Ashes of Aldyr (The Obscured Throne Trilogy Book 1) by Russell Archey – Review by Stephanie Seeber

Ashes of Aldyr by Russell Archey
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

A story unlike any other. It takes place in the world of Alda. The book takes you through a journey after “The Rupture” takes place. How those left are struggling to survive. The world seems to be dying along with the once lively aldyr trees that were magical. Everyone is feeling the consequences of this as the Elf-kind are dying off, the dwarves are retreating to the mountains and humans are barely surviving together in run down settlements. You are introduced to beings that are worshipped and each has their own horrific power and influence over the people and the world. Each chapter takes you through a journey with different characters that all play a part in a bigger picture. You are then introduced by a dark cult called the Black Gnarl that is exposing the world to all the dangers it has been hidden away from and something sinister is coming.

This book to me held so much promise. A few of the chapters could have been expanded slightly and been books completely their own. The jumping to different characters each chapter and never having the same ones again made this a frustrating read for me. I would have liked to focus more on the characters and broken up each chapter to get more details and build up the characters more. Once you seemed to be able to connect with the characters then that was over and it was moving on to something else. Although all of these stories are based around one event, sometimes that event was barely mentioned and all in all these were all very separate stories. Separately I actually enjoyed each chapter’s story and wanted more from the characters, but feel like it could have been structured better.

I would recommend this book for anyone who goes in almost looking at it like several short stories that have some connection, but nothing overlapping. There is mystery on what is going on with the aldyr trees and learning about the different god-like beings that are portrayed. Also, wanting to discover what is happening to the world and what exactly caused “The Rupture”. I would not recommend if you want a book where you get emotionally invested in characters and character development continues to be important through the whole book.

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