Wells, Martha - The Element of Fire

[oyceter]

The country of Ile-Rien is largely run by Dowager Queen Ravenna, as her son Roland hasn't been particularly good at the whole exercise of power thing. Thomas, captain of the Queen's guard, soon finds himself (more) entangled in court politics after the rescue of an imprisoned wizard, and when Roland's half-Fayre half sister Kade shows up, things get even more complicated.

I wanted to like this more than I did, particularly since it has court intrigue, which I love, and a dowager queen, which I also love. Ravenna is awesome, but I found myself somewhat bored by Kade, who feels like a fairly standard heroine. She's introduced as this great threat to the throne and as a trickster, but what we see of her tends to be some verbal trickery and very little surprise. She feels a lot like a McKinley heroine, albeit with less insecurity about her looks.

I'm also sick of the Fayre/Fay/Faerie/Fairy/Sidhe/Seelie/etc. I didn't feel like there was much new about them in the book, and that plus the faux Europe environment really didn't do it for me. I don't think it's the book's fault, but after reading books specifically not set in Europe, a return to faux Europe felt like a step backwards. Also, the intrigue stops near the middle of the book, and a lot of explosions start happening, which I find much less interesting.

Comments

[chomiji]

The follow-on books to this (Death of the Necromancer and the "Fall of Ile Rien" troilogy) are better. But they are Euro-centric.

Also, she's written a very wonderful un-European fantasy, The Wheel of the Infinite, which really doesn't get enough love. The main character is a crabby, temperamental but romantically active older priestess, and the setting vaguely resembles pre-industrial Indo-China - perhaps Cambodia. An excerpt is available at Wells' site.

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

". The main character is a crabby, temperamental but romantically active older priestess,"

With excellent taste in hunky younger men(even if he was way out of his league.)

[chomiji]

tsk! You never told me you'd read this one! I wanna see the results of my successful recs! (And yes, in the same vein, I owe you a blog entry for Twelve Kingdoms ...)

[meganbmoore.livejournal.com]

I included it in that poll about all the books I read!

I think that I liked it(well, I know that part) but had trouble thinking of what to say, and then I was in a bad mood for a while and then...forgot to post on it. *hangs head*

[oyceter]

I may try that one, though I've bounced off another one of her books in the past as well.