Synopsis
The Usharian Empire rules the Known World with an iron fist. Imperials protect their world from the tainted hand of the Deceiver, but he is back with an avatar capable of breaking the Empire and grounding humanity into ash.
JEHA is a sentinel of the Empire, willing to fight and die for kinship and duty.
AGOR is an imperial general. Disgruntled by the darkness he sees seeping into everything he loves, he makes his move.
MATALA is a young smokesmith who sees his courage tested as Ushar burns.
ALAMAKAR is the world’s most powerful man, but even strong blood ties can hold him down and tear him apart.
As the Deceiver threatens the Usharian Empire’s heart, fiends walk the streets of the capital. Men and monsters clash in a battle fit for gods. And the smoke follows them.
Review
“It was his fault for having sought peace. He should have known kings couldn’t afford it.”
I always love reading indie fantasy prequel novellas as they get into the action straightaway and we get to see a cool bit of magic and the world (add some cool beasts and weapons for Ruins of Smoke). This one is no different, it is a one-night epic action bonanza of a city being raided by a variety of demons. Also it’s available for free at the author’s website.
Usually I prefer and recommend reading the prequel novellas first for a series, but for the Smokesmiths’ series I am going to say (subjectively) the better reading option is to read Book 1 – Seeds of War first and then pick up the Ruins of Smoke as it builds to a mind-blowing reveal at the end and the impact is so much better having read Book 1 already.
Since I had already read Book 1 first, I had some notions about the world, the magic, the people, etc. in general. It just took one chapter for all of my preconceived notions to be ruined. And the emotional beats are there right from the very beginning too. The balance between the character emotion and all the fantasy stuff is also excellent. One minute we’re looking at a smoke weapon transforming itself into something more for a fight versus a higher demon and the next minute we’re contemplating some serious internal family turmoil. Sometimes it takes a while for me to get invested in a character’s journey but I’m sucked into all of the characters’ journeys within a chapter or two here.
The story and writing also keeps getting better as it progresses. After the initial few chapters I was convinced this is going to be my favorite character but then a new character was introduced and a couple chapters later the new one became my favorite character. One of the chapters ended with an epic battle sequence and again I was certain it would be the best action sequence only to be deceived again a few chapters later.
“The tri-edged lance was Jeha’s best weapon, a harbinger of justice that punished those who dared threaten the peace of the Known World.“
The last chapter and epilogue deserves some absolute special mention. It involves one of the coolest one vs. one duels with some majestic character transformations and may or may not involve a dimension jump. Now the epilogue is very small- just one page even but its impact is simply monumental. I was wondering how this book is going to connect to the events/ story in Book 1 as this one is set quite a long time before Seeds of war but it delivered sensationally. After I read it I went on by myself, how could I not have seen this coming? The clues were there all along.
Overall, I’m stunned with how this book has expanded the world of the Smokesmiths’ series and if this is the type of bombastic, razzle dazzle action the series is going to include/build up towards – I am all for it and am just going to go sit down and make up my own theories and stuff about where the series will go in the next installment.
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