MY ⭐️ RATING: 4.5/5
Format: Kindle eBook
BOOK DESCRIPTION
The civil war ends now. Igtheos and his rebels have fought tirelessly against a would-be dictator and his army for almost two years. The city they’ve holed up in has become a prison, soon to be a tomb if they cannot arrange a means of escape.
When the enemy leader offers an armistice that’s too good to be true, Igtheos reluctantly accepts, thinking it will buy him enough time to smuggle those loyal to him out of the city. But he quickly learns the cost of choosing hope over caution as he finds himself caught in his enemy’s sinister plan, fighting a final unexpected battle. Failure means death, or worse, the loss of his loved ones. And he only has one night to determine everyone’s fate.
From the Ashes is a prequel novelette that takes place over two thousand years prior to the events in Of Thieves and Shadows-volume one in the epic fantasy series, The Heart of Quinaria.
MY REVIEW
From the Ashes prequel novellette is one of the best prequel novellas I’ve read, it’s a nice quick read and great introduction to Garcia’s writing style and story-telling. This is very unique as it has a mix of many things into this high fantasy world, like a species called the Nyrians, who’s aging is a bit different from their human counterparts, a tinge of horror with the wolf-like skulmor creatures and the nightmarish insectoid deathstalkers who cause a lot of mayhem. It has some darkness to it, but on top of that, Garcia delivers a story of a parent’s love and sacrifice to protect their child of their “unholy union” from the evil monster with empty eyes.
This story captivated me from the moment I started it, because it reminded me a bit of Avatar and how the humans tried to take over the Na’vi, but in this story, it was the opposite, the Nyrians are the ones that believe they are the more superior race than the humans. Garcia did a great job with the world-building and character development of being informational and descriptive while still leaving enough meat on the bone to expand upon later. Garcia has a very pretty prose and delivered some beautiful quotes, I love that it is so easy to read which made it for an even better reading experience.
“I’ll die a thousand deaths so that others like her may yet have the chance to live.”
The characters were all interesting with fascinating personalities that were fleshed out really well in such a short period of time. Not only did Igtheos, the nyrian father, Elize the human mother, and Zaria their mixed child shine during their moments, but several side characters and even the antagonist, Ashhat came off as someone I despised so quickly. And yes, Garcia definitely didn’t miss on the opportunity to poke some fun at Ashhat’s name, which made me so happy to see!
For this being a debut novelette, Garcia did a great job of sucking me in and forcing me to read each and every page, while leaving me wanting to jump right into Of Thieves and Shadows as soon as I can so that I can continue to read more and more about this crazy world that she’s created.
You can get a free ebook copy of this by subscribing to Garcia’s mailing list @ bshgarcia.com or you can get a paperback copy on Amazon for $4.99!
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