Raasch, Sara. Snow Like Ashes. Balzer + Bray, 2014.
On the continent of Primoria, there are four Season
Kingdoms—Spring, Summer, Winter, and Autumn, which sit on a chasm of
magic. All of them have eternal seasons
and female rulers who wield magic through conduits, talismans to control their
kingdoms. The Rhythm Kingdoms—Paisly,
Ventralli, Yakim, and Cordell—go through all four seasons and have males who
rule through their conduits. The eight
kingdoms lived in more or less in harmony until Angra, Spring’s evil conduit,
and his army attacked and destroyed Winter, broke its conduit in half, and
killed its queen. Only twenty-five of
Winter’s citizens were able to escape; they rest were killed or taken to Spring’s
work camps.
Sixteen years later, only eight Winterians remain of
those who escaped. They are constantly moving
around so as not to be captured by Angra or his general, Herod. The eight citizens spend their days trying to
survive and searching for their conduit.
Finding the two halves of their conduit would mean freedom, the return
of magic, and the rebuilding of their kingdom.
The two youngest Winterians—Mather Dynam, Winter’s
future king, and Meira, an orphan—infants when the attack on Winter occurred,
are now teenagers. Their leader, Sir
William, has trained them to fight fiercely for Winter. Meira knows Mather will one day be her king
and is of a higher class, but she still has feelings for him. On her first journey to look for the conduit,
not only does Meira have an encounter with Herod, but she also recovers half of
Winter’s conduit.
This leads to a series of events in which Meira,
guided by encrypted dreams, becomes first a commodity, then a soldier, and finally
a prisoner. She must deal with courtly
politics and Angra’s evil magic to find her true destiny and place in Winter.
Snow Like
Ashes, Sara Raasch’s debut novel, is
a wonderful fantasy read. The world
building and the concept of designing kingdoms based on seasons are fresh and
beautiful. The main characters are
strong, heroic, and selfless, ready to sacrifice anything--even death--for
Winter. The descriptions of the battle
scenes are so real, the reader will feel he is right there on the battlefield
fighting with the soldiers! In
addition, if you like love triangles,
you will not be disappointed! The cover
art is awesome; it depicts a chakram, a type of throwing knife, Meira’s weapon
of choice, on a bed of fresh snow.
The only negative about the novel is the pacing. The plot sometimes slows down and takes
awhile to pick up speed again. However,
there is enough happening during the slow parts to keep readers motivated to
continue reading.
Snow Like
Ashes is the first in a series of the
same name. Icicles Like Kindling, a novella eBook-only prequel, was released
in September. It covers Meira’s life from
her infancy to age sixteen and was originally intended to be the prologue in Snow Like Ashes. Ice Like Fire (Snow Like Ashes #2) will come out this year!
This book will be enjoyed by fans of Kristin Cashore’s
Graceling series and readers of The Games of Thrones series by George
R.R. Martin. I highly recommend it for
middle school, high school, and public libraries. I give it four out of five fleur de lis!
