the course of the series, especially given the current protests over police brutality. After all, the Order is basically a magic police force and many of its problems are the ones we're currently reckoning with in our own world. With that said, the "corrupt magic police" plot is merely part of a larger brewing conflict rooted in a massive, devastating war fought centuries earlier. I suspect the rest of the series will focus more on that than the corrupt cops aspect, so I don't want to overemphasize the police corruption theme here.

All in all, I enjoyed this book and I recommend it for fans of epic fantasy. I wasn't too impressed with some of how it handled women characters, as mentioned above, but that's par for the course on a lot of male-authored fantasy. I found everything else about the book to be engaging, from the world building to the pacing to the plot. I look forward to seeing where this series goes next.

The copy of Ashes of the Sun I recieved was provided generously by NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. Thank you!

By first impressions, Ashes of the Sun was a book I was incredibly excited to read: the cover is beautiful, the description presented a new and interesting fantasy world with a unique spin, and the author is an already well-known fantasy aficionado. And, largely, my first impressions of the book carried through with surprising longevity, and the novel was a great experience to read.

This review will contain some spoilers, so please read with caution!

First, I must praise Wexler's writing style, because it is something that captured my attention at page one. With a lot of epic fantasy and high fantasy stories, the writing can become very long, explanatory, and blocked with a lot of info dumping (this can be done well, of course, it's just a genre stereotype). I found that Wexler managed to (mostly) stave off the things that many readers are not fond of, which made the 600-page story quite an easy read. Wexler's writing was continually interesting, his descriptions were to the point, not overly indulgent, and even his characterizations of the plethora of female characters were positive and non-sexualized. I include this bit because, as any fantasy fan will know, writers tend to overly describe female characters (because we really need to know the size of her breasts in proportion to how small her waist is...) and I was very happy to see that Wexler avoided this trope, and gave all his characters respect.

The worldbuilding of this novel came only slightly second to me after the writing style. The world of Ashes of the Sun is complex, and there are a lot of layered elements and ideas that are unveiled, bit by bit, as the novel progresses. Although this makes the first few chapters hinged on mystery, as we come to try to understand dhak, centarchs, who the Chosen were, who the Republic is etc, this element keeps the reader interested. This novel upped the formulaic "chapters should ask questions that are answered in the next" idea of novel writing, as we are not only grasping the questions of plot, but also the questions of how the world works, and I found this to be quite compelling.

Although there were many elements of this book that I loved, there were a few issues I had with the story. Ashes of the Sun is told between two alternating point-of-view, a brother and sister separated at childhood. Maya, the sister, becomes a centarch-in-training for the Twilight Order, while Gyre becomes a glorified thief, working with a band of rebels that challenge both city and governmental authority. I found their different fates interesting, and their different views of the world was a great way to tell this story, however it created an issue where there was no cemented plot. There were some ideas of a plot, and there were events and story arcs that the two main characters separately went through, but up until the midway point of the novel I felt like there was no real connection. Even when the siblings reunite, twelve years after their separation, their stories continue in different directions (I should say different paths, as both paths end up leading to the same place). If someone asked me what the overall plot to this story was, I'm not sure I could say without breaking it up between Maya and Gyre.

The culmination of the novel is where the story really gets confusing for me, personally. It seemed like the book took a really drastic turn from the events in the first half of the story to the second half, and the ramp up of the drama was turned up to eleven, so to speak. In the first part of the story, we're with Gyre and a band of rebels, seemingly interested in some type of governmental overthrow, or at the very least revolution for the tunnelborn folk of Deepfire. In the later chapters, Gyre and Kit are working with one of the last remaining ghouls, a species that was previously thought wiped out, attempting to awake a collosal construct to destroy humanity. The divide between those two things, and the events between them, did not fully resonate with me.

