Kithamar is a city populated by the typical cast of characters: the ruling elite, the middle class merchants, and the struggling poor. The story we are told in Age of Ash is concerned with the secrets of the ruling elite, but populated by the poor. We are taken into the impoverished areas of Kithamar and introduced to thieves running “pulls” to make enough money to survive. After a “pull” gone wrong, two of these thieves, Alys and Sammish, are caught up in a plot much bigger than themselves, changing how they see themselves and each other.

I was looking forward to this book. I have really enjoyed the work Daniel Abraham has been doing in the Expanse series, and was anticipating great things from his solo work, but it did not live up to my expectations. This isn’t to say that I didn’t enjoy it, but there were things that made the reading experience less enjoyable.

I’ll start with the good:
I really liked Sammish. She is smart, capable, and firm in her convictions. Alys is a bit less likeable, but I found her character arc believable. The villain (once we find out who that is) is convincing, but not so openly despicable that it’s over the top. While we are not given answers to every question, the end is satisfying and this could act as a stand-alone read for readers not interested in continuing the series.

Now the things that I didn’t like, or that didn’t make sense:
The biggest issue I had was in pacing. It took half of the book to actually figure out what was really going on, and while sometimes this makes a lot of sense for the story, I just felt confused.
There is also a lot of implied history, but it’s never fleshed out. We are often told whether people are Hansch or Inlisc, but not what this distinction means to the characters (other than they are different people groups, and one is more generally poor and looked down upon). This world building, however, might be fleshed out a bit more in the next instalment of the trilogy.
A small issue I had with the characters was that while we are told that Alys and Sammish are young, we are never (as far as I could tell) told how old they are. In general, I don’t need to know the ages of the characters I read, but it does help guide expectations around reactions and behaviours. I initially thought they were in their early teens, but then the rest of their behaviours didn’t make sense.

Overall, this ended up being a good read, and I’ll probably read the next one, but it wasn’t the big hit I was hoping it to be.

Thank you to Orbit Books and NetGalley for an advanced copy of Age of Ash in exchange for an honest review.