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A review by futurememory
Fire Logic by Laurie J. Marks
2.0
It's done, and boy, do I have thoughts.
Let's talk about what Fire Logic does that's pretty great, because there's a lot of it. Marks puts together a society where gender, sexuality, and personal identity are unimportant. Women and men rule equally, no sex is better than the other, no sexual preference is the default. Discrimination along these lines simply doesn't exist in Shaftal, and that alone is startlingly refreshing.
I also enjoyed the sense of community in the novel, and the creative take on elemental affinities and powers. The writing is pretty utilitarian, but very adequate, and does a fairly decent job of conveying all the relevant information to the reader.
To get to the negatives: the middle of the novel dragged far too much, and could have probably been cut in half. There were several points that I felt like putting down the novel and walking away from it. I'm no stranger to slow-moving novels. I actually enjoy them quite frequently. But this was glacial. The world building was frustratingly slow. The characters were a bit too flat, written with not enough of a spark. I found myself not caring for their exhaustive plights and tribulations.
There's also a tremendous amount of instalove here. Like, a lot. Most of the characters. It's a trope that I really don't like, and it cheapens realistic feelings and emotions between the people involved.
I'm not against reading the next book in the series, but it probably won't be for a while.
Let's talk about what Fire Logic does that's pretty great, because there's a lot of it. Marks puts together a society where gender, sexuality, and personal identity are unimportant. Women and men rule equally, no sex is better than the other, no sexual preference is the default. Discrimination along these lines simply doesn't exist in Shaftal, and that alone is startlingly refreshing.
I also enjoyed the sense of community in the novel, and the creative take on elemental affinities and powers. The writing is pretty utilitarian, but very adequate, and does a fairly decent job of conveying all the relevant information to the reader.
To get to the negatives: the middle of the novel dragged far too much, and could have probably been cut in half. There were several points that I felt like putting down the novel and walking away from it. I'm no stranger to slow-moving novels. I actually enjoy them quite frequently. But this was glacial. The world building was frustratingly slow. The characters were a bit too flat, written with not enough of a spark. I found myself not caring for their exhaustive plights and tribulations.
There's also a tremendous amount of instalove here. Like, a lot. Most of the characters. It's a trope that I really don't like, and it cheapens realistic feelings and emotions between the people involved.
I'm not against reading the next book in the series, but it probably won't be for a while.