Interestingly the beginning of a high fantasy trilogy ...

Snow Like Ashes is a new high fantasy novel, which was mainly because of the cool description and the beautiful cover much talking. I was really keen to read the book and was not really disappointed. The thing is, when something is pushed by the publisher so enormous, the expectations can reading so go only one way - down. The setting in the book / the world is certainly wonderfully unique. The kingdom is divided into seasons. So there is winter, summer, autumn and spring with one king / queen and various enmities among these realms.

The focus is particularly on the winter, a country that was the downfall of the death of his mistress seventeen years ago. All hope is since on the heir, the prince, who is hiding along with a few survivors. This group are the characters that we follow. In the novel there is also a certain kind of magic that binds to objects and can only be performed by people with a certain bloodline = the rulers of the various kingdoms. Sounds complex, but it was explained very well and in my opinion exceptional and rare fascinating.

The thing is, however, the: Sarah Raasch has endeavored to provide information on a manageable level, but partly they were just too short. It was in many places difficult to see how exactly the structure of the world works and what all happened in the seventeen years since the fall of winter. I thought that was a real shame. On the other hand the own words and the structure of the world were very successful, so I could still see over it in this first volume of the trilogy.

The protagonist Meira is the best friend of the prince and falls in love with him. One has to keep good that there is no languishing love story and this anyway a nice supporting role was on the edge and has not moved all the best in the background of the author. There were so many wonderful places that were carried away when Meira and Mather talked to, precisely because its origin is different and there was the typical Prince / poor girl dilemma. Especially the scene in the attic I found made entirely heartbreaking. The feelings of the two were genuine and nice and sometimes totally sad. Later, still joined by someone else to love story to it, but it did not exist in the real sense triangle also, which I was grateful.

What I particularly liked the book, were the points that have sometimes driven me insane: The characters. I liked Meira at the beginning very much. I found Mather just great. But little by little I both went very annoying. In the book there is a lot of action and fights, and these were well done, but in the book there is also the ever-consistent problems that recur and Meira eventually makes the narrator of the story about a character who just whines and whines. The development, it undergoes machine abruptly stalled and you have to make do with the bundle misery that the author sets before us. Of course, that was understandable in many places, but most of the time but I rolled my eyes. Meira has often seen as a victim, while the whole world was doomed, to say melodramatic to say. Betrayal was committed against her, It was all about the good of the whole. That she has unfortunately never want to see and instead set and whining in the corner.

Aside from these lows in the book was reading but otherwise very entertaining. The author describes a pleasant journey through an interesting world, there were conflicts and politically tinged problems and above all is the magic of the seasons-kingdoms. The turn in the book were unfortunately very predictable, but you have to be honest, they have fit perfectly and I would not itself done it differently. The conclusion of the book also I liked, because he had something wistful and I think I read in spite of the weaknesses of the first part further definitely. I see tons of potential.