BOOK REVIEW | A SWORD OF BRONZE AND ASH | ANNA SMITH SPARK

ABOUT THE BOOK

Readers of Shauna Lawless and Thilde Kold Holdt will love this Celtic-inflected adventure by critically acclaimed, grimdark epic fantasy novelist, Anna Smith Spark.

 A Sword of Bronze and Ashes combines the fierce beauty of Celtic myth with grimdark battle violence. It's a lyrical, folk horror high fantasy.

 Kanda has a good life until shadows from her past return threatening everything she loves. And Kanda, like any parent, has things in her past she does not want her children to know. Red war is pursued by an ancient evil, Kanda must call upon all her strength to protect her family. But how can she keep her children safe, if they want to stand as warriors beside her when the light fades and darkness rises?

REVIEW

It is without a doubt that Anna Smith Spark is one of the most original voices writing in fantasy today. Whilst she may be known as The Queen of Grimdark, her books have a mythical brightness to them that shines off the page.

The Sword of Bronze and Ash tells the story of Kanda, a middle aged woman who was once a hero of legend. Now, she is greyer and has given birth to three children. However, Kanda has secrets from her family, and when her past comes to haunt her, her secrets will shake Kanda’s world.

A Sword of Bronze and Ash reads like an olde fashioned tale of heroes and heroism reminiscent of the sagas like Beowulf or The Mabinognian. The prose is written in a poetic metre that ebbs and flows with the tides of the story.

At times, the book strongly reminded me of Poul Anderson’s The Broken Sword, and I think that this was due to the way that it is written. It has that similar mythic quality to it. 

Smith writes so gloriously in A Sword of Bronze and Ashes and spell binds the reader with the fluidity of her prose. 

She captures the duality of the typical female warrior perfectly. As the story deals with both Kandra’s past, and her present, we get to see her in her glory as the famed warrior. However, then the vision flips and we get to see her as she is now as an older woman and all the difficulties that these changes have wrought on both her mind and her physique. 

In addition to this, she also perfectly captures the complexities of motherhood and how we view our children. She will meander from being the perfect mother, to one who agonises over her faults continuously throughout the book. 

As usual, the characters in A Sword of Bronze and Ash are both complex and beguiling and it is not long before the reader is immersed in the story.

And let’s talk about story, as it easy to forget how brilliant a story Smith writes as you extol the virtues of her prose and technical abilities. Smith effortlessly weaves epic fantasy with a more earthy family drama that leads to a story that takes your breath away. I loved reading about the minutiae of Kanda’s everyday life and how it impacts on her now that she is not the famed warrior of legend. 

A Sword of Bronze and Ash is a book that comes from a master storyteller, and I wouldn’t be surprised that this will be hailed as a classic in the future.