THE LAST NAMSARA

released 12 OcTOBer 304 pages | Hardback/ebook

Author Kristen ciccarelli Publisher Gollancz

After being burned and brutally scarred by Kozu, the First Dragon, and seeing her city set alight, Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, vows to slay all dragons and redeem herself in the eyes of her people. Devoting her life to that cause, she becomes almost legend, feared and respected by her father’s subjects.

Now faced with betrothal to a cruel man who’s been pledged to her since she was burned, Asha will stop at nothing to free herself from this commitment – even if that means killing Kozu, and ending the Old One’s magic forever. If only the Old One didn’t have other plans for Asha…

The plot of The Last Namsara manages to stay interesting, despite having some twists that are as easy to spot as a hulking great dragon. It’s a shame the plot is overshadowed by clumsy world-building and a stuttering, awkward pace. The author might have benefitted from an extra hundred or so pages to allow things to develop and be established more naturally.

As it is, we race from A to B to C (with some annoying to-ing and fro-ing inbetween) all too quickly, making the explanation of the world feel forced, and there’s a glaring lack of time given to building relationships between the characters. As debut novels go, then, The Last Namsara is fun, but it’s also far from perfect. Bridie Roman