Author: Django Wexler
Publication Date: July 21, 2020
Genres: Fantasy
Protagonist Gender: Male/Female
I'm going to buck convention and skip right to the end of Ashes of the Sun to share something from Django Wexler's afterword that I think sums up the novel better than I ever could:
“This is not a Star Wars novel, but it definitely originated, back at the beginning, in a series of conversations about Star Wars."
This is epic fantasy, no question about it, but the magic is definitely used to evoke a Star Wars feel in the weaponry and even (to some extent, the races/monsters). Gyre is equipped with a blaster, which is precisely the Han Solo gun you're imagining, only it fires magical energies instead of lasers. Maya, his estranged sister, wields a haken, which is basically Luke Skywalker's lightsaber, but fueled by her inner magic rather than a kyber crystal. I'd rather not say much about the races/monsters, because there are way too many spoilers attached, but ghouls and plaguespawn definitely owe as much to the aliens of science fantasy as the races ofepic fantasy.
There are even some Star Wars elements to the plot, with a corrupt empire, an all-powerful Order, plucky underground rebels, scoundrels and rogues, and an underlying mythology of hokey religions. So, yes, the feel of it will be familiar to genre fans, comfortable even, but what Wexler does with it all is what makes for such a memorable read.
I loved the relationship between Gyre and Maya, along with the perspectives they provide into the larger conflict. Forcibly separated by an act of violence in their childhood, they've been raised on opposite sides of the war, taught to believe opposing philosophies about the empire and the Order. Both seem like good people, and both seem like they could be the hero of the story, but there doesn't seem to be a lot of room for compromise. That balance does shift towards the end of this first book, and we do begin to question one of them, but I suspect reader allegiances will shift again in the next book.
The cast of supporting characters behind them is fantastic as well, but I felt as if they were a bit stronger on Maya's side, especially with Varo and Beq. Varo provides much-needed comic relief, always telling stories of previous traveling companions who met with misfortune in a way that has you rolling your eyes, yet looking forward to the next tale. Beq is something of a steampunk arcanist (only with magic) who seems comfortably neurodivergent, and whose slow-burn romance with Maya is the most wholesome part of the story. She was very much my surrogate, my representative in the novel, and I will be very upset if she doesn't make it through to the end of the series.
Without spoiling anything, I really appreciate the world-building here - not just how Wexler slowly reveals what the Elder races left behind, but exactly what he reveals as well. I had this feeling of dread about halfway through that it was going to be exposed as another post-post-apocalyptic tale, one where all the talk of skyships, unmetal, and the Core Analytica had roots in our contemporary technology, but what we get instead is fantasy and fantastic.
With Blood of the Chosen already out, and Emperor of Ruin coming later this month, now is the perfect time to catch up with Ashes of the Sun. It's a comfortably familiar blend of epic and heroic fantasy that offers something new at the same time. I wish I'd gotten to it sooner, but there's something to be said for creating timely anticipation.
Rating: ♀ ♀ ♀ ♀
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