This brings up the issue of their own personal plots. Maya's story seems well enough fleshed out on its own - we understand what she wants, what she's working towards, the obstacles she must overcome, and so on - but Gyre did not receive the same luxury in my opinion. Gyre's story confused me, because at first glance it really seemed like he had interest in Yora's cause (gaining rights for the tunnelborn to provide them with a better life). Although we get the idea that he has a bigger goal in mind, I was still a little surprised to find out exactly what his goal was, and most especially, why he had it. The explanation regarding why Gyre wants to destroy the Order and the Republic seemed a bit lackluster. Although he thinks about Maya from time to time, he flat out says that his goals are not because of her, despite her being taken by the Order as a child being the inciting incident for the novel. He mentions that his family was torn apart, but I didn't get the impression that he cared much about it, especially due to the back-and-forth we hear about Maya from his internal monologue. I don't understand why it's enough of a reason for Gyre to be so obsessed with the destruction of the human governmental constructs (so obsessed, in fact, that it's almost his entire reason for existence as a character; he becomes increasingly unsympathetic, loses what small empathy he had for anyone else, all because he wants to find the Tomb so desperately). For story purposes, we needed Gyre, but I wish he had more compelling reasons for his actions, because I found myself almost doubly interested in Maya's chapters than his.

On this point, I'd like to touch on the characters. Maya and Gyre, due to their stories being mostly separate, encounter different secondary characters, with some small overlap later on in the story. I feel like most of the secondary characters were well-written and had their own identities, and we get to learn about their motives, hopes, desires and such that makes them relatable and sympathetic. The only (important) character I felt that I had no interest in was Kit, for a few reasons. At first, Kit seemed like she was going to be a really interesting character with a lot of depth, as the reader was given near no answers with regard to her past, who she was working with, her personal gain, and such. Although frustrating to know next to nothing about her character, her meet cute is interesting, and she had a lot of potential with her secretive nature. Once the reader is made to know more about her, however, those mysteries do not seem as enticing as they did once before. Kit is completely unsympathetic to other people, even to Gyre for almost all of the story, despite the feeling that we the reader are supposed to somehow root for them as a pair. Though it makes sense that she doesn't care much for the lives of others, her continued examples of brutality, enjoyment of bloodlust and fighting, and half her dialogue talking about sex, did not resonate with me as anything deep or interesting. Even her backstory did not make me feel any sort of empathy for her. I was also confused about what Gyre took interest in her for, until I further understood that he truly only did care about finding the Tomb and power enough to overthrow the Order, then it made a little more sense.

Another point I'd like to give both in favor and against this book, with regard to the characters, is the LGBT+ representation. Being a member of the LGBT community myself, I am always excited to experience stories with LGBT+ characters, especially in high fantasy, where it feels like there is a lot less representation than in other categories. There were several LGBT+ characters in the novel, some more explicit than others, and I personally don't mind when some of the representation is in the background. This would, of course, be an issue if one of the main characters themselves didn't experience an LGBT+ romance, which Maya did. However, this was not represented, to me, as well as I would have liked.

Maya and Beq experience a slow-burn style attraction to one another after their first meeting, that eventually culminates in a relationship at the end of the novel. Maya's descriptions of Beq are what threw me the most - almost every single interaction with Beq, Maya's internal monologue would mention how attractive Beq is, ow how Maya needed to focus on the task at hand and NOT think about how attractive Beq is, or how she wanted to kiss her, etc. This didn't sit well with me for a few reasons, namely that it constantly enforces the over-sexualization that many real life LGBT+ people face. It also deflated their culmination of the relationship for me, because when they were finally able to express their feelings, I realized that there was no evidence that they had real interest in each other. Maya's interests in Beq, at least in her head, were mostly physical, they only talk about how they saved each other's lives at one point or another, and it seems like when they do find time to talk about their interests (my example here being Beq's interest in arcana), the other party isn't particularly interested. This does not a fulfilling relationship make.

Despite my personal criticisms, Ashes of the Sun was a great read that left a lot of possibilities open for the incoming sequel, though I wish I had known beforehand that it was a planned series! I find myself wondering what's next for Maya and Gyre, and although the end of the story left me with a lot of unanswered questions, I fully believe that Wexler will deliver a great sequel and continue their story in beautiful hand. I would recommend this book to anyone who enjoys new worlds, and especially new, well implemented magic systems. Compelling characters, interesting twists and amazing writing will be sure to satisfy any fantasy fan!

I received a complimentary copy of this ebook from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review.

