Fire by Kristin Cashore (Or, Why Advance Reading Copies Rock My Freakin' World)
I'm back from the wilds of a small Gulf Island, strangely tanned (haven't had one in... about five or six years), exhausted after much paddling and swimming, and entirely content, except for the minor detail of being nauseatingly hungry and with an empty refrigerator.
But I am happy, because I finished the ARC of Fire today in a mad-dash attempt to read it before having to pass it off to someone else. Before you click on the cut to read my review, I shall tell you three things:
1) Kristin Cashore's first novel, Graceling was one of the best books I read last year. One of my favourite fantasy novels ever, period. I was so in love with it when I was reading it, that I somehow managed to balance holding it and my umbrella, so I could read it while I walked in the rain. If you haven't read it yet, here are several reasons why you should. And here are my thoughts on it.
2) These are books with intelligent, active heroines who don't always make the right decisions, but they at least do things. If that isn't your thing, don't read them and maybe contemplate therapy.
3) I'll try to be unspoilery, especially since Fire hasn't actually been released yet, but some things may slip through my faulty attention span. Click at your own risk!
It was a relief to find that this book was just as strong as-if not stronger than- Graceling, particularly since I'm reading Melissa Marr's Fragile Eternity right now and feeling deeply disappointed. I loved Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange, but the plotting and the characters have fallen flat. (I'll probably go further into it when I've finished.) So, serious kudos to Ms Cashore for staying awesome. It was lovely to toss Fragile Eternity aside in favour of Fire.
It's easy to tell what Cashore is interested in from her first two novels: the costs and limitations of extraordinary (especially monstrous) powers. Unlike Katsa, who is graced for killing, Fire is what the people of the Dells call a monster: an intensely beautiful and colourful version of her species (in this case, human) with the ability to read and control the minds of others. In many ways, Fire's attempts to come to terms with her powers (inherited from her father, who used his in horrifying ways) is similar to Katsa's, but most of the similarities end there. While Katsa's grace drives people away from her, Fire's draw people nearer, often in unpredictable and violent ways.
Terrified as she is of her magic, Fire is a much more well-adjusted character than Katsa is at the beginning of the novel. She has her sort of adopted father; her childhood friend and sometimes lover, Archer; and the knowledge that her father did love her. (All with the added benefit of not being used as a killing machine.) Still, she comes to the decision early on that she doesn't want to risk creating another monster like her father by having children, in spite of her maternal inclinations.
The other major (good) players in the novel are all brilliant in their own ways. Cashore does a wonderful job of using them to parallel each other without hitting the reader over the head with their similarities and differences. From the king's attempts to overcome his powerful reactions to Fire, to Hanna's fierce defence of her family that leads to minor brawls among the other children, they are all fascinating, funny, and heartbreaking in turns.
I don't normally like prequels, because I usually want to know what happens next, but the way Cashore has written this works. The Dells are set apart from the seven kingdoms in Graceling, and there is only one character present in both. It weaves previously unknown elements of Leck's past into an otherwise separate story-it's wonderful to not know how a prequel will end. The overlap in thematic elements with Graceling was an effective way to tie the two novels together without being repetitive.
Fire comes out in October. Buy it, read it, love it. Which reminds me, I need to get my own copy of Graceling before it comes out in paperback.
But I am happy, because I finished the ARC of Fire today in a mad-dash attempt to read it before having to pass it off to someone else. Before you click on the cut to read my review, I shall tell you three things:
1) Kristin Cashore's first novel, Graceling was one of the best books I read last year. One of my favourite fantasy novels ever, period. I was so in love with it when I was reading it, that I somehow managed to balance holding it and my umbrella, so I could read it while I walked in the rain. If you haven't read it yet, here are several reasons why you should. And here are my thoughts on it.
2) These are books with intelligent, active heroines who don't always make the right decisions, but they at least do things. If that isn't your thing, don't read them and maybe contemplate therapy.
3) I'll try to be unspoilery, especially since Fire hasn't actually been released yet, but some things may slip through my faulty attention span. Click at your own risk!
It was a relief to find that this book was just as strong as-if not stronger than- Graceling, particularly since I'm reading Melissa Marr's Fragile Eternity right now and feeling deeply disappointed. I loved Wicked Lovely and Ink Exchange, but the plotting and the characters have fallen flat. (I'll probably go further into it when I've finished.) So, serious kudos to Ms Cashore for staying awesome. It was lovely to toss Fragile Eternity aside in favour of Fire.
It's easy to tell what Cashore is interested in from her first two novels: the costs and limitations of extraordinary (especially monstrous) powers. Unlike Katsa, who is graced for killing, Fire is what the people of the Dells call a monster: an intensely beautiful and colourful version of her species (in this case, human) with the ability to read and control the minds of others. In many ways, Fire's attempts to come to terms with her powers (inherited from her father, who used his in horrifying ways) is similar to Katsa's, but most of the similarities end there. While Katsa's grace drives people away from her, Fire's draw people nearer, often in unpredictable and violent ways.
Terrified as she is of her magic, Fire is a much more well-adjusted character than Katsa is at the beginning of the novel. She has her sort of adopted father; her childhood friend and sometimes lover, Archer; and the knowledge that her father did love her. (All with the added benefit of not being used as a killing machine.) Still, she comes to the decision early on that she doesn't want to risk creating another monster like her father by having children, in spite of her maternal inclinations.
The other major (good) players in the novel are all brilliant in their own ways. Cashore does a wonderful job of using them to parallel each other without hitting the reader over the head with their similarities and differences. From the king's attempts to overcome his powerful reactions to Fire, to Hanna's fierce defence of her family that leads to minor brawls among the other children, they are all fascinating, funny, and heartbreaking in turns.
I don't normally like prequels, because I usually want to know what happens next, but the way Cashore has written this works. The Dells are set apart from the seven kingdoms in Graceling, and there is only one character present in both. It weaves previously unknown elements of Leck's past into an otherwise separate story-it's wonderful to not know how a prequel will end. The overlap in thematic elements with Graceling was an effective way to tie the two novels together without being repetitive.
Fire comes out in October. Buy it, read it, love it. Which reminds me, I need to get my own copy of Graceling before it comes out in paperback.