An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir Review (4.5/5 stars)

Laia is a slave. Elias is a soldier. Neither is free.

Under the Martial Empire, defiance is met with death. Those who do not vow their blood and bodies to the Emperor risk the execution of their loved ones and the destruction of all they hold dear. It is in this brutal world, inspired by ancient Rome, that Laia lives with her grandparents and older brother. The family ekes out an existence in the Empire’s impoverished backstreets. They do not challenge the Empire. They’ve seen what happens to those who do.

But when Laia’s brother is arrested for treason, Laia is forced to make a decision. In exchange for help from rebels who promise to rescue her brother, she will risk her life to spy for them from within the Empire’s greatest military academy. There, Laia meets Elias, the school’s finest soldier—and secretly, its most unwilling. Elias wants only to be free of the tyranny he’s being trained to enforce. He and Laia will soon realize that their destinies are intertwined—and that their choices will change the fate of the Empire itself.

“Just because he’s a good leader doesn’t mean he’s a good person.”

“I’d rather die than live with no mercy, no honor, no soul.”

“Fear is only your enemy if you allow it to be. Too much fear and you’re paralyzed. Too little fear and you’re arrogant.”

What I Liked: Oh my gosh, so much! I like that Laia is really scared all the time even though she’s trying to be brave. I like that Elias is biracial and that we don’t know much about his dad and that he comes from a very non-traditional family, being raised by his maternal grandfather. I also like that even though his mother hates him, she still loves him a little, too, even though she doesn’t want to and hates herself. I loved all the characters - Laia, Elias, Helene, Telmun, Elias’s grandfather, even Marcus and Zak - because they’re very fleshed out and believable, even though some of them suck so bad, because each of them is well realized and has strengths and weaknesses, fears and wants, etc. I even found myself pitying Marcus a little bit at the end of the third Trial and then once again at the end of the fourth.

I loved the Trials, even though they were just awful. I loved all the plot twists - I wondered what the fudge was going on with Helene the whole time and I can’t wait to get her POV in A Torch Against the Night. I love how even though the book left us with questions, it wasn’t super frustrating because the author answered just enough to satisfy my need to know things while also keeping some of my questions alive for the next book. I had several “oh s***” moments during the Trials, especially the last one. The book left me wanting to know more without making me frustrated.

The writing was pretty simplistic but still managed to keep that lyrical quality I like in most of the book, even with Elias. And there’s humor in it, too, which can be difficult to pull off when doing that style. The mythology is so interesting - a mixture of Roman and Middle-Eastern things but shown in an all new way. I recognized the mix of cultures in the book within the first few chapters, which really impressed me - a low-key fantasy set in what is essentially Roman-occupied Israel but without the religious contentions that were occurring at the time. I love how there is magic in the world but it’s fairly low-key, only manifesting in the thing about the silverskin and the augurs and the monsters they have to fight. Magic isn’t something everyone has access to, which is cool and makes the stakes harder to compete against, you know?

I loved this book. I need the whole series in my life now. Omg. There were only a few things I didn’t like.

What I Didn’t Like: Very little. There were only a few things. I didn’t like how Elias sort of bought into the whole “the dance of death is my prayer” thing his grandfather came up with for him. Like, I felt changing it a little to get away from the homicidal aspect of it versus the battle aspect (so keeping the first 2 lines, ditching the last 2) would’ve been more in keeping with his character.

And then how people talked about raping Helene like it would totally be okay and it’s like, I feel like the Commandant would’ve stopped him from raping her? Slave girls, I could see the Commandant not caring. And Helene manages to take care of herself, of course, so nothing happens, but Marcus is just like, “Yeah, I’m gonna do it eventually” and nobody thinks to tell an adult? Or Helene’s parents?

And then the Emperor is made out to be this big bad problem but we never see him before he gets killed by the Commandant’s goombas, which was kind of a letdown. Lastly, I do not ship Elias and Laia. I don’t mind them feeling some sort of attraction to each other but Laia has Keegan and Elias has Helene and I do not want Helene getting shafted in this way, she is so loyal to Elias and she loves him so much and I’m a teensy bit tired of the male and female leads falling for each other in YA. I’d like to see where that doesn’t happen.