Django Wexler makes cool worlds in his books that are very easy to see while reading. This is a cool one that has both high tech (leftover from a previous war between the Chosen and the ghouls) and magic in the the forms of deiat and dhaka. Only the centarchs (specially chosen by the Chosen before they fell) can use deiat, but anyone can use dhaka (which is why the Twilight Order, made up of centarchs, has banned it).

This story varies between the viewpoints of Maya (a centarch in training) and Gyre Halfmask who is trying to bring down the Order and the Republic because it is stifling and killing the people living there with its bans and rules against using dhak items. What is cool is that the dhak items are the high tech, like flight motivators, and core analytica. Plus the Chosen had skyships that crashed. Of course the dhakim use the tech to make plaguespawn and those aren't fun at all. They go around looking for more body parts to add to their own.

Between the darks parts of the dhakim and the corruption in the Twilight Order, I wasn't sure who to root for, so I rooted for both Maya and Gyre, who are trying in their separate ways to create a better society.

This is a good book to read and I cannot wait for the next one to come out as this one definitely ends on a cliffhanger!

Ashes of the Sun is a fast-paced, exciting epic fantasy that pits siblings against each other in an epic battle of good and evil. Four hundred years earlier the great civilization of the Chosen defeated the ghouls and their army of constructs, vanquishing them forever. On the ancient ruins of empire, a select few are trained from a young age to be the guardians of the Republic and carry on the traditions of the Chosen, the Twilight Order. They are trained to wield the light of the sun and graduate to become feared Centarchs, hardened to battle and exercising magical powers. Beneath the cities though in hidden tunnels and secret hollows are plague-spawn, Frankenstein like creations that combinations of all kinds of body parts. And, there are more fearsome things (like Tolkien-style Balrogs) that should not be awakened.

Two siblings are separated at a young age. The sister, Maya, is raised to become a Centarch. The brother was struck down trying to protect his five year old sister from being taken away. The brother, Gyere, is now a bandit and a rebel, willing to do anything to take revenge on the Centarchs. Having not heard from each other in twelve years, every reader knows they are on a collision course, a dangerous collision course.

Great world-building background with a lengthy glossary to help those not following everything. Lots of action. Very imaginative creations of plague-spawn and other constructs.

Many thanks to the publisher for providing a copy for review.

Great start to a series

I had previously read “The Shadow Campaigns” by Django Wexler and enjoyed the series, so I was optimistic about “Ashes of the Sun”. I wasn’t disappointed. The world-building is excellent, and the story is interesting and well-paced. There is good character development and some great action. I also enjoyed some of the lighter moments in the book and some of the banter between characters. I did find parts of the book confusing, but the glossary at the end of the book was helpful. Indeed, it is more backstory than glossary, with some extensive entries. I think that the glossary should be read first to learn the relevant history of the world created by Wexler.
Overall this is a very good read and I recommend it for fans of the genre. I look forward to reading other books in the series.
Disclosure: I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley for review purposes.

This will be the third Django Wexler book I've read this year, so I'm definitely on a roll! I had read a book by him before, but I think because it was the first in a long-ish series, I became intimidated and kind of let it slide. But I loved his new YA series and am looking forward to the final one in that coming out soon. Which made me all the more surprised when this, a beginning to a new adult series, suddenly popped up! I'm not sure how long of a series is planned, but based on this first book, I'm all in!

When his little sister, Maya, is taken away at age 5 by the powerful Twilight Order, Gyre's idealic family life is broken. Years of simmering anger build until he comes of age to make is own way. And that way includes spending every resource he has delving into the underworld of the Republic in search of a power strong enough to destroy the organization that stole his sister and, in many ways, controls his world. Maya, raised by the Order and on the bring of becoming independent, is committed to the ideals of her organization. Raised to believe that the Order protects and serves, Maya sees the good that she and her people can do for the common folk who are plagued by dangerous monsters. But as she comes closer and closer to striking out on her own, she begins to see cracks among her people and a corruption that may go deeper than she thought.

The world-building in this story is excellent. It almost seems to be set in a post-apocaptic version of the "Star Wars" universe. Kind of an odd comparison, but once you read the book, you'll totally see it. The author has a great afterward where he even states "Star Wars" as an influence, but it's so subtly done, that at no point does this in any way feel like a "Star Wars" book. So it feels both familiar as well as incredibly unique all at once. I really liked the glimpses we have into the history of this world, and there were a lot of great reveals that game out over the course of the story. Of course, most of these just raised more questions than they answered, but what else can you expect from the first book in a series?

