An Ember in the Ashes by Sabaa Tahir

Have you ever read a book that when you are done you miss the world within the book? This is one of those.

An Ember in the Ashes has everything I look for in a book that starts a series, well drawn characters, raising thought provoking questions, and an interesting world.

Some of the big questions Tahir raises in her pages are; is too much knowledge a bad thing, and when one group of people are out of control and are overtaking others in abusive ways and then the others rise up and win their freedom but then enslave their former tormentors, how long, for how many generations, should this go on before it stops being protective retribution and becomes a recreation of what they went through...

The chapters alternate POV's between Laia, a scholar who lost her grandparents and whose brother is being held in prison by the Martial Empire, and Elias who is about to graduate from the Empire's elite warrior training academy.

It isn't easy to write in different voices but Tahir does it really well, Laia and Elias have very distinct personalities that come across very clearly. The story is so well written that when I finished the book and closed it I was immediately missing them and the world they live in. I want to know what happens next, I want to spend more time with them and can't stop thinking about the questions raised.

(Finished May 8, 2015)