Ignite the Ashes
Community Rating
Description
Nine years following the execution of the old Sovereign, the four dukedoms of Augustein teeter on the brink of combustion.Excess magic ore mining has resulted in unstable regions of shifting trees, violent storms, and a creeping plague of stillness. Watchmen struggle to fend off the relentless attacks of Aberrations while strict regulations on magic ore force aspiring magicians to sacrifice their own finite reserves at the cost of their health and, ultimately, their lives.
Amara is the sole survivor of a series of magic experiments ordered by the old Sovereign. Left with a reduced lifespan and an unnatural magic with the unique ability to progress, Amara is determined to live out the rest of her life to its fullest.
She’s going out like an explosion, and she’ll make sure that no one can look away.
Ignite the Ashesis a character focused, slow-burn high fantasy story with progression and light LitRPG elements that become prominent after the introductory arc.It features flawed and morally ambiguous characters, unreliable narrators, and some darker elements, but the story will ultimately be hopeful.
Note: The first few chapters depict the protagonist as a child, but she is an adult for the rest of the story.
Updates on Sundays
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Information
- Status
- Hiatus
- Year
- 2023
- Author
- greyly
Tags
Royal Road Stats
- Rating
- 4.4/ 5.0
- Followers
- 432
- Views
- 94,350
Chapters(46 total)
Reviews
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Community Reviews(3)
- D.M. Rhodes (Razzmatazz)Royal Road★★★★★ 5.0Ignite the Ashes (Progression Fantasy, LitRPG-Lite), written by author greyly, is a somewhat dark litRPG fantasy novel (In case the title didn’t spoil that) following Amara, the lone survivor of magical experimentation that has led her to possess deeply unusual magical powers that she sets in use with a very unusual goal to match — that is to go out with a bang.
The pacing of the story is well set on the slower side, with a larger focus on character growth, interactions, and world-building. This is excellent, because these just so happen to be my favorite parts of a story. The characters themselves aren’t one-note and show varied, complicated sides, which I enjoy as well.
The author has a little custom artwork, like a really cool map and character portraits, so that’s a +1 there too.
The spelling and grammar are both on point, and I found no noticeable flaws. The prose flows very well, and everything sits like you want it to when you're in the middle of it.
The characters, as said before, are given a lot of time to stew, which lets us really get to know and follow them and their motivations and schemes.
All in all, if you want a slow growth novel with a lot of characterization, a very unique premise and just a little hint of horrific darkness, you should give this one a fair shot! =) - Northern LightsRoyal Road★★★★ 4.0This one's odd. First off, it won't be for the average RR reader, I suspect. It's dense, heavy as lead, bleak, even. The world is collapsing at the fringes, the magic system is brutal, the background setting beyond all moral event horizons.
This is not the issue.
This is why I love it. Madly.
Amara, our MC, is whatever's left of her after a decade or more of experiments on her, apathetic, cold -- though an immediate plus is that this is not (at the very least, not only) the result of the experiments; she's presented like this from the start. Similarly, it's a plus that it's not an angst fest, Amara is simply determined to live out her remaining life to the fullest, and this nonchalance actually increases the impact the background has on the reader, far more than angst and breakdowns ever could. Authors should take note.
It starts out strong with a short intro arc, and it takes the author all of four chapters to produce a character death that hits you in the gut like a Mike Tyson punch. Many authors don't manage that using an entire story. Then, we start to explore the world, and the original charm of (open world) RPGs starts to shine: Seeing new places, learning new things, meeting new people, here always with the atmosphere of slow decay and ruin, which the author manages to convey skillfully.
This first part, up to a bit after entering the first big town, is great.
The issue starts when the story tries to be normal and stops being as bleak in tone and adventuring in plot. It can be pinned down to a single decision, even: When, after what they came for is done, they decide to stay in town, the story is getting off track. A training arc, however well it is justified, and daily life in a town, going about daily business, making friends, is just not what the story could be.
The writing quality, which remains excellent throughout, both in style as well in story crafting skill, keeps the story afloat, but after getting a taste of a very different setup previously, it's - Gravy diggerRoyal Road★★★★ 3.5Interesting start, although atm story lacks central plot line. I guess we still are at world building introduction stage. But it would be nice having some goal, tension, suspense or mistery to hang on during development phase. Technical side of writing could improve as well. Some words and expressions are vastly overused: humming, chuckling, eyebrow arching etc. Overall the story has potential. Experimental facility miniarc was very promising in terms of future quality.