I also really liked both Maya and Gyre. This is one of those rare, great examples of a book where the duel narrators are equally strong and compelling. Especially since they are essentially representing opposing forces. It's quite difficult to write two such characters and maneuver your reader into rooting for them both, a losing battle from the start. Gyre was perhaps a bit less sympathetic to start, but he definitely grew on me. And Maya is just the sort of bad-ass warrior women I gravitate towards. They also each had unique romance arcs that were at times quite unexpected.

The story is also action-packed from start to finish. It did take quite a while to get into the main conflict, with what felt like a bunch of side/mini quests taking up the majority of the first half. But as the main conflict begins to unfold, we see the importance of these early action scenes in setting the stage for the character choices are two leads make and how they end up where they are. Each also came with their own set of side characters, sidekicks, and enemies, so there was a lot of groundwork that needed to be laid out to really set the stage for the grand finale.

And while the grand finale itself was pretty intriguing, it was also clear that this was only the beginning. Sure, the current big bad was dealt with, but Maya and Gyre, while both questioning their own goals, are still clearly on opposing sides of a brewing conflict. I can't wait to find out where their adventures lead them next and how or if they will ever be able to find a middle ground between them.

Also, don't forget to enter to win an ARC copy of this book! I also had an e-book copy, so this is a completely fresh ARC ready and waiting for its first reader! Enter to win!

Rating 8: A rollicking adventure story with two fantastic leads at its heart.

(Link will go live July 10)

I loved this one! I especially liked the dynamic of the two sides being brother and sister and you see their development throughout the story, to the point where you don’t know if there’s a right side or wrong side. They both have good intentions but their views are so different that the struggle is discovering if they can meet in the middle for the sake of family.

I thought all the characters were great and multidimensional and the world building was really good. I can’t wait for the next book!

My experience reading this was one of pure frustration. I have a teething six-month-old and I couldn't figure out between the baby and the book which I wanted to be around less. I adore that little girl so imagine my feelings towards this book! I'm screaming on the inside.

The author notes that this book was inspired or influenced by Star Wars novels by the likes of Timothy Zahn and Chuck Wendig. I can get behind that. I truly felt Star Wars vibes while reading this. There's also an ability a character gains later on which is basically foresight from Mistborn.

This book is enjoyable. It is. You may think I'm crazy then after what I've said already but I am truly deeply torn over this.

I have a feeling that I was reading an uncorrected proof of the book. Aside from the fact that there are general placeholders, the first few chapters have obvious mistakes and there are also word choices that I found odd. One paragraph had a sentence with the world trudged followed by a sentence with the word nudged. Another chapter nearby had a similar rhyme going on. Little things like that pulled me out of the story. Roughly two-thirds of the way through the book I felt it needed an editor. The irony of course is that the author thanks his editor in the acknowledgments. Ouch. The final villain of the book also has an "I can't wait to cut you to shreds" line right before the battle which made me groan. It's not as bad as when James Bond villains reveal their plans but there's no care put into it. I know it's not going to happen by the villain saying it will. The battle, with all the build-up the book gives you in trying to discover what is going on, only last around a page and a half. It's an afterthought in a book with tons of battles.

The characters were great. One of the most important things is to have a great cast and no one disappointed. Every side character was equally fleshed out. I realized while I was reading that this is a world in which I wish I existed so that I could interact with these characters. I haven't felt this way since I read Harry Potter as a kid. I'm in my thirties so this is an extremely weird statement to be typing out but there it is. Kit was the one who did it for me. She was an absolute blast through and through.

One piece of uniqueness that this book presented to me was that there was no clear good side or bad side. I know you're saying that a lot of media covers that. Not like this. See, at its core, it is a book about a brother and sister separated as children. One becomes a thief and underground legend who wants to tear down the Twilight Order because he believes they don't care for the general public. The other ended up working for the Twilight Order, an ancient group that has magic swords and special abilities they channel from within. Similar to the Force. Their purpose is to defend humanity. There are politics and internal struggles within the Order which we learn more about as the story continues. Each chapter flips between the two of them until the end where the stories merge and each takes half a section. Admittedly, Maya's story carried my interest more than Gyre's. If Kit wasn't in it I would probably suffer a lot more. Gyre and his crew don't have the personal connection that Maya's team had with me. They were all good characters but If I had to read a single book about one or the other, I would choose Maya in a heartbeat. Kit is my equivalent to Ahsoka, Gyre to Anakin. I can watch Ahsoka do anything but there's only so much Anakin I can take.

