Ashfallen

by Joseph Occhipinti

Alone in the ashen plains, a girl searches for the enigmatic nomads of Od-Siing, but the atmosphere proves too harsh for the young seafarer. Krynna is unconscious and dying when found by the twins, Durai and Quan. Durai falls in love with the girl from a distant ocean world but believes she is a star spirit and shies away. While recovering, the young emissary is shown writings that could help free the nomads from a brutal occupation. A surprise raid separates Durai from Krynna and his sister who then flee to distant asteroid station, where a young prospector has seen the same ancient script. A holy man named Aicobo, a pilgrim from the ocean world, takes the heartbroken Durai to find his two loves. They join Krynna in her pursuit of a truth so powerful it could not only transform the struggle against the totalitarian League, but alter the very meaning of existence for the disparate people of the three suns.

360 pages, Paperback

Published June 28, 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.