But those were the only things honestly that I didn’t like and didn’t work for me.

Things of Note: I did edit out some of the violence in the book, just because I couldn’t really handle it. A kid gets flogged to death (he’s like, 10) and I had to edit that. Also, I’d say trigger warning for child abuse, parental neglect, parental slut-shaming, mentions of rape, torture, and mentions of attempted infanticide.

Would I Recommend: If you can handle all the things I mentioned in the above paragraph, than heck yes!!! I absolutely loved An Ember in the Ashes. I read it in less than 3 days even though I had to go to work and pre-ordered the sequel right after I finished it. So there. :)

Characterization: 1 star
Plot: ¾  star
Realism: 1 star
Word Choice: ¾ star
World-Building: 1 star

Plus ½ stars for originality (Roman-occupied Israel for a low fantasy? Dude)
Plus ¼ star for biracial protagonist
Minus ¼ star because why is there only one girl a generation at Blackcliff?
Minus ¼ star because of normalization of rape
Minus ¼ star because it doesn’t pass the Bechdel Test

Victoria Aveyard and Plagiarism

Okay, I was just on Goodreads and apparently according to a bunch of people Victoria Aveyard ripped off Pierce Brown’s Red Rising with her book Red Queen.

I almost cyber-punched someone because obviously these people have never actually double-checked one very important detail.

Red Rising came out January 28, 2014.

Red Queen came out February 10, 2015.

That literally means Victoria Aveyard managed to: 

- read Red Rising

- write the rough draft of Red Queen (her debut novel)
- edit it
- send it to an agent
- have her future agent read it (slush can take up to 6 months, you guys)
- have her future agent schedule a phone call with her
- have the actual phone call
- sign the agent contract
- mail the contract back to the agency
- start the agent-editing process (which takes up to 3-4 months)
- finish the agent-editing process
- send it out to editors
- have an editor read it (can take a month or more)
- have the editor contact her agent
- negotiate a contract
- have Victoria sign the contract and mail it back
- start and finish the publishers-editing process
- create a cover
- put together ARCS
- send out all the ARCS

And somehow Victoria the Whiz Kid Queen managed to do all of this in…let’s see, ARCs come out 2-3 months before a book’s release date, so she had to be done by say, December with that whole list. So she managed to do all of that…in 10 months.

Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me???

Next person that libels an author needs to get cyber-slapped, because that stuff isn’t okay. Like, if you don’t like her book, fine. But don’t lie about her to make you look like you’re oh so fucking smart.

Someone Asked My Beta This Question...

WHY does LA like to debate w/ people tho? Like what does she get out of it?

It’s a way to sharpen the mind. It’s like mental chess. It helps you learn to think fast, adapt to changing circumstances, overcome obstacles. My parents and my brother and sister and I have held debates on random things since I was like, 3 years old. I learned research skills, how to keep calm under pressure, how to handle overwhelming odds without cracking, and how to read certain things from people (mostly when they’re starting to get nervous cuz I’m winning).

It’s also just a good way to learn how people think about things (which in turn can tell you a lot about their background) and you can learn things from debates, too. It opens up new avenues of thought for me when someone mentions something I haven’t thought of before. And as long as everyone keeps their cool and we don’t resort to name calling or insults or whatever, it’s a great way to make friends with people who like to analyze stuff (mostly books but sometimes not) as well.

It also taught me something major that’s helped me a lot in my life - don’t commit to something unless you’re sure. When my dad and I would debate things and he would say, “That’s wrong,” if I argued, he would say, “I bet you. I bet you.” My dad doesn’t bet unless he’s certain. And so winning a bet of that kind with my dad was always a big deal, a sign that I’d taught him something.

But being wrong sucked. So I learned to make sure that in a situation where I was like, “No, this isn’t just conjecture, I’m positive I’m right,” I was pretty d*** positive before I even put myself out there.

The Assassin and the Pirate Lord Review (1.5/5 stars)

On a remote island in a tropical sea, Celaena Sardothien, feared assassin, has come for retribution. She’s been sent by the Assassin’s Guild to collect on a debt they are owed by the Lord of the Pirates. But when Celaena learns that the agreed payment is not in money, but in slaves, her mission suddenly changes—and she will risk everything to right the wrong she’s been sent to bring about.

