The Kithamar Trilogy by Daniel Abraham

[Werthead]

Book 1: Age of Ash

Kithamar is a great city-state, an economic power ruled over by a prince. When a new prince rises to power, it marks the beginning of a year of tumultuous events in the city. During this year, there will be intrigue and conflict and the lives of thousands will be impacted in obvious and not-so-obvious ways. When Alys's brother is murdered, she vows to find who is responsible and why. Helped by her friend Sammish, her investigation will take her from the lowest slums of Longhill to the highest heights of the royal palace, and the discovery of ancient, terrifying secrets.

Daniel Abraham is better-known these days for being one half of the gestalt entity James S.A. Corey, the authorial unit of The Expanse (both novels and the TV series). Before that, he was known for his solo work, especially his moving, beautifully-characterised Long Price Quartet and his mercantile series, The Dagger and The Coin. Abraham is a skilled writer of character-based fantasy, and a new series by him is a mouthwatering prospect.

The Kithamar Trilogy has a structurally interesting idea. Borrowing from Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colours film trilogy, which consisted of three completely independent stories which just take place in the same world, with characters from one film occasionally showing up in the others, Kithamar tells three independent, stand-alone stories which just happen to take place in the same year. Some characters will cross over, although of course in this first novel it's impossible to tell which.

The story in this book revolves around a murder mystery. A young man from the slums has been killed, but his sister finds an unusual amount of money in his room and a mysterious dagger. With the help of her friend Sammish, she tracks down those who her brother was working for, whilst Sammish finds those who are opposed to that group. Both groups claim to be working for the greater good, and Alys and Sammish are torn between new loyalties and their own friendship. The result is a game of intelligence and counter-intelligence as the two friends try to decide how much they can trust the other, and what information they can can share.

Both characters are written with depth and complexity, as you'd expect from Abraham, and the ultra-tight focus on the two protagonists for most of its length gives the novel a pacy feel. However, as the book develops, other POV characters appear with varying degrees of prominence, which feels like it does mix up the flow at times. The plot does also eventually tell us that one of the two sides in the story is the unambiguous faction of black hats and which is the unambiguous faction of white hats, rather than trying to present both sides as deeper and more complex, perhaps with good reasons for doing what they're doing. This feels refreshing - moral murkiness may be more realistic, but it also feels a bit overdone at this point - but also feels like it runs counter to the idea of Alys and Sammish being friends divided by a cause; when they realise which cause is good and which is bad, the central conflict effectively vanishes.

Still, Kithamar is a fascinating city. Abraham describes each ward of the city in some detail, with the close but poor community of Longhill standing in contrast to the rich, privileged nobility living west of the river. It's a vivid fantasy metropolis, and I look forward to exploring it more in further volumes.

Age of Ash (****) is a striking fantasy novel with a rich atmosphere and excellent characters. The central conflict of the book lacks the moral complexity more common in recent fantasy works, but makes up for it with Abraham's trademark excellent prose and thoughtful descriptions. Plus it threads the needle of both being an excellent stand-alone novel and the opening of a longer, more interesting story. The novel is available now in the UK and USA. The second volume is expected in 2023.

Edited April 4, 2022 by Werthead

[JGP]

Enjoyed this book immensely. Atmosphere, the characters [Alys is pretty great, but love Sammish] and, in comparison to fantasy releases of the last decade or so it's relatively unique where, excepting for a flashback or two, the narrative is set within one city.

Very much looking forward to the next installment. 

[mormont]

I don't think it's that uncommon to set a fantasy novel within one city?

Anyway, I really enjoyed this one too, but I felt it had a slow start. The strength is the character work, as so often with Abraham, and a nicely judged sense of life among the lower classes in a fantasy city.

[Rhom]

Didn't even know this was out yet... Good to know.  Love Dan's stuff.

[JGP]

2 hours ago, mormont said:

I don't think it's that uncommon to set a fantasy novel within one city?

I haven't read many recently. That said, my reading has been far from prolific for a few years.

Edited April 4, 2022 by JEORDHl

[Underfoot]

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

The Kithamar Trilogy has a structurally interesting idea. Borrowing from Krzysztof Kieslowski's Three Colours film trilogy, which consisted of three completely independent stories which just take place in the same world, with characters from one film occasionally showing up in the others, Kithamar tells three independent, stand-alone stories which just happen to take place in the same year. Some characters will cross over, although of course in this first novel it's impossible to tell which.

Interesting - I didn't know this, but there were many times as I was reading that I was so completely struck by the idea that the other person a main character was interacting with, Abraham had a POV chapter written for them just to make the interaction feel more real. This now makes a lot of sense. I hope the last book circles back to everyone. 

Anyhow, great review! I loved the book but opinion seems pretty divided. 

Spoilery:

Spoiler

If we're to understand that the city is being ruled by some godlike creature, with the two races having once been divided, I'm very curious if Longhill as a district is outside of that creature's control. It's stone, not wood. Its layout is different. The people there are a different race. It's semi-ruled by an underground queen...etc. I'm looking forward to seeing if/how that plays out. 

 

[polishgenius]

4 hours ago, Werthead said:

Kithamar tells three independent, stand-alone stories which just happen to take place in the same year. Some characters will cross over, although of course in this first novel it's impossible to tell which.

 

Is that what it's gonna be? I can't decide if that makes me less or more interested not necessarily knowing what'd happen after. 

In any case I would suspect we already have a hint who the other leads are gonna be: at the start of the book in the flashforward sequence, there are three characters mentioned just before it kicks in. The last is Alys, but the other two are 

Spoiler

1) a guy with a beard holding a red bead- it's the one-year-ruler's companion who is seen to steal that bead from Kithamar and he's described twice in ways that make him seem significant without really coming into the story. He's not otherwise described with a beard, but, hell, he might have one, and even if not I assume we'd learn who the other guy is if it does turn out to be his story.

