Meanwhile, Sammish’s unrequited love for Alys forces her to confront the dark currents that threaten to sweep up A And surprisingly, while there is magic in the story, none of the main characters - Alys and Sammish - know how to use it.

The few other fantasy novels I’ve read by him seemed to be pretty pedestrian “band of fantasy races” kind of things. The power conspiracies and delicate magic of Kithamar are woven through the narrative but become more obvious in the last third of the novel with more time being spent with the antagonistic characters. In time, she’s pulled into the same vortex as Alys, and how they work together will ultimately determine their fate.A really enjoyable story, if a somewhat straightforward one as the characters journey doesn’t do a whole lot to expand the world. As for the story itself I was told Abraham books start slow, but honestly thus never kicked into gear in my opinion. The opening to this book reminded me of The Lies of Locke Lamora by Scott Lynch, another fantasy book set in a single city, revolving around a band of thieves. The protagonist of Age of Ash is Alys, a small time thief who lives in the slum area of the city, Longhill.

Each of the books in this series, we’ve been told, will cover essentially the same period of time, and only be told from the perspective of different sets of characters. Sammish was/is one of those characters who crept into the page and seemed destined always for the bit-roles.We see Alys through Sammish’s eyes, we learn about Sammish’s life in the city, and how Alys’s interactions with the “friends” of her brother are part of something larger indeed. Don't be fooled by the deceiving simplicity of the blurb: setting and characterisation take this novel far beyond your tropey street-rat story into the realm where human longings are shaped. The central conflict of the book lacks the moral complexity more common in recent fantasy works, but makes up for it with Abraham's trademark excellent prose and thoughtful descriptions. I loved Alys's character, her journey is raw and painful, and although many times she sorely needed to realise the downfall she was heading towards, I understood why she couldn’t. Content warnings: violence, injury, murder and death; death of children and siblings (grieving family members is a major theme); fire/arson; mentions of plague.

Ruled by a prince (the term is gender neutral in Kithamar), the city has its share of the poor and disadvantaged. At first these do feel disconnected from one another, you’re never quite sure how these separate storylines will converge, but as the novel progresses they all fall into place.This really threw me out of my rhythm as I would just carry on reading without pause and then have to backtrack slightly, thinking I’d missed something. When her brother is murdered, a petty thief from the slums of Longhill sets out to discover who killed him and why. I had a massive TBR in between me and this book, but kept finding myself opening it to read a couple pages at a time. Once the trilogy is all told, the entire tapestry will be revealed, and from there we’ll be able to decide how much we really liked the whole story, and if this entire journey was worth it. The city of Kithamar is as much a character in this story as any of the people we follow - I feel like I know my way through the streets because it just came to life as I was reading.