What I liked: I liked the premise. I liked the new location (we’re out of Rifthold!) and I really liked the map the Pirate Lord has. That map was freaking amazing and I want someone else to get a map like that sometime in a later book. I loved getting to see Sam’s backstory, see people Calaena cared about from her assassin days, see how she interacted with Arobynn. I liked that her relationship with Sam started off with them as rivals. I liked the introduction of Ben, because it explains - among other things - why Calaena didn’t realize how awful things were with Arobynn.

And I liked the basic plot. The action scenes were well-written and the tavern brawl was awesome. That time when Sam and Calaena starting fighting on the beach after going to inspect the slaves was brilliantly written, too. And the voice/word choice was, as usual, fairly fantastic.

What I Didn’t Like: Oh, boy…let me count the things. 

Sam is an idiot. The way he just rips off Calaena’s mask like that? Like, what the frack? Her identity is a carefully guarded secret you could be tortured to death for revealing. Are you stupid? Apparently. Despite being Arobynn’s second-best student.

The use of slavery? Calaena is very much a white savior. It would’ve been better if all the slaves we see weren’t almost 100% from Ellywe, but even then…I feel like maybe more time should’ve been spent on maybe a slave coming to the fore and having more of a spotlight/helping out more to get somewhat away from the white savior trope. But here it just feels like SJM threw in the slavery thing as a way to show how good at heart Calaena was?

The sudden fondness Calaena feels for Sam felt very rushed. And I get that it’s a novella (which is why I typically don’t read romance novellas anymore) but there are ways to do it where it wouldn’t seem so abrupt. It could’ve started a bit earlier. Or maybe Calaena could, instead of straight-up hatingSam to begin with, could’ve always wondered why he didn’t like her and wishing he’d stop being so antagonistic - so that when he is, she’s more receptive to softening up to him. Here it just felt forced.

Calaena has no reaction to the heat except to sweat but she’s sweating buckets and not drinking anything hardly at all. Because she’s from Adarlan, dehydration would be a problem for her. Now, it could be assumed that she’d be okay since she’s worn that cloak ensemble before, but she wouldn’t be if she didn’t drink between breakfast and late dinner and was sweating like that. It would be like being in a sauna all day, but without the ability to drink or even lick the sweat off your skin. If nothing else, she’d have dehydration headaches, but she doesn’t. I’m pretty sure Sarah J. Maas has never actually been dehydrated or lost in a desert in her life.

Because I loved Throne of Glass - even with its flaws - I expected to love The Assassin’s Blade. But I didn’t. I didn’t love “The Assassin and the Pirate Lord.” It was okay. I didn’t hate it. But unlike Throne of Glass, I’m not going to be raving about it. And it wasn’t so good that the flaws didn’t detract from my enjoyment of it, as with books like Throne of Glass.

Also, since peeps might be wondering about the ¼ star for characterization - Calaena is so unlikeable in Throne of Glass and in this that she loses ½ a star. Sam being an idiot dropped it another ¼.

Things of Note: It’ll get a little better, but then it only gets worse as the novellas go on. You’ve been warned.

Would I Recommend: I would tell people who are curious about Calaena’s thoughts on slaves in the beginning of Throne of Glass that they could find out more in this novella, but that I didn’t enjoy it as much as I thought I would.

Characterization: ¼ star
Plot: ¼ star
Realism: ½ star
Word Choice: ¾ star
World-Building: ½ star

Minus ¾ a star for bad usage of slavery and use of the White Savior trope; it’s used here to show Calaena as a white savior, but the slaves are mainly objects, with no real value as their own characters.

One of the Scariest Things I've Ever Done

When I was 7, in my swim class they offered…some kind of prize, I forget what…for jumping off the lifeguard stand into the deep end of the pool. It was perfectly safe but a) I was only 7, b) I was afraid of heights, and c) I couldn’t swim very well. I mean, I wouldn’t drown, but I didn’t go into the deep end without floaties because I wasn’t confident in myself that way.

