Fire, by Kristen Cashore, has proven to be much more alluring than its prequel, Graceling. With nonstop action, complex royal relationships and familial ties, and just the right amount of violence and romance, this novel was much more compelling than its predecessor. The two novels were not exactly related, since the entire cast of characters was different, and neither book makes reference to the other. However, both had “gracelings,” which are people “graced” with an extraordinary power, ranging from the grace to kill, control any living mind, survival, to the grace for musical talent, or arithmetic capabilities, or having no need to sleep, to useless graces such as the ability to eat rocks or to turn oneself a full 360 degree turn at the waist.
Fire was a monster-or more of a monster hybrid, for her father was a full monster and her mother was a human. Monsters were known for their stunning beauty and flawless characteristics, savage viciousness, and mental acuteness, and Fire was no exception, save the “savage viciousness.” She had the grace of controlling people’s minds and intentions, which saved her life in quite a few situations. Fire then travels to Queen Roen (of the Dells) and her kingdom, and she becomes involved in an intricate plot to kill her kingdom’s enemies. She successfully managed to lure two of the enemies into a room and had her companion and prince Brigand kill them, but a sudden scuffle and poison sleep arrow led to the capture of Fire. She soon meets a boy whose eyes are different colors, the mark of a graceling. He too had the ability to contort the minds of people, but because of Fire’s superior power, she was able to discover that her lifelong lover and friend Archer was brutishly murdered and disposed of in the boy’s horse stables.
Thrown in despair, Fire meets the boy named Leck once more, and is Leck raises his bow and arrow to finish Fire, her trusty horse reels and kicks Leck in the face (haha!), and Leck falls into a crack in the mountain (a rather sudden turn of events, I know). Fire wanders about aimlessly, blinded by her despair, and catches frostbite until she is rescued by her former guards. She returns back to her land and mourns the death of Archer while recuperating her hands (frostbite-ridden) and her soul by healing the dying soldiers from the recent war. At Archer’s funeral, she plays a song on her violin (with only two fingers and a thumb on her left hand, for the other two were dead from frostbite) and released her sadness for the dead and the living.
Needless to say, this book was much more than I expected. I have heard very poor reviews on this book after Graceling, which I believe does not do this book justice. I would give this book four out of five flames, simply because there was a lot of unnecessary dwelling on certain somber parts of the book. A highly recommended read (since I didn’t uncover ALL the events, there are certainly many more surprises)!
