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A review by clare_the_reader
In Ashes Lie by Marie Brennan
4.0
This book was the bane of my existence. I do not mean that it was bad (I rated it four stars, after all), I just mean that, for nigh on a year, this book sat on my shelf with less than the first hundred pages read. I don’t know what it was. Maybe it was the terrible cover. Maybe it was my post-Christmas reading slump (which I’m hoping to dodge this year). Whatever it was, this book sat on my shelf, judging me for my cowardice for eleven long months. Then, after the all-consuming disappointment that was [b:The Subtle Knife|41637836|The Subtle Knife (His Dark Materials, #2)|Philip Pullman|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1535965085l/41637836._SY75_.jpg|1570229], I decided to retreat back into a world I knew.
And I loved it.
I think I must be one of the few people out there who prefer these books to Marie Brennan’s Lady Trent books. Don’t get me wrong, I adored Isabella, and I owe [b:A Natural History of Dragons|12974372|A Natural History of Dragons (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #1)|Marie Brennan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1359770409l/12974372._SX50_.jpg|18132937] a huge debt for getting me back into reading, but I always felt that those books fell short of what they could be. In a way, I do feel the same way here. I dearly wished that we could spend more time with strange creatures such as the mara, the goblins, the Cailleach Bheur and the talking tree. It’s actually a similar problem to what I had with [b:City of Stairs|20174424|City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1)|Robert Jackson Bennett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394545220l/20174424._SY75_.jpg|28030792] – I just wasn’t allowed enough time with the weird creatures.
What really sells this series for me is the characters. I would hate to be in Lune’s position. I took one look at the catty backstabbing and constantly shifting friendship groups of high school and promptly ran away. One day in the Onyx Court and I think I’d lose my mind. The political machinations and difficulties are very well done, and the layering of mortal and human politics was fascinating to watch. The characters go through a lot in this, both Lune and Antony, her new human consort. Lune has to deal with betrayal on all sides and has to fight for London, both below and above, to keep them whole. Antony, on the other hand, is torn between the two worlds, one of which he must keep secret from Kate, his wife (who I loved, by the way). Antony may be my favourite character in this book, partly because, through him, I was able to see England’s struggles. First under a hapless king, then through civil war, then under Oliver Cromwell’s fist, then in plague. It was stressful, I’ll tell you that. One of the things I loved most about Lune was her struggle between keeping control of a cutthroat court and trying not to become like Invidiana. Even dead, the old faerie queen continues to cast a shadow, one felt most acutely by Lune, and it was fascinating, if sometimes painful, to watch Lune grapple with handling her predecessor’s legacy.
The final thing I love about this series is the way fae are portrayed. When I was a child, I received two versions of faeries. One was from Disney movies: tiny, shiny wings, little wands and ridiculously adorable and bungling. The other I’m not even sure where I got it from. Maybe it was from one of those multi-coloured fairy books. Maybe I made them up. (Come to think of it, it might have been after reading [b:The Luck Uglies|18635085|The Luck Uglies (The Luck Uglies, #1)|Paul Durham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1383709002l/18635085._SY75_.jpg|26431642]). Whatever instigated it, I entered teenagehood believing that fairies were strange creatures – long-living, eldritch and a little twisted. When I began reading Sarah J Maas’ [b:A Court of Thorns and Roses|16096824|A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)|Sarah J. Maas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546406962l/16096824._SY75_.jpg|21905102], I was hoping for something along these lines.
As anyone who’s come within poking distance of this series will know, that is not what I got. In Maas’ books, fairies are essentially super-hot, immortal humans with flawless skin and a culture-wide obsession with sex. These fairies are nothing like that. The majority of them see humans as paltry things, to be avoided and at best be used for entertainment (whatever that may entail) and then abandoned. But that’s not the whole story. The other side is the fact that, once given, a fairy’s love endures forever, long after the death of their beloved. A constant source of confusion to the fae is Lune’s love for the late Michael Deven, a human being. I loved the way Michael and his mortality had rubbed off on Lune. The subject of immortality (which is a concept that scares me to my marrow) is barely even mentioned in Maas’ books (another reason for disappointment) but in Brennan’s, with the plague raging through England, it is impossible to ignore, and it was interesting to watch the differing faerie reactions to such a grand scale of death.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed this book – court intrigue, just enough historical stress, characters that I love and a version of fairies that I can get behind. Now please let me see more of the weird creatures, Brennan.
