In Ashes Lie
And so I've managed to come full circle in Marie Brennan's Onyx Court
series, returning to the dragon that burned London to the ground. It
was a lot of fun to read this series in not quite the right order.
Especially as the characters I recognized from later books began to
appear.
In Ashes Lie is much more sprawling than any of the other books in the series. Where the others took place mostly over the course of a year or two, with a few flash backs to fill in story, this one spanned decades. It begins in 1639, with the rise of the Puritans in London. The political unrest of London and England at large is mirrored by Lune's own struggles to maintain control of her realm without turning into Invidiana, the cruel former queen.
Her journey is closely tied to that of the royal family, and both the execution of Charles I and the return of Charles II match with major and similar events in Lune's own rule. The book ultimately culminates in the Great Fire of London of 1666, which here is initiated by a political enemy of Lune's who has spent the book trying to wrest power from Lune and ultimately decides to just destroy her city.
Because the book is so sprawling (and, let's face it, because I got married right in the middle of reading it), it was a bit hard to keep track of everything. It takes a while for everything to come together and to understand why Brennan began the tale as early as she did. But by the final act of the book I was finding it hard to put down. And the climactic final confrontation with the dragon is the most exhilarating conclusion of any book in this series.
What struck me was how little I really remembered the history of this time, and it was cool to see how the religious and political changes all fed off each other. If I'd read this book back in high school I may have understood some of the history we studied a bit better. By contrast, the next book concerns itself with the Royal Society of London, something I have studied in depth. I enjoyed that book a lot more, simply because I was more familiar with the history and the background characters.
In Ashes Lie is much more sprawling than any of the other books in the series. Where the others took place mostly over the course of a year or two, with a few flash backs to fill in story, this one spanned decades. It begins in 1639, with the rise of the Puritans in London. The political unrest of London and England at large is mirrored by Lune's own struggles to maintain control of her realm without turning into Invidiana, the cruel former queen.
Her journey is closely tied to that of the royal family, and both the execution of Charles I and the return of Charles II match with major and similar events in Lune's own rule. The book ultimately culminates in the Great Fire of London of 1666, which here is initiated by a political enemy of Lune's who has spent the book trying to wrest power from Lune and ultimately decides to just destroy her city.
Because the book is so sprawling (and, let's face it, because I got married right in the middle of reading it), it was a bit hard to keep track of everything. It takes a while for everything to come together and to understand why Brennan began the tale as early as she did. But by the final act of the book I was finding it hard to put down. And the climactic final confrontation with the dragon is the most exhilarating conclusion of any book in this series.
What struck me was how little I really remembered the history of this time, and it was cool to see how the religious and political changes all fed off each other. If I'd read this book back in high school I may have understood some of the history we studied a bit better. By contrast, the next book concerns itself with the Royal Society of London, something I have studied in depth. I enjoyed that book a lot more, simply because I was more familiar with the history and the background characters.
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