Fire

By: Kristin Cashore
Grade: B+
Genre: YA Fantasy/Romance

This fantasy tale of power, romance, betrayal and deception is set in the kingdom of the Dells. Here there be dragons -- and other monster, monsters of incandescent beauty, monsters who can slither into the mind, controlling it, and mesmerize the senses, dulling them till they ignore the danger before them. Fire is one such monster --the only living human monster. She is so beautiful men and women both can not help but lust after her. So powerful she can grasp your mind and make it her own at will. Deadly. And hungry, always hungering after the flesh of other monsters.

She lives in a dangerous time for the kingdom. Memories of the former King and his adviser Cansrel, another human monster, haunt the people. Their excesses, their sadistic cruelties set the stage for the civil unrest that has King Nash now sitting uneasily on his throne. As our story begins Fire is in the woods of her own demesne, far outside the seats of power, when an accident forces her to the Queen's court. It is there that she learns just how close to the precipice of civil war the kingdom dangles. And she meets the people who will be her future -- or her end.

This is a sophomore effort for Cashore and much more smoothly written than "Graceling". Here the plot fits together effortlessly, the fantastical elements blending seamlessly with the more mundane elements of "non-magic". I love the way Cashore uses both the "magically" gifted humans and the regular humans to make up her heroes. I love fantastical creatures but dislike when those without power are shoved into the background, unable to do anything but scurry around hoping for protectors. Here the clever, the strong, and the talented all work together with the magical and gifted.

I liked the character of Fire. She wasn't a favorite heroine for me but she was honorable and compassionate and I essentially liked her. If I have a complaint with the book it is that she and Briggen and Nash and the Queen and Archer and all the good guy supporting cast are from the basic mold of "hero". There is nothing deep in their character to make them unique, no little spark that takes them from character to person. It is that tiny spark that takes a book from good to brilliant and I have high hopes that as Cashore continues to improve this will someday be coming from her.

My second minor complaint was the complex and completely unnecessary paternity games played. It is hard to explain without giving away plot points but as you read the book you will find for yourself that characters turn out to be related to unexpected people (or perhaps unnecessary people would be a better phrase?) and I wasn't sure what Cashore was doing with that. Because it stuck out to me like a sore thumb I figured she was either using it to create some sort of moral point or to show how humans could all get along if we so choose. Uhm, duh? The very thing that makes heroes human is the struggle it often is to choose right over wrong, there is nothing worse than a smug author assuring us we should choose it and gee, it's easy and for the best. Whatever. That small thread in the story didn't belong and was like an annoying flaw in your sweater. At first you barely see it, then you obsess over it so much you can't even wear the darn thing. A small mark against an otherwise solid read.

Tea: How about some coffee with this one? It just struck me as a coffee book, even though tea drinking occurred throughout. I picture Steep and Brew's "Icing on the Cake" around a good campfire.