But I did it and it scared the bejeebies out of me. My dad was super proud of me and took me to McDonald’s and my brother picked me up and carried me to the car because he was so impressed. :)

Why Do You Hate the Marauders!? (Comment-Question)

*sigh*

Okay, most of Booklr who’s seen any of my posts about the Marauders-era young people probably already know this…but.

Now, when I say Marauders-era peeps, I’m not talking about the Weasley parents (I feel like they’re a bit older than James & Lily were?) or Tonks (she’s quite a bit younger). I specifically mean James, Sirius, Remus, Peter, Snape, and Lily. And we’ll throw in Dumbledouche for kicks because he was headmaster at the time, right? I seem to recall he was.

So that’s…7 people. Why do I hate those 7 people?

Do we really need to ask about Peter, Snape, or Dumbledore? Nah. So that leaves me with four - Sirius, James, Remus, and Lily.

Sirius: a bully and an unrepentant thief, a little creep who picked on other kids (including his so-called friend, Peter, and on Lily), who tried to murder someone for funsies.

James: add the the first 3 things I mentioned for Sirius.

Remus: allowed the first 3 things to happen. Also abandoned his child to go fight in a war (twice) because “oh poor me, I’m a werewolf, my self-loathing and cowardice is more important than being a decent father and husband”

Lily: shacked up with the douche-nozzle mentioned previously. And okay, supposedly she waited until James got his head on straight, but what does that say? Sexually harass a girl for 6 years, profess you’ve had a change of heart in 3 months, and she’ll have your babies, even after you tortured her best friend for years. People say Snape was a lousy friend, and the older he got, it becomes truer and truer. But that b**** was a lousy friend, too.

And yeah, she dies sacrificing herself to protect Harry, but you know who else has sacrificed their lives for their children? Malcolm Merlin, who’s massacred hundreds of people. Marissa Coulter, who helped murdered dozens upon dozens of kids all under the age of 12. Darth Vader risked his life to save Luke. Risking your life to save your child does not make you a hero, because plenty of villains have done it.

Oh, well, they fought Voldemort. So? Regulus Black was a racist little turkey but he gave Voldemort the ultimate f*** you (and good on him, too). You know who else fought Voldemort? Narcissa Malfoy, who would’ve let Harry die if he hadn’t been key to saving her child. The goblins of Gringotts, who torture animals and loathe all wizards to ever exist ever. Fighting Voldemort doesn’t make you a good person, either. Fudge and Scrimgeour would’ve fought Voldy if they could’ve and they are both evil little men.

So yeah, I’m posting this slightly long and hissy answer so that the next time someone asks, I can just link it because I realized I’d never gone into much detail about why I dislike the Marauders so much - because they’re bad people, who are lauded as good people because they were heroes. James, Sirius, and Lupin? They’re just as bad as Snape and Peter. Lily’s not as bad, but she’s still a cutthroat b****. And I know there’s that whole “strong girls are often called b****es,” well yes, they are. So are treacherous ones.

This is why Gen 2 is better. Harry and Ron and Draco, Neville and Ginny and Luna and Hermione, are better people than James, Sirius, Snape, Peter, Lily, and Remus. I love them. Their predecessors suck. All of them.

For the record: if you like the Marauders, fine. I don’t care/mind, I’m not gonna hate you or say you should be ashamed of yourself. People can like what they like. I have a very admittedly critical view of Harry Potter the series anyway. But this is why I don’t like the Marauders and why I wish Lily had stayed single and someone else could’ve been Harry’s mom and Tonks could’ve hooked up with someone better than Lupin who could love her like she deserved.\

Concerning Chinese Dragon-Elves in Once Upon a Time

In Once Upon A Time, do all chinese/dragon elves have the slitted eyes and scaly eyebrows/necks? Or just the royal ones? I like your story, it's very good :)

Dragon blood is what causes vertical pupils instead of circular ones, so the stronger the dragon ancestry/bloodline, the more likely you’ll get reptilian/draconian eyes and scales. 

This means all royals and most nobles have them (the emperor tends to take at least one or two dragon concubines every generation to make sure the top princes are dragon Elves), and about 50% of the common Elven population has them (although to varying degrees). 

Dragon blood tends to pop up in different ways in non-Elven Chinese fae, and also can have interesting results in fae with more than two bloodlines (can you imagine a fox-dragon vampire?).