A review by nightshade_novels
The Fire Ascending by Chris d'Lacey

3.0

There is no denying that this series is well thought out and created. I never would have expected the direction that it has taken when I picked up a book about a woman, two kids and some real clay dragons. The series has exploded outward into a series of intertwined universes and plotlines. However this does make it hard to follow, especially as there are so many characters, lots of whom are the same but other universe versions of each other. It is especially difficult as I had such a large gap between reading the first five and the last two books in the series.
The ending was much as I guessed it might be;

Spoiler

the whole universe is reset to its original timeline with only a few minor changes. The last chapter is based around eighteen years later an interview with Angel who is a successful actor in the film of the whole series. David has been set up as an author who has written basically the Last Dragon Chronicles. It also gives you an idea about what has happened to the rest of the characters; Liz and Joseph Henry remained dead when the timeline reverted, Bergstrom is an adventurer/scientist, Arthur is a scientist (but viewed as a bit mad), Zanna has a line of natural health and beauty products. This chapter is very interesting but the interviewer is very annoying, constantly making fun of Angel and her family and hitting on Zanna (even though she’s married to David and Angel is her daughter).
It is unclear at the end whether the clay dragons are still real or whether in this timeline they are just Liz’s clay creations. There are a few other unanswered questions, such as the last minute revelation that Bergstrom has a scar in the shape of the dragon symbol for sometimes on his temple.

This series was a very interesting idea, if complicated at times.