Also, holy LGBT representation Batman!

I don't think there has been any other work I have ever read where there were so many openly gay or bi characters. When you do first find that out it happens very quickly. There are a few chapters where you learn one person is a lesbian, and suddenly this other person is gay as well, and then even a minor character is into women, and then this person goes both ways. It's rapid-fire information but it doesn't feel forced.

The fight scenes are plentiful. The author does a good job of making them descriptive but it was a detriment when the smallest battles of the story go on and on. There is also a lot of repetition. This is where I felt an editor should have stepped in. How often does a battle or event happen and then a character blacks out and wakes up somewhere? How often does Maya alone hit the floor after using up her powers? Does Drowning Pool need to make a song about her?

Like the actual Star Wars movies, this isn't perfect. Will I follow the rest of the story when it comes out? Absolutely. There's that fence that I'm sitting on. I'm throwing all the negative out there so that you look past it when you read this. The mystery, the characters, the dueling stories, the genre-mixing..it makes a compelling read. This is an LGBT friendly Fantasy version of Star Wars without Space. There also are no Ewoks. There are some furry ghouls though.

Thanks to the author, Orbit, and NetGalley for providing an advance copy for review.

I wasn't really sure what to expect when I started reading this book. I mean, yeah, I read the cover blurb and bits and pieces beforehand where the author mentioned working on this project, and I have read his <i>Shadow Campaigns</i> novels, so I had some idea of the kinds of themes and character driven storytelling that I'd probably find.

I didn't expect this to be Django Wexler's take on a <i>Star Wars</i> novel.

But around halfway through the book it clicked for me that that's what this was (Django outright confirmed this later as an inspiration in the Acknowledgments section at the end of the novel; in retrospect it should have been obvious the first time a firearm was referred to as a "blaster").

That aside, <i>Ashes of the Sun</i> is written from the points of view of two siblings, Gyre and Maya, who find themselves on opposite sides of global conflict that has been going in one form or another since the epoch of this world that Django has created. In brief, Maya is a representative of the Twilight Order, an organization that claims the responsibility of defending civilization against the threats of plaguespawn (monsters) and dhakim (arcana, magic) wheras Gyre is on the other end of the spectrum, believing that the Order deliberately suppresses knowledge of power that could be used against them, and is an authoritarian oppressor against the people they claim to protect.

Django weaves the narrative through both points of view in alternating chapters throughout the novel, taking you deep into the mind and motivation of both characters, and in this manner you find yourself rooting for both characters (and thus both sides of the spectrum in the conflict overall) equally. I've said in reviews of other works that I don't tend to like stories with multiple PoVs because I invariably found myself rooting for one story more than another. This isn't an issue here because both sides are always drawing your attention, so you never find yourself craving to get back to one side of the story over another. (I shouldn't be surprised, as Django has already proven his ability to do this with <i>The Shadow Campaigns</i> which had more than two PoVs overall)

Since we're on the subject, don't expect any large scale battles here. This very much is not a military fantasy novel, so we never see any massive engagements here, but don't think the action in this novel is any lesser for it. Django proves here that he is just as adept at sustaining single engagements here as he was massive battles in his previous series. (Although, I confess, there is a noticeable lack of Joe Abercrombie-like curses and invectives in this novel compared to the former, but I am very much nit-picking here and in any case Django has in my opinion accomplished exactly what he set out to do with this novel, that is, introduce us to this world and begin setting the stage for the conflict that will take us through the rest of this series).

So, yes, in a nutshell I think that's the most succinct recommendation I can give right off the bat. If a science-fantasy-esque take on good vs. evil (where both sides are "right" in different ways) then you should pick this one up. If you're a fan of his other works, you should pick this up as well. And, if you've never read a Django Wexler book before, this is a good one to start with as well.

