I recently started reaching out to authors who post on Instagram that they are looking for ARC readers and it’s been a fascinating experience. All of the books I have received fall within the fantasy genre, but they could not be more different from each other.
Ashes of the Revolution falls on the more realistic side of the scale – in fact I’d say the only fantastical content is the existence of what people call “sacred animals” such as unicorns and griffins. Ownership of these animals is strictly restricted to the nobility, and those laws are also enforced by religious edicts. This mostly becomes a plot point because people who have access to these animals can be pretty flexible around the rules when it serves their specific interests.
The story takes place in the mythical kingdom of Estenland, a colonial power where people from the noble class have immense wealth and the rest of the population struggles to survive. Of course this division is enforced by the state religion. There are anti-monarchists of course, but they are small in number and must meet in secret.
During an expedition to some remote islands, dragons are discovered and the King of Estenland wants one. Adding dragons to the list of “sacred creatures” he owns is sure to secure his legacy in history. Diverting his kingdom’s resources to capturing a dragon exacerbates the massive disparity in wealth and ignites the revolution among the common people.
Alexander is a historian and you can really tell from the way the story progresses. As somebody who is most decidedly NOT a historian (but who does read a lot) my first assumption was a retelling of the French Revolution. The cult of personality that developed afterwards felt very reminiscent of the character Napoleon from Animal Farm. By the end I was thinking about something I read somewhere that Karl Marx had originally expected that the Communist revolution would happen in an industrialized country like England, not in an agrarian one like Russia or China and this was almost an alternate history. But with pegasus. (Pegasi?)
The text is very terse and a lot happens very quickly. There are plenty of plot twists to keep the action moving. I will admit that when I first started the book I thought the characters were a bit one-dimension, but boy was I wrong – they change and grow over the course of the story. Some get a taste of power and become monsters, some find redemption, some just fumble their way through life trying to learn from their mistakes like the rest of us.
I also admit that based on the title and cover image I expected a very dark conclusion. But in the end I was very satisfied with how everything worked out – a somewhat messy compromise, just like real life.