Clare G.
And I loved it.
I think I must be one of the few people out there who prefer these books to Marie Brennan’s Lady Trent books. Don’t get me wrong, I adored Isabella, and I owe [b:A Natural History of Dragons|12974372|A Natural History of Dragons (The Memoirs of Lady Trent, #1)|Marie Brennan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1359770409l/12974372._SX50_.jpg|18132937] a huge debt for getting me back into reading, but I always felt that those books fell short of what they could be. In a way, I do feel the same way here. I dearly wished that we could spend more time with strange creatures such as the mara, the goblins, the Cailleach Bheur and the talking tree. It’s actually a similar problem to what I had with [b:City of Stairs|20174424|City of Stairs (The Divine Cities, #1)|Robert Jackson Bennett|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1394545220l/20174424._SY75_.jpg|28030792] – I just wasn’t allowed enough time with the weird creatures.
What really sells this series for me is the characters. I would hate to be in Lune’s position. I took one look at the catty backstabbing and constantly shifting friendship groups of high school and promptly ran away. One day in the Onyx Court and I think I’d lose my mind. The political machinations and difficulties are very well done, and the layering of mortal and human politics was fascinating to watch. The characters go through a lot in this, both Lune and Antony, her new human consort. Lune has to deal with betrayal on all sides and has to fight for London, both below and above, to keep them whole. Antony, on the other hand, is torn between the two worlds, one of which he must keep secret from Kate, his wife (who I loved, by the way). Antony may be my favourite character in this book, partly because, through him, I was able to see England’s struggles. First under a hapless king, then through civil war, then under Oliver Cromwell’s fist, then in plague. It was stressful, I’ll tell you that. One of the things I loved most about Lune was her struggle between keeping control of a cutthroat court and trying not to become like Invidiana. Even dead, the old faerie queen continues to cast a shadow, one felt most acutely by Lune, and it was fascinating, if sometimes painful, to watch Lune grapple with handling her predecessor’s legacy.
The final thing I love about this series is the way fae are portrayed. When I was a child, I received two versions of faeries. One was from Disney movies: tiny, shiny wings, little wands and ridiculously adorable and bungling. The other I’m not even sure where I got it from. Maybe it was from one of those multi-coloured fairy books. Maybe I made them up. (Come to think of it, it might have been after reading [b:The Luck Uglies|18635085|The Luck Uglies (The Luck Uglies, #1)|Paul Durham|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1383709002l/18635085._SY75_.jpg|26431642]). Whatever instigated it, I entered teenagehood believing that fairies were strange creatures – long-living, eldritch and a little twisted. When I began reading Sarah J Maas’ [b:A Court of Thorns and Roses|16096824|A Court of Thorns and Roses (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #1)|Sarah J. Maas|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1546406962l/16096824._SY75_.jpg|21905102], I was hoping for something along these lines.
As anyone who’s come within poking distance of this series will know, that is not what I got. In Maas’ books, fairies are essentially super-hot, immortal humans with flawless skin and a culture-wide obsession with sex. These fairies are nothing like that. The majority of them see humans as paltry things, to be avoided and at best be used for entertainment (whatever that may entail) and then abandoned. But that’s not the whole story. The other side is the fact that, once given, a fairy’s love endures forever, long after the death of their beloved. A constant source of confusion to the fae is Lune’s love for the late Michael Deven, a human being. I loved the way Michael and his mortality had rubbed off on Lune. The subject of immortality (which is a concept that scares me to my marrow) is barely even mentioned in Maas’ books (another reason for disappointment) but in Brennan’s, with the plague raging through England, it is impossible to ignore, and it was interesting to watch the differing faerie reactions to such a grand scale of death.
In short, I thoroughly enjoyed this book – court intrigue, just enough historical stress, characters that I love and a version of fairies that I can get behind. Now please let me see more of the weird creatures, Brennan.
Clare G.