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The Trials of Ashmount (Tragedy of Cedain #1) by John Palladino

August 26, 2022 by Seanchalant Leave a Comment

Rating: 8.5/10


SYNOPSIS

Cedain is destined to collapse.

Across a world rife with blood, betrayal, and brutality, five people wade through unexpected tragedies.

An egotistical student, a fleeing refugee, a nomadic warrior, a fallen noble, and a criminal in hiding navigate the sinister dealings of politicians, two sudden wars, and nefarious lies that surface at Ashmount-a university dedicated to teaching the five branches of magic.

REVIEW

John Palladino comes out swinging with his grimheart debut, The Trials of Ashmount. With all the hallmarks of a great modern fantasy, Palladino introduces us to intriguing, flawed characters and a complex world to match. 

The story is told through five different POV’s, each with very distinct characterizations, believable motivations and unique voices. Each character shows us a different part of the world, allowing for plenty of awesome world-building. 

With three continents and five countries, Palladino has lots of room to stretch his world-building muscles, and he definitely does. Every town, city, country, etc., stands on its own and is memorable. It was a joy to read as Palladino takes all these seemingly unrelated threads and weaves them together in unpredictable but totally believable ways. 

The Trials of Ashmount is definitely going to fall into grimdark, but I feel it falls in the grimheart territory. As hopeless as things seem at times, there’s always a prevailing sense of hope. In a lot ways, the tone is similar to Ed McDonald’s Blackwing. 

Combining grit, drama, humor and tragedy, The Trials of Ashmount is a very promising debut and solid start to this series. Fans of Joe Abercrombie, Rob J. Hayes, and Ed McDonald, this is for you. 

Filed Under: Action Fantasy, Dark Fantasy, Fantasy, Grimdark, Reviews Tagged With: Book Review, Grimdark Fantasy, Grimheart, John Palladino, The Trials of Ashmount, Tragedy of Cedain

About Seanchalant

Sean Conley (not Connery) aka Seanchalant is an proud father of three little nerds, AnaMaurin Victoria, Landyn Lawrence, and Raylan Aviendha Mae. He is a stay at home dad while his hardworking and wonderful fiancée,
Gabriella Oropeza brings home the 🥓 and he always has a book on his person. On the autism spectrum, he has a tendency to become an encyclopedia on things he enjoys. Raised on horror films (The Evil Dead series is #1) and Stephen King, his love of fantasy was born from Army of Darkness and Tad Williams; cultivated by John Gwynne and Mark Lawrence. He enjoys everything from epic fantasy to urban fantasy, grimdark to high fantasy. His favorite bands are The Beatles, Wu-Tang Clan and Built to Spill.

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