I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review

Publisher – Orbit

Published – Out Now

Price - £8.99 paperback

Some believe the Ambhan Empire is cursed. Arwa doesn’t simply believe it - she knows it’s true.

Arwa is the sole survivor of the massacre at Darez Fort – saved only by the strangeness of her blood, which she has been taught all her life to suppress.

She meets a disgraced prince who has turned to forbidden arts to cure the darkness hanging over the Empire. Together they seek answers in the realm of ash, where mortals can find the ghostly echoes of their ancestors’ dreams. But the Emperor ‘s health is failing and a terrible war of succession hovers on the horizon – not just for the throne. But for the magic underpinning the Empire itself

Blogger’s note – One of the really impressive parts of this book is you can read this duology in any order. You do not need to have Empire of Sand first!  You’ll have an interesting reading experience either way – JUST READ THEM BOTH OR YOU MISS OUT ON AWESOMENESS ahem back to our scheduled review

One idea in fantasy is that all young people are natural rebels; not happy with the world and ready to change it. While I do think young people are amazing the immensity of trying to change the world can be daunting and by the start of our twenties many of us are just looking for jobs; relationships, finding places to live and not leading the forces of rebellion. Society likes us to conform; just do what good people do and if you’re a woman or from a different ethic group our world makes even greater demands on what you must be seen to be doing to be seen to be a good citizen. In Tasha Suri’s Realm of Ash; we are given a character who is not the natural rebel but goes on a fascinating journey to understand her world and herself and where she fits in and in doing so makes this one of the best fantasy novels out this year.

In this story we meet Arwa who in her early twenties already has more use. The daughter of a disgraced Governor she was married to a successful military commander and was his devoted wife. But while they stayed at Darez Fort a tragedy happened that made Arwa the sole survivor and everyone else dead. After a lot of Imperial questioning, she was released but has nowhere to really go - a problem for her family; unable to marry and as a noble not able to work she is now effectively useless. Her role is now just as a widow and she is sent to a widow’s sanctuary staying with her much older counterparts and that’s it. But Arwa is hiding one thing - she is not a ‘pure’ Ambhan citizen but actually shares her mother’s ethnicity - of the Amrithi people. In the Empire they are seen as clearly second-class citizens often turfed out of villages if found and viewed as cursed. But the Amrithi also have some magical properties in their blood and the Empire has eyes everywhere. Arwa gets a chance to finally make herself useful again and is sent to the heart of the Empire to work for the Emperor’s favoured daughter Jirhan who sees having an Amrithi around could aid a project to finally remove whatever curse appears to be slowly pulling the Empire apart.

Arwa is sent to work each night with the strange Zahir. He’s a scholar and an illegitimate child of the Empire with a plan to help his people. This will involve a trip into the haunting and mystical plain known as the Realm of Ash where the shadows, secrets and knowledge of the dead can be found and used. But their trips to the Realm will end up changing both of them and have huge consequences for the Empire’s future.

This is a fascinating novel and a major part of its success is Arwa. She is not a natural rebel and really just wants to be the perfect daughter and citizen of the Empire. It’s a world where a beautiful noble woman should really talk less and smile more. Arwa has for years learnt to cast her eyes down; follow instructions; hide her opinions but the consequence of this repression is now escaping and within Arwa there is this huge rage ready to erupt. The start of the novel really pulls you in to exploring who Arwa is a woman experiencing huge grief and shock after events at the fort; but she also has shame at how useless she is and anger at how she is now written off by the world. All the characters she meets are also trying to fit into their perceived role in the Empire; in particular Zahir who to justify his existence has become a scholar and using his magical skills to protect a country that he loves more than it loves him; the very capable princess Jirhan is cunning, strategic and prepared to do anything to save the Empire but because of her gender she cannot rule in her own stead and must hide behind a brother to play her role; Arwa also gets to meet the widow Gulshera who has found a role serving her princess using her eyes and intelligence. Each shows Arwa a potential path and part of the story is how Arwa works out how to be her own person.

Initially serving the Empire becomes a way of hope for Arwa to both save her world and restore her sense of worth…but the Empire she serves she realises following her visit to the Realm of Ash is not worthy. On the one hand the likely successors to the Emperor’s throne are both cruel and angry men but through her trips into the Realm of Ash she realises that the treatment of the Amrathi is not just based on appalling racism but also genocide as the blood of her people was being literally used to keep the Empire running and wealthy. Only their all-powerful mystical leader known as the Maha controlled this bloodshed and he mysteriously died in the desert setting loose a curse on the land for the past decade. Zahir’s plan is to go into the Realm of Ash and find his knowledge and use it to save the country. This puts a man that Arwa happy to train Arwa in the ways of magical knowledge (very unusual for a noblewoman) now in potential conflict and it explores how someone finds out their country is built on huge crimes against their own people and ancestors. This puts Arwa in the position of having to decide is it time to let the Empire die even if lots of people will suffer and die or should you heal it make it a better place prepared to live with itself. Fantasy is great at creating empires, but it rarely really explores how colonialization works as various cultures get suppressed and what the impact has been upon the people within it.  

While an intelligent and often political fantasy novel; which it is, but this is all subtly weaved into a fascinating tapestry of a country that now has mysterious daevas (demons to some magical creatures to others) now loose within the populace. Arwa is wrapped up in this and this means we get scenes of court politics but also a very tense scenes where we see how magic can influence people to do very horrible things that may have always dreamed of doing. Arwa’s journey is discovering her own power and who she really is. It is a brilliant exhilarating journey complimented with the way her relationship with the quiet, studious and very delicate Zahir develops. Watching these two very isolated characters find a way to bond is magical and you will find yourself willing them to talk properly to each other!

You do not have to have read Empire of Sand to read this novel, but you’ll find the story does impact how you see Arwa’s story. If you imagine Mehr the older sister as a giant flaming fire that brings light and passion, then Arwa is the pure white-hot acetylene torch that needs to be focused but then cannot be stopped. The stories really complement each other, and the finale is beautifully powerful and rewarding. But reviewers love a favourite and I think this is a more powerful and stronger tale as Suri’s writing has developed. For me this was an emotional tale where you really felt you’d been on Arwa’s journey and I loved how it made me question how I see my own world. I’m definitely intrigued to see what Suri has in store for future tales but here and now this is one of the best fantasy novels out this year and you need to pick this up.