Book Review: Fire (The Seven Kingdoms #2) by Kristin Cashore

A Fantastic Prequel to Graceling!

Fire (The Seven Kingdoms #2) by Kristin Cashore
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: October 5, 2009
Publisher: Dial
Pages: 480
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Eighteen-year-old Fire lives in a world where she and certain animals and insects are known as "monsters." But they are not monsters in the way we normally associate with that word. They are all gorgeous, particularly in the exotic color of their hair, fur or skin. And the most astoundingly beautiful of all are human monsters like Fire. Fire was named for her most remarkable feature, long, lustrous hair which is predominantly red, but in reality is made up of multiple colors not found among regular humans, such that it is like rainbow-hued flame. The beauty of monsters, human and non-human, serves to entrance human prey. But far more dangerous than their seductive beauty is the ability of monsters to hypnotically sway the minds and hearts of humans. This innate talent is strongest of all in a human monster like Fire, who is able to not only manipulate the emotions of animals and humans, but to shape their thoughts as well, thereby gaining control over them.

Fire inherited this gift from her monster father. He used his magical powers for evil and encouraged her from earliest childhood to do the same. But Fire made a vow to herself long ago that she would never go down her father's dark path, and she's kept that promise ever since. Until the moment arrives when the king and prince of her kingdom desperately need her to help them protect the people of their country from the invasion of an enormously strong enemy army.

I absolutely loved Graceling, even though I normally don't much like sword-and-sorcery type fantasy, because the book is brilliantly done. In fact, I loved it so much, I was initially sorely disappointed to hear that this book is a prequel, not a sequel, to Graceling. But within pages of diving into Fire, I became every bit as enthralled with this story as Graceling.

Fire's personality is completely different than Katsa's, but they have some strong similarities. The main one is that both have magical powers, and each sees herself as an isolated freak in her society. In both books, Cashore also uses flashbacks to give us crucial glimpses of her heroines' formative years and the main influences that shaped their character. In both societies, women have access to birth control that gives them a degree of control over their fate that is not usually associated with pre-pharmaceutical historical eras. In both stories, the heroines have a powerful growth arc across their story, both in their understanding of and ability to use and control their magical powers, and, even more importantly, in their understanding of themselves as fierce young women who will stop at nothing to protect those they love--especially helpless children and animals. In both Fire and Graceling, there is a wonderful romantic subplot. Though the personality of the love interest in Fire is very different than Po in Graceling, he's equally appealing in his own way. Finally, though Fire, like Graceling, is primarily a magic-based "coming of age" story, with all the internal conflict and mental confusion that entails, there is plenty of action and adventure to keep fans of exciting, external conflict happy.

I highly recommend this book not only to teens, but to adults who enjoy fantasy novels with strong characters and excellent, tight plotting. It's a joy to read from start to finish.

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 5

Writing: 5

Action-Adventure Plot: 5

Romantic Subplot: 5


Overall: 5

Book Review: Graceling (The Seven Kingdoms #1) by Kristin Cashore

Excellent debut novel of sword-and-sorcery fantasy

Graceling (The Seven Kingdoms #1) by Kristin Cashore
Reading Level: Young Adult
Release Date: October 1, 2008
Publisher: Harcourt Children's Books
Pages: 471
Source: Library
Reviewed By: Kate McMurry

Eighteen-year-old Katsa is a king's niece in a world where a small percentage of the population of seven different kingdoms have supernatural gifts called Graces. When Gracelings come into their powers in mid-childhood, they become wards of their king. Orphaned Katsa came into her Grace at age eight when she accidentally killed a man who attempted to sexually abuse her. Her uncle, the king, ordered her trained in fighting skills then employed her starting at age ten as his personal one-girl vengeance squad against rebellious subjects. Katsa is emotionally scarred from this horrible work, and at the start of the story she's in the midst of a secret revolt as the creator of the Council, a rescue league she established to save innocent people from the cruelties of her own king and five of the other six kings.

