Ice Forged and Reign of Ash (The Ascendant Kingdoms Saga) by Gail Z. Martin

Fantasy

Both Ice Forged and Reign of Ash are full of great characters, action and adventure.  I met Blaine Mcfadden, Piran Rowse, Dawe Killick, Kestel Falke, and Verran Danning in Ice Forged and continued my acquaintance in Reign of Ash.  Gail Z. Martin did a great job of character building.  I loved each of the five when I first met them in Velant, the prison colony. As the plot unfolds each has an important part to play as they make their way home.  More characters join in the journey, each adding to the complexity of the story. The journey is full of adventure and danger. 

There is a lot of world building in both books.  It was mixed into the action and added to the story line.  There are monsters, sword fights, spirits and both good and bad vampires.  There continued to be surprising additions to the world throughout the story.

Ice Forged ends with a failure that leads to Reign of Ash.  Reign of Ash ends with one important task completed.  Reign of Ash is a middle book that does not leave the reader hanging.  I did not feel let down at the end of either book.  The story line is well though out and kept my attention. 

I do recommend reading Ice Forged before Reign of Ash.  While there is back story in Reign of Ash it is more a reminder for those of us who have read Ice Forged. 

Orbit published Ice Forged and Reign of Ash by Gail Z. Martin in 2014.