Ashes of Man by Christopher Ruocchio - Book Review
Book Review:
Ashes of Man
by Christopher Ruocchio
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In some regards, I think it was a wise decision to separate the story into two books. That would have just been so much devastation in one book of the series.
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I feel like the world-building was less in this one, but it is the fifth in the series that makes sense. The Emperor provided a few revelations. Proving Valka's statement in the first book that the Chantry must know and try to suppress the information. Really the Emperor plainly said they use the Chantry to control what people find out. It is questionable that there is a branch devoted to discovery and exploration apparently, why wasn't Hadrian squirreled away there? It would have been the perfect spot to put him out of the public eye to lessen his fame.
In this book, we travel across the galaxy to several planets with time mostly spent on three of them. There is less time passing overall in this book though. We spend more time at the Madelo House on Nessus before Hadrian is transported to Carteia to meet up with the royal court. Aside from the descriptions of the camp and a ruined hotel in the bombed-out main city, there is little detail about the world. Then Hadrian is sent to a planet with no name, it is uninhabited and with a toxic atmosphere. Finally, we are at Perfugium, where a majority of the story will play out. Great details about the bombed city and catacombs are given.
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Ashes of Man felt to have a slower pace. By this I mean we were not thrown right into action, this felt more like book one. The book needed this pacing to show us how Hadrian is processing his grief and recovery. He is even allowed to see himself next to someone who thinks as much as he did as a young man. They do not get along at first for sure. Once the final pieces are in place there is a fair amount of battles so it will not all be just emotions don't worry.
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Hadrian as a character in this book is a very different man than what we have seen before. He has been through so much and it has left its mark. Hadrian also realizes how old he is and that physically he is unable to bounce back. Mentally all he has been through shows itself in his reactions and responses. Where he might have been brazen or flippant now he is more reserved, until provoked then the temper shows itself.
The plot of this one moves Hadrian along another impossible task while still recovering. After a brief recovery, the politics of the court converge against him yet again. Upon a toxic barren world, Minos has been building something. Hadrian and Valka stumble across a vast plot but is it too late to fully contain it? On route to inform the Emperor they find that he has been pinned down at Perfugium. At Prince Alexanders' request, a rescue plan is hatched. After planet fall though, their lives will never be the same.
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While the ending of this book is horrible for Hadrian it just didn't feel as sad to me. I attribute this mostly being the how and off pageness of what happened. Whereas in book four it was right in front of us. Still don't understand if the Emperor planned something but not quite to the level Hadrian responded or if he was just that dumb. Either way, I go into book six now nervous about how we are going to line up events to get us to Gododdin. So even with this still being a great book it just didn't hit in the same way quite as the last two books.
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