Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward
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 - £9.99 paperback £5.99 Kindle eBook
A shadow has fallen over the Tressian Republic.
Ruling families plot against one another with sharp words and sharper knives, heedless of the threat posed by the invading armies of the Hadari Empire.
The Republic faces its darkest hour. Yet as Tressia falls, heroes rise.
Epic fantasy is one of the most difficult genres for me to get sucked into. I think it is very easy to stick to the generic formula of quest, battle and resolution with band of good and true heroes. It’s tendency to stick to that approach led to the creation of grimdark to effectively question the idea of the white and black hats – but as always, the pendulum swings and more recently I’ve noticed a movement towards a synthesis of the two stories. Complex tales of realms and people who have many sides to them and yet still a belief that evil must be confronted, and people need to step up. When I first saw the size of Legacy of Ash by Matthew Ward I thought this may be a long read of all the things I fear about epic fantasy – instead this proved to be one of the most rewarding epic reads in ages as the story took me away from quarantine and made me explore a fantastic world filled with danger, wonderful complex characters and epic bravery against the odds.
Touching on the plot will be tricky to sum up in a few paragraphs but the Tressian Republic fifteen years ago was at the risk of falling apart as the Southshires decided to declare their independence. The South’s leader Katya Trelan fought a losing battle however at the cost of her own life in an encounter with Tressia’s champion Viktor Akadra son of one of the Tressian Council’s most feared rulers. Peace of a kind reluctantly resumed with Katya’s children the rebellious but stubborn Josiri and the trapped Calenne under house arrest under the Tressian Republic’s ever watchful armies on their doorstep. Fifteen years later Josiri is playing a double-sided role each day of trying to be a lawful citizen of the Republic and yet behind doors organising the next rebellion. On the Southshire’s borders Tressia’s rival the Hadari Empire senses a moment of weakness to finally take on its neighbour; while inside the highest echelons of the Republic someone starts to use dark magic to cement their own plan for taking power. But everyone is unaware amongst all the political scheming and fighting of mighty armies that a much greater and more powerful evil has once again been awakened and will use all these trivial human events to again seek absolute rule forever.
The first hundred pages of this novel are a whirl as we run around the events of fifteen years earlier and then meet various key figures of the cast in the present. Ward avoids huge exposition and is brave enough to let the reader instead link the events and history and cultures together themselves. Clues are instead left then confirmed more organically and this really allowed me to just explore and start to understand the characters we faced before events really took off. In terms of worldbuilding the Tressian Republic feels an interesting cross between an old faded roman empire and a more medieval European republic – led by a ruling Council that is largely hereditary and yet that benefits from magic that can be used to animate huge metal warriors known as Kraikons that can wipe out squads of warriors with one swipe of their fist. Yet magical ability found in humans is something that is felt to be blasphemous and faces a death penalty. The Council members are all plotting against one another and yet underneath this very classical republic there is a deadly magical underground gang known as the Crowmarket that trades in stealing and selling items but can for the right price offer magical assassinations. Over the course of the book these facets of society are explored and explained – nothing is simple, and I loved seeing how much thought went into this worldbuilding. There is corruption but there are also genuine points of views being explored and debated- is Tressia’s future mercenary or mechant? Democracy or authoritarian state? It’s reached a key turning point in its development that the rebellion in the south triggered many years ago.
To aid and hinder these events Ward has assembled a huge cast spread across the land that we slowly meet and understand. Ward doesn’t go for the obvious choices and actually plays against convention. Josiri the son of Katya would in usual narratives be the single hero all other characters must rally around obeying but actually despite sharing Katya’s desire for independence he is a tad petulant; stubborn and not very political and Ward shows that a sense of revenge isn’t actually enough to lead. If I say there is a tall and strong character called Viktor Akadra; dressed in black with a huge sword; who is known as the Black Knight son of the ruling council’s sinister Hadron then you may think we have from the off found the story’s antagonist and while Viktor is fierce and grim we also see he is filled with genuine sense of duty, loyalty and a sense of justice – he’s wonderfully admirable and even likeable. Finally into the mix is Calenne Trelan who is Josiri’s sister that initially seems to play the role of young aristocrat simply seeking marriage with a nobleman to escape the shires but we see actually she is just someone so tired of living in her parent’s shadow and not being able to find out what she is capable of. There is a thread of the next generation having to deal with the mistakes and take on the mantles of their parents - this strand runs throughout the novel and the choices each character makes will have huge repercussions for the future of the land and people they want to protect.
These three principles drive the story and pull various factions alongside them and their character development is extremely strong as they find sides to them that you’d never suspect after their initial appearances. I could actually spend paragraphs taking about the wider casts and groups. Ward has made each key cast member stand out as a rounded person from veteran captains to assassins to thieves and servants. By the end of the novel you really care or hate everyone you meet and more importantly you understand them. I never felt myself wanting to get back to just one particular story plotline – they were all very well paced and intriguing. I will also add how refreshing it was that Ward has chosen that in Tressia men and women can both fight in an army so women are also getting key roles with the same level of development as their male counterparts on both good and evil sides of the encounters.
The final and most intriguing element of the tale is the magical side of the equation. As well as the magic wielded in battle, we soon understand that underneath both Tressia and Hadari culture is a network and importantly history of different gods and powers of light and darkness. Many centuries earlier one woman tried to take it all and plunge the continent in to a Dark age – she was prevented, and this led to where the story now starts. We enter a world where demons can be trapped on lands to serve their masters; Gods can power assassins and magical weapons can be possessed. There is a building sense throughout that an age-old game between forces outside the human world are gearing up to play a game and champions on all side will be chosen – and choice here is important people can use dark or light powers for good and evil it’s down to the individual’s own character. Ward doesn’t make magic easy – it always extracts a price for the user and indeed changes the characters perspective of events as any major experience would and as the story starts to reveal more of itself we soon realise the petty battles of two powerful countries in the land are actually just a prelude to a much tougher enemy that’s been building their own web of power.
This was a wonderful enthralling read. Although I was initially a little daunted just submitting myself to the book and exploring this land as each chapter told its tale was hugely rewarding. The key here is that Matthew Ward is a very accomplished storyteller even in this debut – the characters are fascinating; the land and its magic is enthralling, and the plotting is brilliant. All my traditional fears of epic fantasy were blown away and this became a read that by the end I just wanted to know where the story could go next. On its own this is a very exciting tale of rebellion and people learning to take responsibility for their own future, but it also signals a gloriously epic tale to come in the rest of the trilogy. If you want an epic fantasy tale to take you away from the world outside you really need this book!
