The Last Namsara
In the beginning, there was the Namsara: the child of sky and spirit, who carried love and laughter wherever he went. But where there is light, there must be darkness—and so there was also the Iskari. The child of blood and moonlight. The destroyer. The death-bringer.
These are the legends that Asha, daughter of the king of Firgaard, has grown up learning in hushed whispers, drawn to the forbidden figures of the past. But it isn’t until she becomes the fiercest, most feared dragon slayer in the land that she takes on the role of the next Iskari—a lonely destiny that leaves her feeling more like a weapon than a girl.
Asha conquers each dragon and brings its head to the king, but no kill can free her from the shackles that await at home: her betrothal to the cruel commandant, a man who holds the truth about her nature in his palm. When she’s offered the chance to gain her freedom in exchange for the life of the most powerful dragon in Firgaard, she finds that there may be more truth to the ancient stories than she ever could have expected. With the help of a secret friend—a slave boy from her betrothed’s household—Asha must shed the layers of her Iskari bondage and open her heart to love, light, and a truth that has been kept from her.
Original Title: The Last Namsara
Series: Iskari #1
Author: Kristen Ciccarelli
Hardcover: 432 pages
Publisher: HarperTeen
Publishing Date: (October 3, 2017)
ISBN: 0062567985 (ISBN13: 9780062567987)
Edition Language: English
My Review
Holy Moly! I LOVED THIS! 🖤
This book is utterly sweeping and an AMAZING YA debut novel. It easily holds a place among the best of the best, the creme de la creme! If you love books of old stories or retellings, then you can’t go wrong with this one. With a captivating origin story at its core, this novel is infused throughout with pages of fantastical myths and stories that rule a world long forbidden to tell them. The Last Namsara combines an exotic world setting reminiscent of faraway places with fierce characters bound by betrail and unlikely heroes with the premise of good vs. evil.
In the beginning…
The Old One was lonely. So he made for himself two companions. He formed the first out of sky and spirit and named him Namsara. Namsara was a golden child. When he laughed, stars shone out of his eyes. When he danced, wars ceased.
The Old One formed the second out of blood and moonlight. He named her Iskari. Iskari was a sorrowful child. When Namsara brought laughter and love, Iskari brought destruction and death.
Asha is the daughter of the king of Firgaard, also known as the dragon king. She is an ax-wielding, fierce dragonslayer and has captured almost all the dragons and presented her father with the heads of the slain after each hunt. They call her the Iskari. Her mother has died long ago, but Asha holds on to the stories her mother told her in secret when she was just a little girl. Those same stories no one is allowed to tell anymore and have marked Asha’s body with scars from an incident when she was little. It’s been 50 years since the Severing, since the stories disappeared and fifty years since the dragons stopped breathing fire…except for one! Kozu, the First Dragon.
Jarek is the man that Asha is to be married to, a revered commandant, ruthless and dominant with an eye for beauty. Upon his return from an outpost in Darmoor with Asha’s brother Dax and his fiance, Jarek’s slave becomes witness to something Asha is trying to hide. Not entirely unaware of her dislike for Jarek, the dragon king offers Asha a way out of marriage, if she brings him the head of the last firebreathing dragon. With a land long divided, the dragon king will use this ultimate move to his advantage making him even more powerful and covering his bases in an old secret kept.
More than ever, Asha is determined to kill on the hunt. Without her trusted cousin and sparring partner, Safire or her brother Dax, she slips in and out of the city through corridors and dark places. While in the Rift Mountains, she has visions of ancient stories and feels a connectivity to the past, and while it is difficult to believe at first, it turns out that dragons love stories as well!
When Torwin, Jarek’s slave disappears, she secretly finds him help when he is hurt and despite her hard exterior, lets his honest gestures get to her. On a path of discovery through stories and true friendship, she is unveiling the hard truth of her family's rule of lies, and Dax’s effort to keep memories alive for all.
Through action sequences, dragon encounters and the emergence of unlikely heroes, this story culminates most gripping when all loose ends come together in Asha’s revolt making history for a united future of Firgaard and the surrounding land dominions.
What will be the price she has to pay for it though?
***
This book was so, so good!
Perfect to sink into your couch, get cozy and get lost in or read all night - good. I was pretty much taken by the beauty and intricacies created in the story's tapestry build page upon page with a touch of Eastern fair most exquisitely sublime. It’s that feeling of bliss and excitement you experience when you read a good book that puts a smile on your face unintentionally or speeds up your heart rate while everything else around gets drowned out. THIS is what I love about a good book and it is what I hope for other readers to experience, perhaps with this book right here, just as I did.
Me, couching and blissfully reading!
Fans of YA novels such as The City of Brass by S.A. Chakraborty or The Conqueror’s Saga by Kiersten White, will find their calling in The Last Namsara, ranking up there with the best and an added element of dragons to sweeten the deal. Ciccarelli’s main characters offer interesting backstories with the intent on future use, well thought out and without much foreshadowing. The plot moves swiftly and most engaging with Asha’s spirited will most fierce and brave as the main protagonist, and the development of decency she employs leading the others.
Two characters in this novel I haven’t exposed much of are Dax, Asha’s brother, and Safire, her cousin. Both of them add important dynamics to the plot and how their stories relate and influence Asha. It isn’t immediately clear how it all ties together and I wasn’t trusting Dax all together throughout. Safire’s story will be further explored in book three of the Iskari series, but her loyalty is uncanny. Torwin, the slave, however, captured my heart for his resilience and underdog story. He ultimately creates the change in Asha that’s needed to realize the truth about her father and commit to exposure.
There are so many elements and nuances touched on that I cannot write about simply in a review. They are to be experienced. There’s a depth to the ancient history and the connectivity between the people and the dragons, that I cannot replicate or spoil in a review. I loved the idea of the dragons and stories that call to them and thought it to be a unique tool, making me fall for dragons all over again. I simply adore these creatures.
With a dollop of romance, burning achingly slow, and the revolt of Asha and her people, my heart was satiated and swell by the finality of book one, leaving me like putty and unable to pick up any other book immediately after. If this isn’t a good read, then I don’t know what is.
If you come across this gorgeous book, I highly recommend you give it a try!
Happy Reading :)
I am an avid reader of different genres and value these different genres respectively. I am also a mood reader and switch genres up according to my reading needs/appetite and I respect and value other people’s individual opinions even if they differ from mine. This review reflects my honest and personal opinion about this novel.
I received this novel from WunderkindPR in exchange for an honest review. Thank you so much.
