Child of Fire

This is one of those books I might not ever have picked up on my own, but when one of my GR groups decided to read it, I was interested enough to give it a try.

Before I begin: If you have a problem with children being killed (even though they don't feel the pain), you might want to skip this one.

I've got to say, Ray is an amazing character. I like how the author allowed this character to feel like an actual person. A lot of the male characters I read tend to have minimal emotions, especially in fantasy novels. This isn't the case here. Ray has vulnerable moments and isn't always sure of the right answer. I do wish we had more from Annalise because I would have liked to know her better.

This book is super dark and gritty, enough that I think it borders that horror line. There is almost non-stop action, enough that sometimes I did wish it would slow down, but not usually. The thing is I didn't like how he never contacted Annalise or how they worked the case. It just bothered me that things kept happening to him. But, I get that he is the main character... so okay.

My biggest concern is that even though this is marked as book 1, it really isn't the beginning of the series. There is a lot that felt like we should already know the background of what is being referenced even though I had no clue. I kept hoping that Twenty Palaces would be explained, or Annalise and Ray's background, but no... I believe the answers I seek will actually be in the prequel. I still need to read this, so I'm hoping I'll understand more one I do. The information that is given in this book tends to be spread out through the whole thing– not always a bad thing, I don't want an Info dump, but I did feel lost at points and would have preferred clarification up front.

Yet, as I sit here writing this review over a month after I read the book (whoops!) mostly my feelings are really positive and I'm still waiting for my library to get the prequel so I can read it– and I do really want to read it. I'm glad I picked up and read this book.

If you like fantasy with magic and weird creatures, don't mind children exploding into tiny worms (painlessly), and can handle not knowing all the backstory, then you should give this a try.