I feel like my expectations for this one may have been a tad too high. The premise sounds absolutely wonderful, but it made me expect something more magical and fairytale-esque than it was, perhaps that was on me, but I put this one away after 50 pages or so.

This was a fun read. I enjoyed the writing style, the characters, and the story itself. It wasn't a short read, but it wasn't long either. I got through it rather quickly.

Not for me.
Before the story even started I found myself confused. There were so many names and so much information thrown at me, I knew almost instantly this would not end well.
Once the story got going I was into it for a while but unfortunately I didn’t find it good enough to be that long. This book was not fun to read.

It took a conscious effort of will to finish this book, which was disappointing because the premise was excellent.
The story is not at all a fantasy, more a socio-political history of a medieval city and its rivalries with neighbouring cities, so the fact that they have based their economy on poetry and libraries is very much beside the point. Beckerlegge is excellent at world-building, and there is no shortage of period detail, but his prose is needlessly dense, to the point where it disrupts the flow of action. I quite like an intricate sentence structure, and cannot, as such, fault the author's construction, but not every sentence needs to be a paragraph long, with every second word an archaic term. However, it could be argued that this is completely in keeping with the egotistical verbiage of its characters.
This might still have been bearable, but his characters lost me completely. Firstly, there were too many different points of view, almost a new one with every new chapter, with seemingly little connection, until we got to the end of the book (if the reader lasted that long). Finally, it all meshed together - or, indeed, fell apart, because, as we can see from the title, the grandiose aspirations of the citizens come tumbling down in a final frenzy of destruction. The second chapter in particular nearly finished me: the author's description and characterisation of Hypatia, the ink maid, was highly distasteful at best, and borderline accepting of sexual abuse at worst.
But, in the interests of giving the author a fair shake, I soldiered on, and eventually the plot became clear. Sadly, it was hardly worth the effort: Cadenza became a city diverted from its lofty intellectual origins, spiralling into a bacchanal of debauchery, corruption and depravity, to its eventual destruction, and very few of the characters inspired much pity or regret (except possibly the feckless genius Ercole).
What might originally have been a dream city of glorious words and erudite research was, at the reader's (and Carlo's) entrance, a nightmare of macho egotistical rivalry, decadence and brinkmanship, and so far from the expected paean to literature and the redemptive power of words that this reader was not at all upset with the conflagration at the end.

My thanks, nevertheless, to Netgalley for the ARC of this book.

I was given an advance reading copy by the publisher for an honest review.
I did not enjoy this novel at all. I liked the description and was excited to read it but the style of writing and the storyline were utterly confusing.

Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge started off with a very intriguing premise — a second-world city of poets and librarians promising intrigue and dark academia? I was immediately interested. Unfortunately, for me personally, it didn’t live up to my expectations. I didn’t particularly like his writing style, it felt very male-gazey in parts, especially when describing female characters. I just don’t understand why male writers in this day and age continue to not understand how to write women, or even how to write men perceiving women. There’s no need to make half your readership uncomfortable.

Whilst I enjoyed the complex world building and lyrical prose, I did find it a bit hard to follow with the different POVs and complicated, if a bit overdrawn, plot. I will say I thought the premise and dark academia vibes were very well executed, although I wished for more magical elements. I’m not entirely sure how to rate this book as I am still fairly divided on my final thoughts. I think this will be a book that either fully appeals to you or fully doesn’t, depending on what you like in a novel. Overall, I’d give it a 3/5 stars:l.

its a no from me dawg. beckerlegge habitually describes minorities as exotic and other while lionizing and prioritizing male art and perspective. not it.

I was very excited when I got approved for an e-arc of Carnival of Ash by Tom Beckerlegge. I’ve reviewed some other books by Rebellion Publishing in 2021, such as Seven Deaths of an Empire, The Liar of Red Valley and Mickey7 – and I enjoyed all of them. I’ve come to expect more alternative and unique SFF books from Rebellion, and usually, they deliver. However, Carnival of Ash is a different story....

I loved the premise and the cover of this book. The cover is whimsical, and the synopsis sounds unique. Unfortunately, that is the only praise I have for this book.

I found the story to be highly confusing and perplexing. Each chapter has a new POV and storyline, and I struggled to see how these plotlines were supposed to connect. Moreover, neither the characters nor the world-building was interesting. Consequently, this book reads much more like a historical fiction than a fantasy book.

I tried to finish this book, but I’ve decided to DNF it at 70%. I simply can’t continue. I don’t really know what is going on in this story, and I don’t find the characters or plot interesting.

I am giving this book a 2-star rating based on the 70% I’ve read.

I want to apologise to Rebellion for not finishing this book. I will not be posting my review to other platforms since I did not finish this book. Special thanks to Rebellion and NetGalley for the e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

This book has elements that are very triggering but it's still a very enjoyable read. I was immediately drawn in by the cover and premise and it's a good read.

*Full review to be posted closer to publication in March 2022!*

The Carnival of Ash was such an unexpected and refreshing delight. I didn't really know what to expect from this book and I truly never knew what was coming next. A lot of this surprise was due to the nature of how the story was told. The Carnival of Ash follows one character at a time and almost gave me the feel of a connected story collection following connected characters in one city in a continuous timeline. I wasn't sure about this format at first, but as I read and found myself loving each character's story, I realized that I was absolutely loving this story. It is so interesting and detailed, and each story brought something very new to the book. The writing is also very lush and beautiful and takes its time to share descriptions and narratives about the characters and plot. Overall, I really enjoyed The Carnival of Ash and am so glad and appreciative that I had an opportunity to read it!

