Since the fall of House Chimaeros to heresy, Luk Kar Chimaeros has renounced his heritage and his name to become the Knight of Ashes. For five arduous years, the Freeblade has pursued his treacherous step-mother across the stars alongside a band of fellow Exiles. Just as their hunt appears to be nearing its conclusion, a terrible destruction descends upon his home planet of Adrastapol. The Knight of Ashes must decide whether to continue his quest to exact justice and restore his honour, or aid the Noble Houses of Adrastapol and risk being branded a heretic evermore.
Luk Kar Chimaeros, now known as the Knight of Ashes, hunts his stepmother Alicia Kar Manticos from system to system alongside a small band of fellow exiles. Danial Tan Draconis, meanwhile, rules Adrastapol as High King, working to bring the three remaining noble Houses together and help his world to flourish. When he learns of a great danger threatening Adrastapol, Luk puts his quest aside and risks much to return home and fight alongside his former comrades.
It feels like a natural progression after Kingsblade, in terms of the plot and the character arcs but also with the confidence of Clark’s writing. The emphasis is on a fun, enjoyable plot; typical Knightly themes of honour and loyalty abound, but they don’t overwhelm the story. It’s a hugely entertaining book that stands on its own as a strong story, while clearly setting up a few interesting threads for the next instalment. It’s an evolution of the Imperial Knights story, and of Clark’s writing, and is well worth investigating.
I love this series of books. The characters have since grown up from their baptism of fire in the first book and they are coming in to their own power. The story involves a massive ork invasion of a Knight world and the machinations of an Inquisitor. There are story seeds for the future and I sincerely hope that this series goes beyond a trilogy and that they even update things to where Danial and his crew make it to the current lore.
The second novel of the knights against the forces of chaos. They are back their home world but heresy follows. This time orks lot of them and the return of the knight of ashes,