Book Review: Fire

Fire by Kristin Cashore

My rating: 4 of 5 stars
I really enjoyed this book, although I have to say that the ending was a letdown for me. Cashore had such a good thing going, but then it all started to unravel at the end instead of coming together. Events seemed to pop up and be resolved at random, and other complications appeared out of nowhere. It could have easily been a five star book for me, but . . . you need to nail those endings. Sort of like how no matter what, Lost (the TV show) will be a four out of five star show for me. But if it nails this last season, it’ll be a five. If it whimpers, it’s still earned its way to a four.

Anyway–for those of you who don’t know, Fire is a pseudo-sequel to Cashore’s earlier book, Graceling. It follows none of the characters, and ditches the magic system for the most part. Part of me wonders why they called it a sequel at all (apart from marketing reasons), but I’m thinking she might be setting up a third book that’ll fuse the two together more. We’ll see. This one tells the story of a girl who can read minds and force others to do her will–but she’s terrified of doing this, because her father (who also had the talent) used it for evil. Add some romance, a hefty dose of intrigue and war (with few real action scenes, however), and a couple of random side plots, and you have the book.

If the ending had been better, I would have liked it more than Graceling. As it is . . . still a good read.

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