This book was so much fun! Ashes of the Sun is up there with Dune mixed in LoTr goodness. You won’t regret picking this one up!
ARC publisher gave me and advanced copy for an honest review. Thank you to the publisher!

I received an uncorrected advance copy of Ashes of the Sun in exchange for an honest review. I'd like to thank Django Wexler and Orbit Books for the opportunity.

The first entry in the Burningblade and Silvereye series begins when Va'aht Thousandcuts - a centarch of the Twilight Order - turns up at a farm dwelling to take away a child from the family that resides there. The youth in question, five-year-old Maya, does not wish to leave the household. Unfortunately, as she suffers frequently from peculiar illnesses, she has no choice and will have to be raised as a member of the Twilight Order. Gyre, her eight-year-old brother, upon seeing his little sister resisting and screaming acts on impulsive and makes a foolhardy mistake in stabbing the centrach. This was a life-altering error to make as Va'aht Thousandcuts retaliates and leaves Gyre scarred for life.

"He was falling backwards, hitting the floor shoulder-first, feeling nothing but the searing agony in his face. He mashed his hand against it, and blood squished, torn skin shifting nauseatingly under his fingers. He only realised he was screaming when he had to stop to take a breath."

Ashes of the Sun follows the point of view perspectives of Maya and Gyre, alternating every chapter. After the prologue, the action recommences twelve years later. The siblings are living very different lives.

Maya is training to be a centrach under the guidance of Jaedia Suddenstorm. The Twilight Order follow the teachings of the Chosen and are the protectors of humanity. Members of the order can use a form of magic known as deiat and weild legendary blades called haken. Haken are akin to element-fused lightsabers. The magic that Maya can display is that of fire. We join her on her travels with her tutor and a fellow student trying to eradicate monstrous oddities called plaguespawn. Plaguespawn are described as "the product of a mad taxidermist, given the run of the contents of a butcher shop and human morgue."

Gyre hasn't seen Maya since the day she was taken away. He is now known as halfmask and operates in a gang of rebels who are extremely anti-state and authority. The mask her wears is to hide the hideous scar from when he lost his eye. Gyre has a seething hatred to authority but the Twilight Order in particular and will do all he can to oppose them and bring them down.

Ashes of the Sun was my first time reading a novel by Django Wexler and I was very impressed by the top-notch writing, quality storytelling, and the fine worldbuilding. In fact, I completely lost myself in Wexler's world. The concept intrigued me from the very start. Two siblings on opposite sides of a looming civil war in a dystopian, futuristic fantasy world. Will their paths cross? What will the consequences be if they do? What will they say when finally reunited?

There is a huge glossary of Burningblade and Silvereye unique words such as cognomen, unmetal, dhakim, panoply field, ghouls, the Chosen etc which may seem confusing initially but soon fit perfectly and make complete sense. If confused at any point though the glossary can be found at the rear of the novel and is extremely detailed and useful.

The members of the supporting cast were a joy to follow too. Most of whom have extremely colourful hair. Personal favourites were rival/soon to be centarch Tanax, love interest and arcanist Beq, rebel influencer Yarrow, and the amusing scout Varo. The latter frequently discusses how his friends have died in humorously horrific fashion on former missions. The mysterious, frivolous and kooky Kit Doomseeker is a belter of a character too.

Ashes of the Sun is a real high-octane, dystopian fantasy thrill-ride. The action throughout is scintillating. There are some extremely exciting showdowns, skirmishes, and fights against grotesque monstrosities. Some scenes are unpredictable and shocking too. There is a large amount of violence and gore but the way I envisaged it was extremely heightened and colourful. Almost like a mix between an ultraviolent anime and a futuristic JRPG like Star Ocean. This might just be the way my mind pictured it and there aren't any other reviews on Goodreads yet to see if anyone else visioned the action in this way too. The finale of Ashes of the Sun is fantastic and was completely thrilling. This novel acts as a complete standalone yet there is still so much to see and explore in Wexler's world and I'll 100% be continuing the adventure of Burningblade and Silvereye when the subsequent books are released. Highly recommended.

*Quotations used in this review are subject to change for the final release.

One of my colleagues who is a big fan will be reviewing this since he knows more about the author. Thanks.