An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir was one of my
favorite books of 2015. It tells the story of a Martial soldier Elias Veturius
and a Scholar slave Laia who is trying to save her brother by spying in the
military academy where Elias is about to graduate. It is told in alternating first person
chapters from Laia and Elias’ points of view.
It sharts out with a bang with an attack on Laia’s home and basically
never lets the tention go. Even in the
quiet moments of the story you never feel as if any of the characters are truly
safe.
I despise love triangles.
To me they show disloyalty and a lack of ture emotional involvement. Why should I care if the MC clearly doesn’t? An Ember in the Ashes has a love quadrilateral. There is an abundance of sexual tension. And you know what? I LOVED it?
It was an examination of all they ways that we can fall in love. Instant attraction, a shared history, someone
you have a ton in common with? It also explores
the idea of choice. Everyone may be
attracted to more than one person but acting on that attraction is a matter of
specific choice that the characters make.
Their feelings are not uncontrollable.
I love how she took elements that we are familiar with and
managed to make them into something that felt fresh and new. The whole world was a take on Roman Empire
(or was in my head) and definitely didn’t shy away from grit and violence. This isn’t a cute and cuddly book. In some ways it is like a horror film. There is a closed set that our heroine cannot
leave (Blackcliff), monsters (the Commandant and Marcus), and some pretty gruesome
violence. “I don't need to believe in
the supernatural, not when there's worse that roams the night.”
I thought that it was interesting that both Elias and Laia
have pasts that are mysterious to themselves.
As the book goes on they find out more and more about who they are from
other characters. It isn’t wholly
comfortable. Like anyone they have an
idea of who they are and the more information they are given the more they
question their own vision of their selves.
“There are two kinds of guilt: the kind that drowns you until you’re useless, and the kind that fires your soul to
purpose.”
Guilt is also a theme that is explored. Elis’ journey make me think of a documentary
that I saw once about a man who worked with death row inmates and how he would
say to them that they are more than the worst thing that they had ever
done. Elias has difficulty separating who
he is from what he has done. There might
not seem to be another choice but he holds onto responsibility as if it is
something precious. Laia, on the other
hand, only has one moment that she has guilt about but she agonizes over
it.
The writing hit just the right note for me vacillating
between extreme introspection at time and furious action.
This was a fast pace and enjoyable book and I am looking
forward to the sequel. (Read my review here)
And by “looking forward to” I mean that I am going to obsess about it
until I get it. Because I must know what
comes next.
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