Christina Pilkington's Reviews > A Sea of Cinders

4.5 stars

Almost one hundred years have passed since The War of the Fallen, a battle that almost decimated both the human and Elven population in Cellagor. Since then, the Age of Tranquility has brought peace to the land.

But the northern King Havelmir craves power. Working with a powerful ally, Havelmir taps into a powerful resource that threatens to destroy the Elven Kingdom of Rhan. But is why is Havelmir seeking the destroy peace with the Elves? What ancient magic is he desperate to acquire?

William, a young man who has spent most of his life at sea, has been captured and sent to the dungeons. When a chance comes for him to secure his freedom, William is wary but relieved to escape his imprisonment.

He soon meets and befriends another prisoner. Baldric, and forms a friendship. The young men come to rely on each other for survival and soon understand that their involvement in the human/Elven conflict may be more entangled than they realized.

I wasn’t sure how much I would like this very traditional epic fantasy…but I really enjoyed it!

The worldbuilding and lore were my favorite parts. We’re already in this first book introduced to several human and elven kingdoms. They all feel distinct and unique. I love the trope of storytelling within a novel, so I was glued to the page whenever characters would tell tales of mythology or lore. Those scenes were exceptional!

I adored the pacing! I consistently wanted to keep reading this book even when I needed to put it down. There never was a lull in the story. If there wasn’t great character development there would be an interesting tidbit about the world or a surprising twist of the plot.

The friendship between William and Baldric warmed my heart. I loved how the two gradually became closer and learned to trust and respect each other. I’m so excited to see their friendship deepens even more in the sequel!

This wasn’t a perfect read for me, which I why I couldn’t give it the full 5 stars. At times I found the dialogue and some of the prose to be clunky or cliched. But the overall writing style was quite nice and flowed effortlessly. In fact, I have already read several reviews of the second book that mentioned the marked improvement in the prose that has me very excited!

If you like traditional epic fantasy, if you enjoy political fantasy, and if you like a great friendship story, go read this book! I highly recommend it.

*Thank you the author for the gifted copy. All opinions are my own.