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A review by jackiehorne
Mortal Fire by Elizabeth Knox
4.0
3.5 Knox's latest fantasy, set in mid-20th century, on the South Pacific Island of Southland (in a world similar to, but not quite the same as, ours), tells of the momentous summer experienced by uncanny 16-year-old math genius Akensi Mochrie, daughter of wartime hero Sisema Afa and an unknown father. Canny has always felt different from her peers, not only because of her intellect and her darker skin (her mother is a Ma'eu, not one of the white settlers of Southland), but because for as long as she can remember, she's seen fragments of an words from an unrecognized script in the air, words no one else can see. When Canny travels with her stepbrother Sholto, who is researching a famous mining accident for his history professor father, and Sholto's girlfriend, they find themselves in the midst of a strange valley, a valley imbued with the same magic that drives Canny's mysterious words. Why do all the Zarene children have to leave the valley when they reach puberty? Why is seventeen-year-old Ghislain Zarene exiled to a house on a hill, a house that no one is supposed to find? Was it more than accident that took the lives of so many of the Zarene men working in the mine?
This gets off to a slow start; it took me a while to become interested in Canny, and in all the slightly strange things that happen before the trip begins. But once the three traveller arrive in the Zarene valley, the mysteries begin to grow intriguing; you sense that surprising connections are likely to be drawn by what appear to be entirely disparate events. The workings of the magic in this secondary world are not entirely clear, and the love story a bit too understated, but the slowly developing air of menace Knox creates, as well as the uncertainty about just who is wrong, who is right she creates, results in compelling tension and suspense. But this is far more than an adventure story; Knox asks readers to consider what it means to live, and what it means to accept death; the purposes of punishment and retribution; and the ways that anger can turn back upon itself.
This gets off to a slow start; it took me a while to become interested in Canny, and in all the slightly strange things that happen before the trip begins. But once the three traveller arrive in the Zarene valley, the mysteries begin to grow intriguing; you sense that surprising connections are likely to be drawn by what appear to be entirely disparate events. The workings of the magic in this secondary world are not entirely clear, and the love story a bit too understated, but the slowly developing air of menace Knox creates, as well as the uncertainty about just who is wrong, who is right she creates, results in compelling tension and suspense. But this is far more than an adventure story; Knox asks readers to consider what it means to live, and what it means to accept death; the purposes of punishment and retribution; and the ways that anger can turn back upon itself.