Review: A Touch of Light (Ashes of Averin #1) by Thiago Abdalla

MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.25/5

Format: Kindle Whispersync

BOOK DESCRIPTION

How far would you go to resurrect someone you love? Would you change who you are to show you belong?
The world of Avarin is tearing itself apart. The Domain worships life, its rulers lead eternal lives and death is a shame that must not be mourned. For the clans to the south, however, death is all that keeps the Earth alive.
But old enemies are rising.
A madness spreads throughout the Domain, and Lynn, a rogue warrior in hiding, might be the only one who knows how to fight it, while Adrian, a Domain prince seeking to bring his dead loved ones to worthiness, leads the Domain armies against the madmen.
The clans suffer a madness of their own. As the land itself begins to wither away, Nasha, a cursed hunter and lifelong outcast, desperately fights for belonging in the Ronar, while her clan seeks to heal the land.
Old beliefs will be challenged as the people of Avarin fight to save it… before death comes for them all.
A sweeping epic fantasy saga where religion and politics are one, magic brings terror into the hearts of men, and a looming blight threatens to tear everything down.

MY REVIEW

This is a very good debut novel by Thiago Abdalla, it was something I liked more than I loved but it is still a great start to the series and has a promising chance in the 2022 SPFBO-8. This is a change of pace from its prequel as it introduces multiple POV’s to show everything that is happening across the region. The POV’s are of Adrian, a prince of the Domain. Lynn, a sentinel with a gift. Nasha, a hunter with a gift. Gift seems plain, but I’m not going to spoil anything. If you read the novella, A Prelude to Ashes, first, which I absolutely recommend doing by signing up for his newsletter at tabdalla.com, it gives an excellent backstory of the region and story itself. It also has a few of the characters that show up in A Touch of Light, which helps give it a far more emotional feeling.

Thiago does a great job of creating a gritty world filled with a wide range of great and diverse characters, from the MC’s to the characters that only make a single appearances. None of which are safe from death. The development of each one of the main characters is done well as they are all forced to grow quite a bit within the story. His prose is very smooth making it easy to fall into the story, which is fairly dark and can also be emotional at times, while delivering some insanely tense and gruesome scenes throughout. I would put the genre in Dark Fantasy, bordering the line of GrimDark. There are plenty of Battle & Fight scenes throughout the novel and they are all very descriptive and easily paint vivid pictures in your head, which will leave you gasping for more. Also, this has Griffins, though I do wish we got a little more of them.

“They almost made you forget that fear is the true ruler of the battlefield. No one ever sings about the screams; no one tells you how they’ll echo in your mind.”

Kevin Kemp did a very good job with his narration. The choice of voices and how different they all were as well as the delivery of emotions really set the tone for the story. Where I think he went above and beyond is during fight/battle scenes, the excitement he had in reading those parts only intensified my excitement in hearing it.

I can’t wait to see what Thiago has in store for the next installment of Ashes of Averin. More griffins please!