I am personally not a fan of sword-and-sorcery fantasy. I much prefer light, contemporary fantasy and urban fantasy. Mainly because I don't enjoy reading about Medieval times, and throwing in magic to leaven the brew has never helped me overcome that dislike. Until this book.

I unequivocally loved it, primarily because of the romance plot, but also because of Katsa. Her power and how it affects her fascinated me. Inevitably, every young-adult fantasy with a strong romance plot gets compared to Twilight, but speaking as a big fan of the Twilight series, I don't see the similarity. Instead of a romantic pairing of a relatively powerless mortal with an all-powerful immortal, this is a case of two mostly equal partners. Both are magically gifted, and the heroine's magic is definitely stronger than that of her romantic partner.

At the beginning of the story, the heroine Katsa is emotionally isolated. She has business associates, her two sidekicks on the king's gruesome punishment missions, a middle-aged warrior who trained her in fighting skills and a handsome young nobleman who, unknown to Katsa, is in love with her. And she has the companionship of her supportive lady's maid. But none of them are Graced like Katsa and can never understand what it's like to be universally feared and avoided by ordinary people.

Then Katsa connects with the love interest of this book, Prince Po, and romance fans like me get a truly great First Meet. Not only that, their connection is the beginning of two of my favorite romance story lines: "us against the world" (AKA "no one ever understood me the way you do") and "two for the road" (a shared mission/journey). Katsa discovers in Po, for the first time in her life, a kindred spirit and potential equal--and vice versa for Po. He is able to keep up with her in hand-to-hand combat, and Katsa assumes he's a Graced warrior. As they verbally and physically spar with each other, they immediately learn extremely important things about each other: that each has a powerful Grace accompanied with self-control, integrity, and poise under fire.

Po is almost as alienated and isolated because of his Grace as Katsa. In spite of (unlike Katsa) having a loving family who aren't, in general, intimidated by Gracelings, Po has two problems: He's the only Graced one in his family, and his Grace is so particularly off-putting that his mother has urged him to pretend he has an entirely different Grace than he actually has. Because of this burdensome secret, Po feels guilty of dishonesty and believes it will prevent him from every having emotional closeness to anyone. As a result, he's wandered for years from land to land. But in spite of their mutual emotional disconnection from others, both Po and Katsa are what I call Positive Warriors. Negative Warriors employ their strength and skill to unjustly dominate and hurt others. Positive Warriors use their might to defend those weaker than them, and they are some of the most sympathetic protagonists an author can create.

Another aspect of the best romance plots that this book has in spades is that the lovers act as catalysts for important emotional growth in each other. At multiple key turning points in the story, Po does what no one else has ever been able to do for Katsa. He helps her realize that she has the freedom, and responsibility, to choose exactly how she will use her Grace. And at a very key point in the story for Po, Katsa acts as a catalyst for Po, too, helping him make a crucial life-changing choice as well.

I personally think the main romantic conflict separating the two lovers is believable and well motivated, that is, Katsa's refusal to marry or have children. This is not an ordinary woman. Her mission in life is not to nest and nurture. It is to protect and defend. She has no natural ability or desire to learn, engage in or teach domestic skills or to be soft and cuddly. She's never been mothered, or fathered, and she has no concept of how to exist in a marriage or make a family.

I enjoyed very much the clean, crisp writing style of the author. In particular, she avoids the irritating distraction of present tense that more and more YA authors are employing these days. And the book is written in close third rather than first person, which is even more common in YA fiction. Close third has all the advantages of the intimacy and close connection with the protagonist that first-person provides, but it doesn't feel as claustrophobic or make the protagonist sound as narcissistic as first person does.

I am greatly hoping that any sequels that follow this book will be a continuation of the story of Katsa and Po. There is so much more I want to know about their relationship and so many more adventures they could have as they continue the work of the Council together. I'm personally hoping for a revolution spreading through all the kingdoms until every capricious and cruel king is overthrown. And I'd like to see Katsa marry Po!

Heroine: 5

Subcharacters: 5

Fantasy World-Building: 5

Writing: 5

Action-Adventure Plot: 5

Romantic Subplot: 5


Overall: 5