Review: A City of Ashes by Nick Snape

Blurb:

Some lies are hidden in plain sight…

With the Veil Dragon, Nathair, seemingly under the Spirit Captain's control, Laoch pushes away the grief of his first encounter with the metal beast and hunts for a weapon his new and distrusted ally insists they can use against the coming Constructor invasion.

While he scours the abandoned city of their soul-eating foe, Brandshold’s Queen prepares for the coming war. Now a major player in the Overseer’s deception of her people, she struggles under the burden of guilt, turning to the last person in her life she wanted to depend on.

And the Unspoken rises on the wings of her artifice dragon, spreading fear and burning all before her. In her wake, the people turn to the Seven Houses for solace, and their grip upon the realm tightens in preparation for the true enemy.

For an Emperor consumed by revenge has a new artifice, one that hungers to enslave and feed upon all that worship the Seven.

For cast in brass and spiritfire … the Kraken soulship rises.

For lovers of Andy Peloquin’s Darkblade series and the malice of Gwynne and Abercrombie, A City of Ashes is the second book in the dark and epic Warriors of Spirit and Bone series.

Review:

Alright, “arcanepunk” may very well be my new favorite genre. Between smoking dilapidated cities, soul-infused mechanical constructs, resurrecting necromancers and wyrms wandering through the realms—this book conjures a dark ambiance that is largely unmatched by anything else I have read. Oh, and there are dragons—forged from metal and  powered by twisted souls of elves.

‘“My warrior of bone and heart,” she whispered in his ear, breathless.’

I reviewed the first book of this series sometime back, and in that book we got our first glimpse of Brandshold, a realm protected by veils of seven ascended magi. 

The intriguing premise of that book left me craving for more, in particular its ending that promised a new adventure where we hop aboard a dragon and embark on a journey to Innealtóir—the realm of Constructors.

‘The soul-eaters are coming, they have found our, and your, realm’

So naturally, this book begins…somewhere else! As with all his other books, Nick does not hand hold us through the story, and we are expected to piece together the plot through glimpses of events. 

It took a bit of head-scratching and ctrl-f-ing to figure out where the hell was Repanti and who were all the people dying about. But as the story progresses, this choice begins to make more sense. Besides starting off the book with some explosive gory action, it offers an interesting opportunity to explore the hierarchy and power dynamics within the ranks of Constructors. 

‘Buildings burned behind them. Ash-strewn bodies, many lying in their doorways, a testament to the waste created by the Fleshmaster’s haste.’

Over the next few chapters, the interwoven exploration of the dilapidated city of Innealtóir and the blood-soaked conquest being led by Emperor Tarin—the Fleshmaster, through Repanti gets interesting in that we are simultaneously exploring the goals that are driving them in the present, and the dying city they left behind containing breadcrumbs of their past. The past and present converge at the sundering—a pivotal point that changed their destiny forever. Of course, the houses in Brandshold are not sitting idle, and with the looming threat approaching from beyond the veils, the deceptions that have been ingrained for hundreds of years must be peeled back layer by layer. 

‘My burdens are heavy, the weight of my flock hard to bear. This is but another day amid a thousand years, and I am simply one piece of the scaffold holding up our people.’

This three-way exploration, in three different realms seen from the perspectives of some half a dozen characters, unfolds at a rapid pace, meaning at any given time there is quite a bit to keep track of in your head. The book demands a hundred percent of your attention. The glossary in the beginning was a welcome addition, but I think the massive scope of this series deserves a full-blown wiki or guidebook. It would also be cool to have a novella exploring the events during the crusade before the first book.

‘The Fleshmaster inhaled deep, the withered tongue tasting the memory of the pain held within. A resultant smile cracked dried lips.’

Many fantasy trilogies have the so-called middle-book problem where the second book is not as appealing because the initial novelty of the fictional world has worn off, and a closure is not about to come. That was absolutely not the case with this book—fresh new characters and bizarre monsters keep pouring in.

‘Not afraid of a soul-eating palace? Hardly anything to be concerned about, considering we may have a traitorous mechanical dragon at our backs’

A few weeks ago, I reviewed an older classic—Elric of Melniboné by Michael Moorcock. We can see quite a few parallels in the world building between the two books, and it isn’t coincidental. The author is a long-time admirer of Moorcock’s works, and his writing is heavily inspired by the former. But introducing the arcanepunk elements gives this book so many novel twists that it is a whole new experience.

‘Amid the chaos, the emperor strode, a smile upon his face. He was the Master of the Flesh, and death rode upon the wind to thrill his detached soul.’

(This is a strong contender for #1 in my collection of quotes. Thank you, Nick)

Besides the dark ambiance and rich action scenes, there are many other aspects I enjoyed. It was interesting to see Queen Erin rise up to her potential. Sura’s complex emotions as she comes to term with her spirit form, and the battle against loosing her identity with spiritfire dissipation, was just fascinating.

‘Love? Death brings a clarity of the spirit, of mind. Uncluttered. If only I could have seen that before.’

Laoch not playing a major part in much of the book was a bit baffling, but given his grand reentrance towards the end—I am not complaining. 

Combined with the vivid prose, memorable characters and some beautiful dialog—this book was quite a surreal experience. Did I thoroughly enjoy it? Yes. Did it feel like it was written for someone a bit smarter than me? Also, yes.

I will be looking forward to the next book, where we finally get to the long-awaited big confrontation. We now know that while formidable, the Constructors are not infallible, and it would be interesting to finally see how a race that has been suppressed by centuries of misguided tradition rises to face a foe that will just not take no for an answer.

‘His God’s sigil eased the aches and pains that were his burden to carry, but not the guilt that lay in his heart.’