kid stuff october 2009

Fire by Kristin Cashore
reviewed by Aaron Stagoff-Belfort

The Dells are in a constant uproar. King Nash tries to hold onto his throne while rebel lords fight him at every turn. Monsters are everywhere. And Fire is the last of her kind, a girl whose appearance takes the breath away of everyone she meets. As if she would need that since she can read minds and manipulate whoever she wants. Except for a young child, who will become the most dangerous villain ever.
Violence is everywhere. When Fire, a young girl living in the Dells, gets shot by an arrow, the first thing she tries to do is read the mind of the shooter. Except its blank. There's nothing to read, almost like he's being controlled by someone else. When the archer is captured and put inside prison, the next day, Fire and her best friend, Archer, find that he has been shot dead. This is just the beginning of a course of events that will change the Dells forever.
Fire is the daughter of a maniacal ruler named Cansrel. Before he died in a tragic suicide, he was the chief advisor to the ruler of the Dells, King Nax. Cansrel was a monster, beautiful and irresistible to everyone, including monster animals who wanted to eat him. Cansrel also had the special ability to read minds. Using this power, he pushed himself to the top of the kingdom and helped throw the Dells into a state of unrest. That unrest is quickly becoming a possible revolt by evil lords from the north and south. No one is safe.
Fire has always longed to go to the capital city of the Dells, where she was born, in hope of finding her long dead mother. Finally, she gets the chance when she is invited to go to the capital to help the King prepare for the war. She is reluctant and doesn't know whether she wants to go or not. But in hope of seeing the capital for the first time, she packs her bags and sets out with Archer on the journey of a lifetime.
On her journey she meets the king's son, a man named Brigan, who is the fierce, chilling and ruthless captain of the army. He hates her at first and decides to accompany her and Archer to the palace. When they get to the palace, madness ensues. Fire has to be careful at every turn because there are murderous spies looking to kill her. Also, she has to decide whether to ally herself with King Nash, another son of former king Nax, or to stay neutral in the dangerous war that is approaching. She better hurry up, though, because the state ball, where rulers from all over the Dells gather and pretend to be friends, is coming up and a disturbing young boy has just arrived in town, who happens to have similar powers as Fire, and a vast, impenetrable mind that not even Fire can comprehend.
Fire was a very solid novel. I give it 8.5 out of 10. Fire, the prequel to Graceling, an award winning debut by author Kristina Cashore, is even better written than the first. The momentum builds up until the end of the book, which is very exciting. At first, Cashore pulls you into a whole different world than Graceling, and describes the setting in picture perfect clarity. You really learn about the characters and feel like you understand them. The character building in this book was certainly the best of all the books I have reviewed. When things happened to the characters I really felt their pain.
The book is very fast paced once you get through the first 20 or 30 percent. Give it a chance, even though it may not be extremely fast paced at the beginning, or a quick read for that matter. It will be intriguing just to watch the story build and when it does take off you will be glad you read it.
Cashore's second book is just as good if not better than the first, and is certainly better written. It is for kids 11 and up, though it isn't really complicated reading, just very long. You won't be disappointed if you read both Fire and Graceling. The third and final installment in the trilogy, Bitterblue, comes out in 2010. I cannot wait. (Ages 12 & up)