2) a young man lying in an upper room with an injured hand, flinching at sounds, which could easily be the daughter's merchant son lover but... well, could also be anyone. 

 

Anyway, I'm finding the book quite interesting to think about after which is odd coz I was among those who was a bit underwhelmed reading. It's nicely written of course, and clever, but doesn't really distinguish itself, alone, from other crime-based city-based fantasy. Possibly didn't help that it shares some vibes with Mask of Mirrors that I read recently (got the sequel the same time as this actually) and that engaged me much more (it's a bit more high-key and heisty than this, clear Lamora influences too, but some definite similarities in the city itself I thought). 

 

[mormont]

13 minutes ago, polishgenius said:

In any case I would suspect we already have a hint who the other leads are gonna be:

For sure. Particularly no. 1 on your list. His appearances in the book just screamed 'protagonist' to me: I was expecting him to be the lead POV in the next book even before reading Wert's quote.

[JGP]

I was surprised we didn't see much of him in the first book, honestly. There was a lot of hinted at intrigue between the two factions vying for Kithamar's seat. I mean, even out of the little we got, most was handled offscreen, so to speak, and bald matter of fact.

The

Spoiler

assassination

   toward the end was commented on so dryly I was like, 'Oh.'  

Edited April 4, 2022 by JEORDHl

[Jaxom 1974]

See, I certainly enjoyed the book.  But now being a little more with people discussing it, I think I like it more that I did to begin with. 

Alys, to me, was throwing a Cithrin vibe and it was hard to really like her most of the time.  Oh there were moments, but in general...meh...

Sammish was the one I was rooting for.  She's the one I know I'd prefer to see interact more with the characters who may be taking over the narrative, as suggested.

Longhill being made of wood...hmmm... it is mentioned, isn't it. A lot. 

I assume we'll see plenty of the off screen events from book one fleshed out in book two...

Edited April 5, 2022 by Jaxom 1974
Jesus the autocorrect...

[williamjm]

5 hours ago, mormont said:

I don't think it's that uncommon to set a fantasy novel within one city?

I think I commented in the "First Quarter Reading" thread that initially some of the set-up did remind me of Robert Jackson Bennet's Foundryside, although the plots do end up going in different directions.

[karaddin]

I was also unaware of the whole 3 stories playing out at the same time angle of the trilogy, and agree that quite a few things make more sense with that in mind. I suspect it also means that this first book is going to suffer from the lack of the connections to the other two stories and will improve on a reread after they are out. That said I still enjoyed it immensely. 

In addition to the two characters already mentioned above, the original theft of the dagger is still completely unexplained - no one in this book had even a clue who had done it, so I expect we'll get a POV in one of the other books that at least gives us confirmation of the faction/players behind that.

Spoiler

I also can't help but feel that Kithamar being left hanging like that after the second theft of the dagger will get expanded in whichever book features Byrn's supporter with the bead. It's at real risk of losing its ability to possess someone new with how things stand in this book.

Wert - on the moral ambiguity, or lack thereof, I think it worked well due to

Spoiler

The humans in the black hat faction still very much believing that they're working for the good side, but being wrong. That hinges entirely on Andomaka's realization and regret as she gave herself to it. So you still get the characters feeling like real people doing what they think is right, just have a story that's more clear on them being manipulated and wrong.

 

[Rhom]

Finished it up while on vacation today. Took me a bit to get into it, but by the end it was all tied together nicely.  I do wonder if some of the more “mystical” questions will get answers.

Spoiler

Like what is Sammish?  Her ability to go unnoticed is mentioned as magic/supernatural at multiple points.  And “Kithamar” remarks that gods are moving against him when it notices her for the first time.

Abraham typically turns out new books pretty quickly, any word on the next book here?

[dog-days]

Don't think so - sounds as if he's still working on it.

[Underfoot]

21 minutes ago, dog-days said:

Don't think so - sounds as if he's still working on it.

Ah darn, I was both assuming + hoping the next would be published a year after the first (his usual MO). If it's still WIP, that doesn't sound likely

[JGP]

Boo. 

Looks like him and Ty are cooking something else up too though, that'll cut into time.

[DanielAbraham]

59 minutes ago, dog-days said:

Don't think so - sounds as if he's still working on it.

It's turned in.  I should be getting editorial notes back in the next week or so, but I don't expect it to be a heavy lift.  I've turned in MSs in much worse shape than this one.

[Rhom]

Gotta love it when the summon author works so quickly!  

[Underfoot]

On 2/12/2023 at 1:36 PM, Chataya de Fleury said:

Y’all, I feel like such an idiot, but….could you please help me with who Tregarro “was”? It’s pretty clear (IMO) he was in “The Dagger and the Coin” series, I just can’t for the life of me place him. Marcus Wester, under a new name? 

Also, I’m a little surprised that no one mentioned how dead Darro apparently knew Master Kit from TDatC because “the actor with the spider on his hand” mention perked my ears. Or maybe that’s just too obvious to mention.

Alternately, I’m totally overthinking things

Interesting! I didn't pick either of those up; I didn't get any vibes that this was the same universe, as the two "races" mentioned in Age of Ash bore no similarity to the races description-wise in Dagger and the Coin (nor did any of the magic), but there was a whole continent we didn't see in DatC (along with 3? races) so I suppose it's possible

Has Abraham ever mentioned wanting to write more in the Dagger and Coin universe? I feel like he did

[Ser Scot A Ellison]

I recently finished the first book.  The city had life that really impressed me.  The idea of the city having a spirit all its own is facinating.  I’m looking forward to the next book.