In the year since she cast her sunbolt, Hitomi has recovered only a handful of memories. But the truths of the past have a tendency to come calling, and an isolated mountain fastness can offer only so much shelter. When the High Council of Mages summons Brigit Stormwind to stand trial for treason, Hitomi knows her mentor won’t return—not with Arch Mage Blackflame behind the charges.
Armed only … charges.
Armed only with her magic and her wits, Hitomi vows to free her mentor from unjust imprisonment. She must traverse spell-cursed lands and barren deserts, facing powerful ancient enchantments and navigating bitter enmities, as she races to reach the High Council. There, she reunites with old friends, planning a rescue equal parts magic and trickery.
If she succeeds, Hitomi will be hunted the rest of her life. If she fails, she’ll face the ultimate punishment: enslavement to the High Council, her magic slowly drained until she dies.
Memories of Ash is the highly anticipated sequel to Sunbolt, Book 1 of The Sunbolt Chronicles.
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I have been a reader of fantasy for over 30 yrs and this is right up there with “Wheel of Time” and others. Can’t say enough about the characters, they inspire honor and principles. Also hope there will be another book in this series!
* I was given a free copy in exhange for an honest review.
There is something quiet, classic, and honest about the way Intisar Khanani writes. This is a traditional hero’s journey, but because our hero is a young women there is a quality to her brand of heroism that makes this classic journey feel new. This is no romance. This is an adventure. It’s a story of a young woman who lives and dies by doing what she feels is right/just. It’s a world of many ethnicities & sentient species. She builds relationships wherever she goes, and inspires people inspired to be their best, and help her out, but ultimately it is her journey alone.
There is a whole story here. The main arc from chapter one is the adventure of Hitomi trying to help Stormwind escape. So it does have a satisfying beginning-middle-end, but this book is definitely a small part to a whole. Hitomi seems to be saddled with saving the 11 kingdoms from Blackflame, and while she is alone most of the time, she moves through life like a boat on the water with her wake rippling out, so that many are affected even if they aren’t directly in contact with her. I enjoyed that this is a world with a big baddie trying to oppress people into submitting to him, but there are so many people whose spirits aren’t broken, and still choose to do the right thing first. This kind of one-person-saving-the-world feels do-able. She isn’t “the prophesied one”. She is just a young woman making the best choices she can in a given moment. Maybe she saves the world, but it’s because she inspires others to choose right over easy.
It’s a quiet, slow-paced book, but I enjoy all the characters, cultures, and discovery. It doesn’t feel like there is a particular something that this chronicle is about other than following along with a bewildering girl who is determined to be true to herself. Perhaps that is part of the meditation of this book—that even though she lost much of her memory (and so much of who we are is the collection of our past) there is a core of who she is that remains constant. Perhaps what she is left with is her true humanity, (that most of us lose touch with as we try to get by) but that is all she has to cling to.
Hilarious narrator in an absolutely fascinating set of circumstances in a beautifully fleshed-out world of mixed mythologies. SO much fun (and deep!).
Memories of Ash picks up one year after Sunbolt ended, with Hitomi still recovering from the memory loss incurred by her sunbolt spell and learning magic from Brigit Stormwind, a loner mage who has taken Hitomi under her wing. But Stormwind and Hitomi’s lives are thrown into chaos when a rogue hunter shows up and takes Stormwind away on charges including treason. Hitomi is left behind, her magic still a secret, but she quickly resolves to go after Stormwind and free her, because the charges are obviously trumped-up and will result in nothing but pain for everyone involved…except Blackflame. Along the way, she visits the Burnt Lands, an area that was destroyed by mages hundreds of years before, and discovers a new talent for unraveling spells that lands her some assistance for the future. A few characters from Sunbolt show up and we get to see more about the high-up workings of the Mage Council and a magic school for non-hidden mages. It’s all very tightly-knit, just as Sunbolt and Thorn were. Hitomi also grows immensely as a character here, both magically and personally. She continues to learn new spells and magical manipulations and discovers new talents which have looming potential but may never be fully recognized, she moves to accept that she may never truly know the details of her past again, but that her amnesia doesn’t have to be a chain that binds her from moving forward.
“I cannot ever truly know who I was. It’s time to discover who I may yet be.”
I enjoyed the first book, Sunbolt, but this one is so much better. Hitomi is strong, courageous, honorable and kind. Someone I am glad to know.
Another gem in this series. I loved this book at least as much as Sunbolt, loved the characters and the fact that even minor ones have a moral backbone. Can’t wait for the next book!