Fire, Kristin Cashore

From the prologue: Larch often thought that if it had not been for his newborn son, he never would have survived his wife Mikra's death. It was half that the infant boy needed a breathing, functioning father who got out of bed in the mornings and slogged through the day; and it was half the child himself. Such a good-natured baby, so calm. His gurgles and coos so musical, and his eyes deep brown like the eyes of his dead mother. 

Fire is Kristin Cashore's second book, but it is set thirty-five years before Graceling. Fire is set in the Dells, a land over the mountains from Monsea. It is mentioned briefly in Graceling, and this is because King Leck told tales of the Dells to the people of Monsea. And that is because Leck had visited Monsea. And he is the baby in the opening paragraph of the prologue. He is the only character from Graceling also in Fire. But the main character is Fire herself a "monster", a beautiful human with the ability to get inside people's minds and control them (there are also animal monsters too.) There is turmoil in the Dells: King Nash's father and Fire's father ruined the kingdom. Chaos reigns. And then Fire meets Prince Brigan, the younger brother of Nash. She can't get inside his mind, and is somehow drawn to him. It gets complicated.

Anyway, I wouldn't say I liked Fire as much as Graceling, but I still loved it a lot, in its own way. It was nice to read about another world over the mountains from the seven kingdoms. But I thought it was kind of strange that they hadn't had much contact before; surely at least someone from one of the kingdoms would  want to explore over the mountains? But that's really irrelevant to this story. I liked Fire and Brigan a lot, but certainly not as much as Katsa and Po. Fire was an entertaining read, and I would recommend to anyone who loved or liked Graceling, and wants more Kristin Cashore. It really was a good book, gripping, and just as suspenseful as Graceling. So I'm not sure why exactly I liked a bit less. Probably the characters. But it's still a 5 star for me...

Read Fire:

• if you like fantasy
• if you liked Graceling

461 pages.

 

Outstanding Book That Will Stay On My Bookshelf For Rereading (jf I own it)!