Legacy Of Ash – The Beginnings Of Something Good

I have been looking for some new epic fantasy recently as a lot of the larger series I have historically turned to have been wrapping up the last two years. Luckily, it looks like this year is going to be big for epic fantasy, with a number of established authors like Lawrence and Wexler launching new series and many debut authors throwing their hats into the ring. Speaking of which, one of the new debut series I have managed to sink my teeth into this year is Legacy of Ash, by Matthew Ward. If this book is any sort of sign of the quality of epic fantasy coming down the pipeline, then we are in for a great year.

Legacy of Ash has all the staples of a good epic fantasy. It has a fascinating and expansive world, a large number of varied POVs, satisfying character journeys/growth, political intrigue, and a captivating plot. His debut story kicks off strong and fast. The book begins with the end of a war from the POV of the queen of the losing side. She dies almost immediately, and through her death, we are introduced to the three primary POVs of the story: her executioner, Viktor, and her two children, Josiri and Calenne. These are the characters the story focuses on, but the side cast is enormous, varied, and well fleshed out. The overall plot is too complicated to summarize in a paragraph, but it essentially revolves around post-war tensions a decade after the opening scene, political intrigue, a supernatural global threat, and our three protagonists coming to terms with who they are.

While everything in that last sentence, combined with brisk pacing and good prose, contributes to why Legacy of Ash is good – it is the ever-present theme of our protagonists wrestling with their identities that helps Legacy stand out among the crowd and leave a lasting impression compared to its contemporary competition. At the start of the book, each of the leads has a very clear sense of identity and direction. Ward then continuously throws obstacles and challenges at them to question their beliefs and positions. The protagonists take in the information and decide if it will alter their course. It is a very natural, surprising, and well-written series of growth arcs that does a lot to keep you invested in the story. The only problem is that the three arcs feel like they have different levels of polish.

Josiri’s arc is the best. It’s the most fleshed out and the most interwoven with the plot. As the crown prince of an oppressed people, Josiri lives his life with rigid discipline, sharp pride of his heritage, and fierce loyalty to his mother’s memory and his people. The challenge that Josiri faces is deciding when it’s worthwhile to let go of pride and culture to save his people. Ward strikes a well-argued balance for the pros and cons of preserving national identity vs. absorbing into an oppressor to change it from within, and Josiri’s story kept me turning pages until the last.

Next, we have Viktor, who I absolutely love as a character but feel his challenges fell a little flat. Viktor is champion of the realm and a massive hulking and brooding behemoth of a man. However, he cherishes friendship, and, while I would hesitate to call him a softy on the inside, he has a lot more empathy and emotional depth than I expected. My issue with Viktor is that his internal struggle revolves around whether or not to embrace the fact that he can use cursed magic. He has interesting powers, and Ward does a good job painting the pros and cons, but at the end of the day, his struggle just didn’t feel as interesting or original when you put it next to Josiri’s.

And then we have Calenne. I don’t really know what happened with Calenne, she feels like she suffered from an attempt to tie all the various plot threads up. Calenne, as the second child of the dead queen, doesn’t have the responsibilities to the throne of her older brother. She was too young to remember the mother who died and feels chained to her memory and shadow and unable to be her own person. She wants nothing to do with her people; she just wants to run away and live her own life. Calenne’s story starts very strongly. At the start of the book, she is very unlikeable, but Ward knows this and does a great job giving Calenne meaningful and satisfying moments of growth to find balance in helping her people and living for herself. Unfortunately, Calenne’s story starts to go a little off the rails in the second half of the book. She isn’t given nearly the same amount of page time as the two others and disappears entirely for about a fourth of the novel. In addition, her character choices begin to push against the natural organic growth that you see with Viktor and Josiri and feel a bit erratic. A lot of this appears to do with her choices moving certain elements of the plot along and simply being a victim of Ward needing to introduce various elements. However, the handling of her character in the back half of the book feels a little clumsy when compared to the boys and it was disappointing.

Legacy of Ash is a strong debut with a lot packed into its first novel. Its fast pace and exciting twists make it feel like Ward crammed three books worth of content into one condensed super novel. The characters are fun and likable, though there were some minor issues with polish in the back half of the story. Overall, I really enjoyed this first book and I will be on the lookout to pick up the sequel as soon as I can.

Rating: Legacy of Ash – 8.0/10
-Andrew