Fire Logic
Ratings17
Average rating3.7
DNF - PG 27
Why?
I have tried no less than three times to get involved in this book and I just can't. It's loaded at the front with all sorts of world building and absolutely no characters that I can say ‘I might like them.' The characters I did meet have nothing personality wise to make them stand out - they have no charm, no quirks, nothing to bring them to life. The final straw though was the fact that fifteen years pass at the start of chapter three. (Between the end of chapter two and the start of chapter three, I think, specifically.) Perhaps I was wanting too much because I was really excited for this book, but the characters/writing style just distance me so much from the story being told that I've got no interest in continuing.
** 2019 reread, on a Laurie J. Marks binge. this was utterly captivating and i don't know what i was on about with not being able to get into it – i started reading it at the gym and accidentally did 40+ minutes on the treadmill.deeply emotionally-driven, and its strength is in what's often left unsaid. deals with not just the trauma of war, but racialization and colonization in ways that were lost on me ten years ago. ALSO extremely and unapologetically and delightfully gay, and btw i recently read that Marks realized she was a lesbian at age 29, in the course of writing a novel (which novel, she doesn't say.. maybe this one??). original review follows **
It took me a couple tries to start this one, but once I did, I was hooked. It's nothing like what I was expecting, which I suppose was something like Children of the Triad and something like your typical epic fantasy novel. It's darker and grittier than Children of the Triad (or at least, than I recall that series being).
My one gripe is that it was hard to get a sense of the characters' inner worlds. It took me until halfway through the book to figure out that Zanja herself largely acts (or reacts) on instinct and doesn't understand her own motivations for things.
Tempted to say more, but I can't really beat this review: “Gritty elemental fantasy with a focus on interesting, well-developed female characters who happen to be queer? Sign me up, yo.”
This felt oddly like reading a prequel, even though it was the beginning of the actual story. But throughout it, I couldn't escape this feeling that Marks was trying to set up the story that she actually wanted to tell, and she needed to get the characters and plot into the state that they needed to be. Thankfully, those characters all seem really interesting and well-developed, and it's left me hopeful that the next book will be even better.