"I had a tough time ratings and reviewing this book for possibly stupid reasons. The Ashfire King is the very very long awaited sequel to The Stardust Thief. There was a huge gap between the first and second book, but it wasn't terribly hard to get caught back up. The Ashfire King is a mostly good book with some small flaws that prevented it from being a 5 star read.

Much like the first book, Ashfire focuses on action and adventure- taking the scope of a 1970s-80s fantasy while injecting it into complex and relatable characters. We have 3 major POVs- Loulie, Aisha, and Mazen.

Most of the book takes place in the world of the djinn, where our heroes find themselves trapped and unable to get back to the world that Omar is now ravaging at the surface. In a world abandoned by the Ashfire King, revealed as Loulie's faithful bodyguard Qadir, the world of Djinn is in a state of chaos as different faction leaders are in a constant state of war and unrest.

Meanwhile. Aisha chases Omar to extract her revenge on him.

The thing I love most about this series is the scope, character can travel across worlds, through wholly new cultures, and the universe truly feels baked and lived in. Chelsea Abdullah is a master at non overwhelming world building- she doesn't need to explain what every plant or food item is because her dreamy fairy tale universe operates very well exactly how it is- yet you still feel like you learn a lot about it and how it operates.

This is most certainly a middle book. with the primary focus not really being on our main villain- this is basically a very, very long side quest and COULD have been removed completely. Regardless, what I liked about it is that it still felt like there were critical stakes, and I don't mind if a story isn't relevant as much to the main plot if its still feels fundamentally interesting. One of the strengths of The Sandsea Trilogy is having this odd "Saturday morning cartoon" for grown ups feeling- I would comp it to a series like Trigun in this regard. So was most of this book strictly necessary? No, but it was still meaningful and fun.

Loulie was amazing as always, and Aisha easily had the story's best chapters and strongest character development. Focusing for a moment on Aisha's plotline, we REALLY get to know her in this book, and if you are partial to morally grey characters, I find her to be an absolute treat in this book- especially because she is our only eyes into a secondary plot.

Regardless, characters are where I struggled with this installment. Qadir, arguably the most popular character of the series, is missing for most of the book. No POV, not a lot of checking in. I thought his absence was handled well, but pulling your best character out of the action for that long certainly doesn't add to the book's positive traits.

Mazen was my second issue. I mentioned in the first book I didn'r feel his POV added much, and my opinion has not changed. Mazen doesn't really have anything to learn- he feels like Abdullah's pet character who is always morally sound, makes good choices, and his failures are cleaned up well. Hes boring, basically. His only character growth between two books is focused on learning to like- value himself more as a prince, and even that is not touched on much. Mazen is a character who the plot often happens to, not a character who drives it. When the coolest thing about him in 2 books is that in book 2 he gets a dope pet bird, thats an issue for me. I found his chapters boring yet again.

Additionally, Chelsea Abdullah's ultimate choice for who to put into a romantic relationship was...awful. I knew there would be romance in this book due to an AMA answer she has provided last year, and was hoping the slow burn would result in something cool. The character chosen for the romance (you can probably guess based on whats negative about this review) was awful, and any scenes meant to be romantic felt hollow and completely void of chemistry. Thank god its not a huge focus of the book, because it would be enough to turn me off the series.

Despite these flaws, I did really enjoy my time reading the Ashfire King. Sandsea series is basically popcorn plus- its all of the fun of reading genres that are meant to turn your brain off, but with the added benefit of really cool cultural elements, interesting characters, and excellent storytelling. This series is begging for an animated adaptation!


3.5/5"