Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward

From the publisher: A shadow has fallen over the Tressian Republic.

Ruling families – once protectors of justice and democracy – now plot against one another with sharp words and sharper knives. Blinded by ambition, they remain heedless of the threat posed by the invading armies of the Hadari Empire.

Yet as Tressia falls, heroes rise.

Viktor Akadra is the Republic’s champion. A warrior without equal, he hides a secret that would see him burned as a heretic.

Josiri Trelan is Viktor’s sworn enemy. A political prisoner, he dreams of reigniting his mother’s failed rebellion.

And yet Calenne, Josiri’s sister, seeks only to break free of their tarnished legacy; to escape the expectation and prejudice that haunts the Trelan name.

As war spreads across the Republic, these three must set aside their differences in order to save their homeland. However, decades of bad blood are not easily forgotten – victory will demand a darker price than any of them could have imagined.”

Now some of you know that my love affair with Epic Fantasy has taken a knock over the last couple of years. I’ve started too many books with high expectations only to find that unoriginal and repetitive plots, silly names, major coincidences just for the sake of plot and just bad characterisations and worse dialogue have killed them dead for me. Usually by the halfway point, I’ve reluctantly given up. It still pains me to type that I’ve abandoned way more than I’ve finished, much as I hate to do so.

So, at first glance, Matthew’s novel – all 700+ pages of it – made me wonder whether I’d want to try again. Admittedly I’d had friends, including the author’s agent, tell me how good they thought it was, but I’ve been burned by such praise before.

And yet…

…my fears were disproved. Legacy of Ash is everything I’d hoped it would be, and what the others were not.

The first part of the book creates the setting and introduces us to the characters and sets up the story..

The situation is basically that war is about to begin between the Tressian Republic and the Hadari Empire, who are advancing upon the Republic. At the same time, civil unrest between the Empire and the people they have conquered, the Southlanders, has been covertly brewing below the surface of Tressian society for a while. Josiri Trelan and his sister Calenne of the Southshires have been held prisoner by the Republic in the city of Tressia since there was a failed coup when they were young.

Viktor Akadra as the Champion of the Tressian Empire is the Darth Vader of this plot, , who realises that the future of the Republic lies in working with the Southlanders to defend the Republic against the attacking Hadari Empire.  However, Josiri Trelan sees Viktor as a monster who killed his mother at the beginning of the novel and consequently Josiri is covertly assisting the Southlander rebels to make life difficult for the Republic. At the same time, Calenne sees a marriage to Kassamor Kiradin, Knight of Tressia, as a way out, to remove the stigma of the Trelan family name and get away from her imprisonment in Tressia.

The second half deals with the consequences of the battle between the Republic and the Hadari Empire. As I like in a story, not everything goes the way we expect or turns out the way we want.

Let’s see… intriguing set up – yes. Not too many silly names – check. More significantly, things for the characters to do and say that are totally in sync with the setting and situation – really good. And perhaps most importantly, characters I liked (or hated!), that I couldn’t wait to read what happened next to or kept me guessing. This is the first Epic Fantasy book I’ve enjoying getting immersed in for ages, the first since perhaps Twelve Kings. And dare I say it, one of the very few recently that have struck me as must-read from the start and kept its momentum.

This is impressive, for the first book in a series. To be fair, Matthew has had some experience writing before, having written in the past for Games Workshop (Warhammer 40 000 etc). It shows in the characterisation and the fight scenes. Matthew has the skill of giving out knowledge whilst keeping the plot moving. It doesn’t always work – there’s a bit of information dumping towards the beginning of the novel, but once the book settles down it’s a great fat romp in a brilliantly realised setting.

In terms of setting, there’s a lot to like here. Seedy taverns, ancient cities, noisy marketplaces, wild mountains, tranquil woodlands, sites of ancient magic – you’ve pretty much got the setting of many a Fantasy book. The key thing for me here is that none of these seemed particularly forced or wedged in for the sake of it. The world shown here seems to work for me.  It has a history and a present that has evolved logically from the ancient times. The medieval-esque world feels right for the story.

Most of all, though, Legacy of Ash is about the interaction of a broad range of characters – Kings and Queens, Princes and Princesses, devious politicians, strange witches and demons. By Matthew sticking to his own versions of the archetypes, much of the character building has been done with little preamble, leaving the reader to develop an understanding of and a care for the characters, even when things change in ways unexpected.

This is a common theme in the novel. Characters who may seem bad actually are not, there are betrayals made and reputations repaired, strange cultures and alien traditions throughout.

Do you remember that feeling of excitement that you get from a really good book, not knowing where it was going but wanting to be there and never wanting it to end? This is that sort of book for me. I have lost sleep, forgotten food (not good for a diabetic!) and made this the thing I pick up every moment I can get, until it was done.

Sometimes a book just has to be the right one, read at the right time. Thank you, Matthew, for restoring my faith in epic Fantasy novels.

Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward

Published by Orbit, November 2019

784 pages

ISBN: 978-0356513355

Review by Mark Yon

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