A Drifting Sun
Born without a face, Iggy is an outcast in his own village, surrounded by those who both fear his powerful telekinesis as much as they rely upon it for survival.
But Iggy’s gift often feels closer to a curse, and after a tragic accident, he disappears on the day of his Exile. Only his sister Mei follows, chasing Iggy into the hostile nation of Nasaru – a land that sees them as nothing more than enemies to be captured or killed on sight.
Two other quests are afoot in the land of Nasaru, with each seeker fated to cross paths with both Mei and Iggy.
Anyo, disdained as the Beggar Prince, is desperate to win back his honour by unearthing a legendary blade, unaware of dangerous ambitions lurking within himself.
Veteran Greyshield and king’s assassin, Rokura, is charged with rescuing a royal bastard from slavers. But despite Rokura’s considerable skills, his quarry stays one step ahead, as if receiving aid from unknown quarters.
Separately at first, each character must overcome their own demons in time to unite and defeat a rapidly spreading the Moon Father, an ancient god determined to sow the seeds of chaos…
-Goodreads
Title: A Drifting Sun
Series: Exiles Trilogy #1
Author: Ashley Capes
Page Count: 190
Genre: Fantasy
Rating: 4.25/5.0
Date Read: October 23rd, 2024
Opening
Last year I was introduced to the works of Ashley Capes with his entry into SPFBO-9 (The Moss Dragon of Brittlekeep) and I rather enjoyed it. Recently I had a brief conversation with Ashley via social media where I found out he had quite a few other works already available with another recent released. I’ve got the recently released book on my TBR for November but this month I went with A Drifting Sun from The Exiles Trilogy. This trilogy was also released just earlier this year in 2024.
Pacing
The pacing seemed smooth and perhaps bordering on fast paced. I think this stems mostly from the fact this is a short novel. Timing for me was perfect as I’ve been picking up several shorter reads lately as a nice break from the 700+ page reads. There is plenty of world and character foundations being laid in A Drifting Sun but things seemed to be constantly moving right along. I didn’t find any issues with names of characters or locations to trip me up which was also pleasant.
The only mention I have does relate to the shortness and the abrupt ending to book one. I will be getting into book two hopefully early next year if not by the end of this year. I thought the story in book one ended rather abruptly. I wouldn’t necessarily call it a cliff hanger. It was a clean break in the story but it just kind of left a path or two lingering. I’m sure things will pick up where we left off when we continue but I’m almost wondering if the overall story might have benefited in not breaking these books out into 3 shorter reads. It almost pains me to say that with the close to burn out I’ve been experiencing with the longer reads. But sometimes it just makes sense for story continuation with me.
World Building
The world building was really good. Even in the shorter amount of pages available the story takes place over a couple of different unique regions and environments. The beginning starts off in a more humble beginnings before our characters really start their adventures and learn just how different the rest of the world may actually be compared to what they have known in their short lives so far. There is a really interesting magic system going on in this series as well. It feels like we are only just starting to scratch the surface on what these characters are capable of. The last thing I’ll mention is a solid political background is present as well. Our protagonist start in a bit of a mess with the story only to find themselves in an even larger political struggle outside of their home village.
Character Development
The last aspect to mention is the character development which has been very strong in book one. Again, I feel there is probably much more to come still not only with our siblings but some of the other characters as well. Rokura has seemed like an interesting noble character so far and I hope we haven’t seen the last of Cinder already as well. If not in this series, perhaps another. I feel he has some great shenanigans to share with the world.
Closing
Even if I am currently uncertain on whether the flow of these books and the series would benefit of being merged together, I’m going to take full advantage of these shorter reads sprinkled throughout my other larger reads over the next few months and enjoy them for what they are!
With being two books into works by Ashley Capes, I’m finding myself really liking his storytelling style. As I mentioned he has quite the library to choose from but the two I’ve read I feel would both be good entry points into some traditional fantasy genre reads for anyone looking for another author to pick up.
Scoring
Pacing 4.25 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 4.0 / 5.0
Character Development 4.25 / 5.0
