Case Study: Ashes of the Sun by D. Wexler

Introduction

2025/01/06

Case studies are almost like my review of a book I recently read and is fresh in memory. Some of it will be impressions and other more elaborated, however it will be reviewed through the lens of a writer. Such that what I liked, learned and would avoid doing in my writing (as a personal preference not because there is anything wrong with it).

THERE WILL BE SPOILERS FOR THE ACTUAL BOOK!

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Setting, theme and tone

• High fantasy inspired by Star Wars (and DnD elements)
• Semi-post apocalyptic (somewhat recovered civilization)
• Generally 'classic' fantasy landscapes and cityscapes
• Descriptions were smooth, exposition's mainly corralled into dialogue.
• Family vs duty vs justice
• Political intrigue (minor-ish, not very complicated)
• Interesting magic systems
• Interesting monsters
• Fair bit of violence and gore (not too graphic)
• Dual PoV
• Minor - Moderate 'Romance'

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Well done aspects

• Gyre's rogue background and limited magic use meant that his scenes are more interesting and creative. He is generally, Idealistic and jaded
• Maya's knight background and over-powered magic meant that her scenes were solved by straight-forwards means. Idealistic and self-righteous
• Magic vs. non-magic users (i.e., those using magic and those using technology/alchemy)
• Variety of scenes and places
• Interesting settings and lore
• Well defined delineation between plaguespawn/dhakim and ghouls
• Well defined delineation between 'The Order' and 'normal people'
• Illustrating the justification of both sides
• Illustrating fighting within institutions (The Order) juxtaposed against the plight of 'every day people' and 'those forgotten by society'
• Would be interested to see how the rest of the plot develops, but not rushing out to buy the next book.

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Could be improved aspects

• Character development
• Gyre (and Tanax) had the most character development, and thus were the most relatable
• Gyre seems to get the short end of the stick too often
• More hardships that influence his character and decisions (and consequential character growth)
• Hard consequences, i.e., loss of people, important items
• More limitations in what he is able to do/achieve even after receiving the ghoul arcana
• Maya (and Kit) had the least the character development, and Maya was too sheltered because of her position and powers
• Things just seem to always work out for her
• She feels overpowered and too heavy reliant on her magic to solve problems
• Less hardships (some has been witness on her travels, but the impact feels shallow)
• Soft consequences, i.e., no loss of people, no loss of important items
• Minor limitations, immense power usage for small consequential trade-off (consequences happen in very 'safe' environments)
• Relationships
• Both leads have relationships that seem slanted towards physical and sexual aspects (sex scenes are generally clean-ish/fade to black/quickly mentioned)
• Even Maya's attraction to Beq is very physical/sexual in nature
• There are some conversations in terms of their blooming relationships, but it feels like 'friends-with-benefits' for both couples rather than building on common connections and intimacy.
• I personally don't like Kit, she is reckless and two-faced. I don't see how that would be attractive to Gyre, who has a more idealistic outlook on life (preferably 'I want to save people in my misguided way'), whereas Kit has 'I use-and-discard' outlook on life (it does make contextual sense given her background, but she still only regards everything as 'fun' by the end of the book and her 'regrets' feel situational not growth related).
• Maya and Beq feel better matched in terms of their respective outlooks on life and their mutual naivety regarding relationships.

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Lessons learned

• Consequences should be proportional to the characters choices, both the character and the reader should feel their relative weights.
• Enjoyed the fight scenes, although got a bit lost in some of the 'step-by-step' sequences.
• Once again, I feel like the book-specific jargon takes a while to pick up on, especially when so many of the magic system's things start with 'd' and these are contrasting things as well. Generally, the context helped figure out the word usage. Things that were self-explanatory like loadbirds, warbirds and swiftbirds were both easier to understand and did not distract/subtract from the overall 'otherness' of the world.