Ashfallen

by Joseph Occhipinti, Joe Occhipinti

Desperate to find allies, Krynna travels to a harsh, far-off moon and discovers a truth that could liberate an entire solar system. She only has to survive a hegemonic power bent on destroying her and her people and a cataclysm of fire in an unknown land.

364 pages, Paperback

Published June 17, 2016

Reviews

[Ben Hayward · Rating 3 out of 5]

The positives of this book should not be understated before I discuss the negatives. This is clearly an imaginative and passionate work, with impressive world-building. The prose in general, when it doesn't become enormous blocks of dialogue, can be quite beautiful. However this leads into some of the issues. I found the book to be very dialogue-heavy, and oftentimes that dialogue felt corny or unconvincing. The main problem with this book, though, is its hurtling pacing. While especially apparent in the beginning, when the plethora of characters are introduced in rapid succession, this is an ongoing issue throughout the book. Events tend to happen with little or no lead-up, then suddenly we're off to something new; as readers, we have no good sense of where the story will take us next. So it's a bit of a mixed bag.