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

[rachelmanija.livejournal.com]

I bounce off Wells myself, but if you like her prose but not her setting, City of Bones is sort-of Middle Eastern and Wheel of the Infinite appears to be sort-of India.

[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]

This one very much felt like the first book it was, IMO, and I always try to wave as many painful first-book issues as I can in a first book, but it had a lot. It also catered a lot to my pulpy swashbuckling needs in the second half, so I didn't mind the explosions.

[coraa.livejournal.com]

I'm also sick of the Fayre/Fay/Faerie/Fairy/Sidhe/Seelie/etc.

Oh, me too. That was one of my biggest 'but why?' moments when reading Death of the Necromancer, which I mostly quite enjoyed -- it wasn't just that the f(a)(e)(r)(y|ie) are a bit tiresome by now, they felt sort of unnecessary. Like fantasy setpieces rather than a part of the worldbuilding.

Admittedly, in Death, they played quite a minor role (which probably didn't help the impression).

[sienamystic.livejournal.com]

Element of Fire is one of my comfort reads, and has been for some years now - probably because I'm not sick of the Little People element and I really enjoy a good swashbuckling. I prefer it to the also-excellent Death of the Necromancer, partly because I'm very fond of Kade (hadn't noticed the McKinley-esque comparison, but that works for me) and I love the Dowager Queen with a mighty and abiding love. Wheel of the Infinite is also a ton of fun, and I enjoy City of Bones although I remember being unhappy with the ending.

Actually, Wells is one of those authors I really like a lot but who doesn't seem to get much attention - Kage Baker is another.

[oracne.livejournal.com]

I am a big Wells fan--I read her for character, so the setting doesn't matter much to me. I get similar things from her books that I got from Barbara Hambly's fantasy. I just wish I could identify what those things were.

[(Anonymous)]

You know, when I first skimmed over this post, I read the first paragraph plus "court intrigue" and threw it on my to-add-to-TBR list. I've never heard of Wells, so I'm excited at even the possibility of another fantasy of manners source.