Cadenza is the "City of Words" and a rival of Venice in this alternative historical fantasy novel. It is ruled by a council of seven and a leader titled the Artifex. The story begins with Ercole, a gravedigger finding Carlo, a striving poet, in an open grave. Ercole takes him in and readers learn a bit of history of the city. Various characters are then introduced, many of whom are unlikeable. Being a librarian and a fan of the Renaissance period I thought this would be an interesting read, but it became very violent and there is a plague that perhaps hit a little too close to home for this reader. Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for an advanced copy in exchange for an honest review.

i tried to finish this book out of sheer will, but i had to dnf at 70% because i had simply lost interest. this happened a lot to me throughout reading each chapter, but just when i thought it was getting boring, something shocking happened that made me keep reading. unfortunately it eventually came to a point where i didn’t want to continue.

the main issue for me was the vagueness of it all. i got the general gist of it: a city run by poets who are all kind of insane. but i can’t tell you the overall plot at all, especially because the point of view changes every chapter and apparently so does the storyline. i couldn’t see a connection between the chapters, so to me it just felt like a lot of separate stories with occasionally some reoccurring characters.

i don’t think this book was necessarily bad. i think you have to like historical fiction, though. i mainly wanted to read this book because it was classified as sci-fi & fantasy as well, but if there was a fantasy aspect to this book, i have not seen it.

if you are a fan of historical fiction, you might really enjoy this book. it wasn’t my cup of tea, though.

I did enjoy this book but the description lead me to believe if would be more of a fantasy book. In fact it was less to do with a fantasy story surrounding the books and library and more concerned with the egotistical machinations of men. Still I read a book that I probably would not have chosen had I know what it was about.

Unfortunately I did not enjoy this book as much as I thought I would. I was hoping for something in the vein of Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell but in all honesty it’s more like The Name of the Rose. It is well-written but densely so, and the fantastical elements which the book more or less promised are absent, so the story at times is quite leaden and a chore to read. If you’re hoping for a magical story then I’m afraid “The Carnival of Ash” will disappoint.

A delicious world with filled with such an engaging cast, I loved this story and truly didn't want it to end!

I didn't finish this book, as I got to about 30% and realised that I didn't care about what was happening, so was more interested in the other books on my TBR pile than carrying on with this one. It was also a bit too close to literary fiction in terms of the verbosity of its word choices at times and I found that a bit tedious.

As other reviewers have stated, this doesn't really come across as being properly situated in the fantasy genre, as there doesn't really seem to be any elements of the fantastic about it - if anything, it's historical fiction with a half-step to the side. I have to be particularly interested in the time period or place for that kind of writing to keep my interest and medieval Italy doesn't do that for me on either count.

<I>I received a free copy of this book from the publisher via Netgalley. This is my honest opinion of this book.</i>

The Carnival of Ash is a book I fear will confuse readers due to mislabelling. The blurb pegs it as a 'lyrical fantasy'; however, there are no real 'fantasy' elements in the piece. In fact, it would be far better described as an alternate-history tale. Readers approaching this piece expecting a standard fantasy story will likely be disappointed. But if you pick it up with the correct expectations, there is still plenty to enjoy here.

I confess the book bewildered me a little at first, as we jumped from character to character and I wasn't sure where things were heading. However, as the story progressed, all the threads began to weave together and I was able to settle back and enjoy the action. The characters were all well drawn and memorable, and I liked the interesting take on history the book presented, not least because a city focused on books and words is sure to appeal to an avid reader. The prose was perhaps a tad verbose at times, but I got the impression that was intentional, to reflect the setting and characters. Overall, I would say it was an enjoyable read and a book I am glad I had the opportunity to experience, since it was such an original tale, but I don't see it being a story I will want to go back to again and again. As such, I am giving it 3.5 stars, which I will round up to a four rather than down to a three.

(As per your request to hold reviews until closer to the release date, I have scheduled my review to go live at the links supplied below on 7 March 2022.)

this book was misleading in description and genre, in my opinion. i wouldn't say it's bad, it's just not for me. even though i'm a fan of both, The Carnival of Ash is more historical fiction or alternate history more than it is fantasy. some sentences and phrases were over-written in a way that made the writing seem disjointed and unenjoyable to read. however, i think it was my own annoyance with it being a misdirect from what it promised to be that lessened my enjoyment of the book so i'm giving it a 2 star instead of just 1.

thanks to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with the digital arc of this book in exchange for an honest review.

DNF. In fairness, my expectations didn't match the book; I was expecting something that was much more Fantasy, whereas The Carnival of Ash is more alternate history, and less about the magic of books than the egos of poets and Venetian-esque politics.

I don't think The Carnival of Ash is a *bad* book, but I'm not the right reader for it. I found it a chore to read, and every time I put it down I didn't want to pick it up again. The prose was...heavy, and exhausting; 'lyrical fantasy' this is not, whatever the description claims.

I'd recommend this more for fans of historical fiction than anyone looking for a fantasy story about books and writing.

Enchanting little fantasy novel that moves briskly and is a lovely read. Definitely recommended for fans of the genre.