Realm of Ash (The Books of Ambha #2) by Tasha Suri
Published: November 12th 2019 by Orbit
Review:
Myth: 3.5/5
An interesting companion book to Empire of Sand, Realm of Ash finds Mehr’s sister Arwa as a 21 year old woman. Arwa makes for a very different character than Mehr, though sisters, their age group made it such that Mehr considered herself Amrithi and of her mother’s people, but Arwa was so young, she didn’t remember their mother. She considered her step mother to be her mother and was raised with no resentment for the Empire.
This means that Arwa’s motivations are very different, she’s not desperately trying to free her people, she has done her duty as a noblewoman and now as a widow she wants to find a way to serve the Empire in a time of crisis. I liked Arwa and her dedication to find a way to ‘be useful’ even though society has mostly written her off as a widow. She and Zahir make an adorable pair as they think through scholarship and theories of mysticism and the soul as opposed to thinking about the heretical situation in which they find themselves.
Magic: 3/5
Zahir and Arwa definitely hid themselves behind their scholarly approach, but it worked for them as a means of mental self defense to the problem that they were tackling. Though intertwined in power, I just didn’t find this side of the exploration as exciting as Mehr’s.
Overall: 3.5/5
I enjoyed seeing how the Empire reacts in the future after the events in Empire of Sand, I just didn’t find Arwa’s story as compelling as Mehr’s. It’s still an installment that leaves you with a little more hope in the fate of the Empire.
Other books in the series:
