Tracing the Shadow

Alchymist's Legacy #1

by Sarah Ash

Sarah Ash’s acclaimed trilogy, the Tears of Artamon, was a stunning blend of sorcery and intrigue, politics and breathtaking imagery. Now she returns with the tale of a siege between kingdoms, and a battle between heretics and believers—each with their own truths, their own lies, and their own soul-shattering discoveries waiting to be made.The kingdom of Francia has purged its magi. But when a young Guerrier rescues an orphaned street waif, little does he know that she is the daughter of a magus who met his end on their pyres—or that she is guarded by an aethyric spirit and driven by the name of the traitor who condemned her father to flames. With the gift of song infused within her, her voice will bring her before the most powerful heads of state. And she will craft herself into a weapon—aimed at the heart of the man she despises.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Science Fiction, High Fantasy, Magic, Adult Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

473 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Sarah Ash was born and brought up in Bath. At university she trained as a musician, but returned to her childhood love of writing as the author of highly-praised novels, including the Tears of Artamon Trilogy. Sarah also writes about her love of anime and manga for Anime UK News. Check out her Guest Blog to read posts by other SFF authors about their fiction!

Reviews

[Deb · Rating 2 out of 5]

Another failed-to-engage book. It has all the hallmarks of a typical fantasy plot, and I wanted to like it, but I wasn't sucked in after a handful of chapters. Life's too short to plod through books you don't really want to read.

[Patrick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Overall not a bad story, although perhaps a bit too ambitious for Ash's skills. The characters were generall well written and I found myself invested in their stories. In particular Celestine's and Jagu's. But notably I was far more invested in the parts where they were living out their daily lives (monasteries, musical careers), and found that the larger story often wasn't interwoven as well.

The pacing was my biggest problem. Large time jumps seemed to happen frequently, often with important events being totally jumped over and then just mentioned in passing in the next paragraph. Thus, I kept finding myself knocked out of the story. The romance was also...weird. Often it just sort of happened that 2 people instantly loved each other, without any sort of preamble (or even knowing each other). Among other issues with it.

The ending definitely made this whole book feel like backstory for a larger story. I didn't check if this is a series or not, so that may not be an issue.

[David Grierson · Rating 3 out of 5]

Three and a half stars. Not my favourite Ash novel. Not as memorable but certainly a very readable story. It’s about an alternative world with a quasi-medieval France and when I got into it I realized I was reading a prequel to The Tears of Artamon trilogy – not that you must read that series to enjoy this one.
The characters were generally well written and I found myself quite invested in them. I enjoyed the descriptions of how and where they were living out their daily lives (monasteries, army posts, musical careers), but I found that overall, the world building was a bit light on, and that that the larger story sitting above the character level did not mesh as well.
There were some frequent time and location jumps and occasionally I had to really concentrate and reread some sections to pick up the story threads.
The author has some really interesting twists in an old trope (young child doesn't know her own power, struggles to survive in a cruel world at the beginning). Hopefully, without spoiling too much, she gets the equivalent of a guardian angel and I was disappointed that this character wasn't teased out. Still, I applaud Ash for not using that character to bludgeon tricky parts of the plot. The ending definitely made this whole book feel like a backstory for the series to come and I did not find it (the ending) as gripping as it might have been.

[Deirdre · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not very memorable but readable story about an alternative world with alchemy that woorks and a supression of alchemists and then has to deal iwth aftermaths and some alchemists going underground.
The map shows something that looks a little like France and Spain cut off from the rest of Europe and an amalgam of nordic countries along with a very small african shaped lace, but using European names just amade it more confusing for me, being a person who has read too much history. It left me vaguely curious about what happened next but not particularly driven to find them.

[April · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reads more like historical fiction with a dash of fantasy thrown in. Well written and easy to fall into. You feel as though you're in medieval France, watching the inquisition happening, and being educated in the convent/monasteries. Just as you've settled in with a cuppa, the fantastical happens.

[Kendall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Sarah Ash never disappoints me, and this book is no exception. I loved the politics, the twisting plot, and the characters felt so real to me.

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Took a while to get going and I was confused as the the time period this was set at first. But when it got going it did improve but not as much as i'd hoped.

[Jimme Mcdougall · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was alright, a one and done read

[Melanie · Rating 2 out of 5]

I expect much better world-building in adult fantasy. I repeatedly checked to see if this wasn't YA. It's not often you can say a book would've been better with an additional 200-300 pages.

I thought it would intrigue me enough to hate-read the next book but the end was so...bad that I don't care to.

Would not recommend.

[Alicia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A Fantasy writer that I definitely recommend.
Tracing the Shadow, Sarah Ash's first book in the Alchymist's Legacy, is a fast-paced adventure with magic, romantic love (both unrequited and fulfilled), religious & political intrigue, and friendships that transcend familial ties. There are a number of main characters who stem from the world of Francia. My favorite among them is Jagu de Rustephan, a young musician turned warrior monk who is in love with the beautiful and talented soprano Celestine. Both are haunted by horrifying events in their childhoods having to do with magic. Both believe that they are destined to defeat the magus believed to be one of the greatest traitors and enemies of Francia: Kaspar Linnaius.
One of the major themes in this book is trust--who can one trust; after a while I found myself distrusting all of the motives of the characters.
Sarah Ash has an interesting way of providing short & quick "scenes" flipping back and forth between the many main characters much like a movie might have. This became annoying at times for me as I wished for more from the "scene" than was given.
Overall, a great fantasy novel--I can't wait for the next book in the series. I might have to read some other books of hers to tide me over.

[RealmsQueen · Rating 3 out of 5]

I had already read Sarah Ash's Tears of Artamon trilogy, so the second I saw this book i said to myself "mine!" and went home with it the same day expecting a wonderful start to a brand new series by an excellent author.

But I was wrong. This is not the wonderful start to a brand new series by an excellent author, but rather the wonderful start to the PREQUEL story line of the Tears of Artamon trilogy by an excellent author.

In the Tears of Artamon we are introduced to the Drakhoul 'daemons', a magus by the name of Kasper Linneius, Emperer Eugene of Tielen as well as Tielen's warring neighbours the Francians.

In Tracing the Shadow, we see the origins of all the above. Sarah Ash tells us how the daemons came about, how the war between Tielen and Francia essentially started, as well as the story of the magus Kasper Linneius through engaging and imaginative characters that cannot help but pull at your heart a little bit.

I was not able to put this book down once I picked it up. And I know that anyone else wanting to start a new fantasy series or a new, excellent author would not be remiss in picking anything up by this author.

[Lucy Takeda · Rating 4 out of 5]

I was thinking three stars---until I hit the last chapters. I am a sucker for doomed romances, evidently.
This novel involves music, magic, inquisitions, political conflicts, and cults. There are numerous plots intertwined; a young girl, a goddess, a young man that gets involved with a magus, musical/ opera conflicts, royalty, assassinations. Oh, also several romances. I found the link between a person and a powerful hawk from another realm intriguing. I don't tend to like plots where folks can turn into someone else; it strikes me as a cop out. Three quarters through, I was thinking, " I am not going to bother reading any sequels." By the end, I think I will. There is definitely character development and a fairly advanced level of vocabulary. Some of the emotional connections are somewhat simplistic.

[Erik · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a pre-companion book to Ash's first trilogy "Tears of Artamon", where the second book in the duology will be a true companion novel (just different characters), and this first book setting that second one up. As is often true for Ash, her books take some time to get into, and the writing isn't necessarily fabulous... but the stories are pretty good. This book follows the same vein. It is the first of the duology, so it isn't surprising that there are still a handful of un-answered questions, but not too many. The book does a good job of tying things up very nicely for a complete first book.

[Ithlilian]

I was reading Tracing the Shadow, going along just fine until page 200 or so. All of the sudden the main character turned from a whiny apprentice coward, to a magically powerful evil person. I couldn't stand to read pages and pages and pages about a little girl, and in the end that is why I stopped reading. This would have been better if there was more time spent on making consistent believable characters and less time switching viewpoints to cover events that barely even matter. Just tell us what happens with the killing of the boy, don't switch characters for 40 pages to build up to it. Disappointing.

[Dy · Rating 1 out of 5]

I like sword and sorcery and have no issues with complex world building, but this was too hard to follow. The names of the two main male characters were so similar that every time she switched between them I had to stop and think, "Which one is he, again?"

Gave up at page 186 -- It wasn't interesting enough to grab me. The characters were hard to differentiate. The lack of a clear protagonist is realistic - there are two sides to every story - but makes for unsatisfying reading; I found myself not wanting to root for any of them.

The last is the main reason I abandoned this book. The characters left me cold and life is too short for books you don't enjoy.

[Brendan · Rating 4 out of 5]

You definitely need to read the Tears of Artamon before picking up this book, but once you do it's a great addition to the series. It feels like Wicked does to The Wizard of Oz - you get to see another side of all of the events, learn more about a few of the characters, and meet some new ones. The book follows some very likable characters through some harrowing experiences, and it's fun to read about.

[Ingrid · Rating 4 out of 5]

I just finished reading TTS. This book is set in the same world as the Tears of Artamon. One of the things I love about Sarah Ash is that she really explains the characters of her novels and thus explains the choices that they make. None of her characters are ever one dimensional, they all have depth and even as they make mistakes and suffer from various personal flaws there is a rational behind it all. And behind it all are the themes of religious freedom, politics and greed.

[Rory · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a solid fantasy novel. The author tries to create various countries and cultures to base the story around and in doing so never full develops any of them. She does a good job developing the main characters but there are so many secondary characters that at times I was confused as to which character was a part of which country. If the author has just spent more time at the beginning explaining the politics between the different countries, then the story would have flowed better.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

It took so long for me to finish this book -- not because it was difficult, but because so many characters were given equal time and weight at the beginning, and it wasn't until I was halfway through that it seemed to have a path. The author's writing seemed to become better and more fluent towards the end, which is a shame. I don't know that I'd purchase the sequel.

[James · Rating 5 out of 5]

A real page-turner, especially if you're already a fan of the 'Tears of Artamon' series. Lovingly written in a world that takes on a life of it's own. I always enjoy delving into a book by Sarah Ash, I know it will never disappoint. It was great to see the background to some of the slightly minor characters in her original trilogy.

[Galleane · Rating 2 out of 5]

Au final tout est trop survolé et l'histoire ne m'a pas intéressée. Je n'ai pas adhéré à la manière dont était racontée l'histoire, moi qui aime avoir plus de détails ici il en manque pas mal. Le résumé était alléchant mais l'histoire s'est révélée décevante.

Ma chronique complète : http://bloggalleane.blogspot.fr/2010/...

[Leslie Zampetti · Rating 3 out of 5]

Pretty good. But I've definitely OD'ed on fantasy for the time being, so I'm not sure I'm objective. I'll likely pick up her earlier books a little later this year....

Fans of Guy Gavriel Kay would like this, I think.

[Claire · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book skipped around so much that I can't possibly give it a glowing review, but I think I will be getting the second in the series, just to see what happened. The plot was pretty original, though there was a lot of influence on the French Inquisition and medieval times.

[Jeanne · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this prequel to Tears and I loved getting to know Jagu and Celestine and their stories. I can't wait to continue with the next book. I also like how Sarah keeps you on your toes with her writing style, she gets better and better as she continues to write.

[Travis]

I enjoyed reading the book and I'll keep an eye out for the next book in the series, but if I should happen to forget to pick it up any time soon I will not be too disappointed.

My recommendation would be to borrow the book.

[Jess · Rating 4 out of 5]

Took awhile to get into, but once I did I couldn't put it down. Celestine/Klervie is such a great character, and I love the fact that the "villians" and "heroes" are rather ambiguous, rather than black and white. Looking forward to the next one.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed this book. Once I got into it, I could barely put it down. I hope that the next book expands on the main characters, as it did feel sometimes that in order to introduce them all, they were left a bit thin. But the story has me hooked.

[Megan]

I think I would like this book, but I just didn't have time to finish it. Perhaps in the future...

[Chris · Rating 2 out of 5]

I thought this was going to be another mediocre cliche-ridden fantasy novel, but it turned out to be fairly interesting, though not brilliant.

[Aubrey · Rating 3 out of 5]

took a while to really get into the book because it switched back and forth so much in the beginning...enjoyed the second half once i could recognize characters and knew more of what was going on