Book Review: Children of Fire by Drew Karpyshyn

Children of Fire by Drew Karpyshyn

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Publisher: Del Rey

Date of Publication: August 27, 2013

Author Info: www.drewkarpyshyn.com

With thanks to NetGalley and Del Rey Books for the opportunity to read an advanced copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Four unique children are born under a portent omen, each touched by Chaos in some way. Initially, the story moves through the lives of all four, leaping through time as they grow and deal with varied situations that shape them towards their destiny. Their paths cross in various ways until they reach adulthood and then dark forces are unleashed...

I've played the Bioware games Karpyshyn has been heavily involved in as a writer and I have read one of his Star Wars books, as well as his Mass Effect books. With those, I found that his writing was not as strong as the ideas and characters behind it and concluded that Karpyshyn works best when his ideas and characters can be visually brought to life. Perhaps he'd do a better job with the comic book stories.

However, Children of Fire is Karpyshyn's first novel of his own creation, and I'm always curious to see what a creator can do when freed from the constraints of an established franchise. So far, I'm very pleased. I don't feel this book is a strong entry into the epic fantasy genre, however, it has a lot of potential.

Actually, considering how I feel about epic fantasy classics like Eye of the World, Children of Fire is very good. The characters are strong, unique and memorable, and there's little time wasted on too much exposition. I was worried at first, with the format of travelling through the children's lives as they aged, but Karpyshyn did a good job of telling only what was needed at each given point in their lives.

There are some typical fantasy tropes used, such as talismans, chosen ones, dark lords, fellowships and seemingly evil ruling bodies. I liked the latter two items though, because they did not quite follow the conventional 'rules.' When the four children cross paths, their interaction is not predictable, and the Order, who seeks out people who wield Chaos magic, does so for a good reason.

I did enjoy the magical aspect of the story. There is a lot of lore behind it and varying opinions on those with magical abilities, but I liked that Karpyshyn doesn't use the magic as a crutch to easily get his characters out of situations. In fact, the moments when magic is used serves to advance the plot and develop the characters themselves.

3.5 of 5 stars

Book Review: Children of Fire by Drew Karpyshyn

Children of Fire by Drew Karpyshyn

Genre: Epic Fantasy

Series: Book 1 (so far)

Publisher: Del Rey

Expected Date of Publication: August 27, 2013 

Author Information: Website | Twitter


I'd looked forward to this novel for a long time, ever since last year when Drew Karpyshyn announced he was leaving BioWare to focus on his own original book project. Having very much enjoyed his work in video games in the past, including the novels that spawned out of the Mass Effect and Star Wars: The Old Republic universes, I was disappointed to see him go but was also very curious as to what he was working on. 

Turned out, it was Children of Fire, the first book of his idea for a new epic fantasy series, and it sounded something he'd been cooking in his head for long time. After years of reading his Star Wars and video game tie-in novels, I was very interested in seeing what Drew can do with his very own story and characters. My thanks to the publisher and NetGalley for providing me with this e-ARC.

About the book:
 
Long ago, a great warrior called Daemron was was chosen by the gods to lead the war against the Chaos spawn. He was given three magical talismans to aid him in the fight -- a crown, a ring, and a sword. Daemron, however, grew corrupted with their power and ended up turning against the gods.  The savior of the world instead became its destroyer. 

Daemron was thwarted in the end, banished to a plane beyond the Chaos Sea, sealed behind barrier called the Legacy. A religious cabal called The Order have been tasked to maintain this magical shield, protecting the world from the Chaos and its minions. The three magical talismans were hidden away or lost.

Now the Legacy weakens, and Daemron grows strong enough to cast his essence into the world. Across the land, four Chaos-touched children are born beneath a blood red moon, each embodying an aspect of Daemron himself. Though Keegan, Scythe, Vaaler, and Cassandra grow up in different places with different lives, their fates are intertwined -- but whether it is their destiny to restore the Legacy or unleash the destroyer upon the world is yet unknown.

My thoughts:

I loved lots of things about this book, and on the top of that list was the sweeping, overarching feel of the story. The introduction including the details surrounding the four children's origins was in my opinion the best part of the book. While all born of "suffering and strife", the background and circumstances of each child were nonetheless unique and interesting.

The character development continues as we follow the four children, and we get glimpses into the major events of their lives as they grow up. But as we edged closer towards the present and more and more talk of fate and destiny crept into the picture, that's when I hit a wall. I still enjoyed the story very much, but at this point everything began to feel a lot more run-of-the-mill and typical.  

It is possible that I am just a bit more critical of the fantasy I read these days, especially if they come with the description of "innovative epic fantasy", but I admit I expected a lot more from the characters and plot. Both bordered on the cut-and-dried and formulaic after while, which I felt was the main thing holding back the story. I know the concept of the Big-Damn-Hero-destined-to-save-the-world is one that's tried and true, but it's very in-your-face here and nowadays I crave a lot more out of my fantasy reads.

And maybe I'm just still not used to seeing the author's writing outside of media adaptations, but while I love his "pulpy" style in Star Wars and game tie-in books, here it kind of feels out of place for the kind of story he wants to tell. I thought that more focus could have been placed on the setting and supporting characters too, to give the story as a whole more of an "epic" vibe, because I didn't feel like I was getting enough of history and identity from this original world he's establishing from scratch. The Danaan people and their cities come to mind, for example.

I also think some of the points I brought up above could do with the pacing. I think Drew Karpyshyn did a fantastic job presenting to us his main characters, considering there are four of them and that's quite a few different perspectives to follow. Keegan gets the bulk of the attention, though, and I wished we could have seen more of of the others at different ages because it feels like a couple of them disappear for a long stretches at a time. When they resurface, sometimes years afterward, I don't feel like I know them enough anymore to know if it only seems like dialogue feels forced, or if they are actually acting out of character.

Overall, this ended up being more of a fun read than a truly epic read, and became a lot better once I shifted my expectations accordingly. It felt like the book could have benefited from a little more structural editing to address pacing issues and plot and character development, but it was a great introduction to a brand new world of magic and fantasy lore. I'm a big fan of Drew Karpyshyn, and I'm glad he finally got the chance to bring his own ideas to life and share it with his readers.

Final verdict:

3 of 5 stars

Cover Lover: Children of Fire

Welcome to Cover Lover, a feature on this blog dedicated to book covers! For a long time, I'd wanted a place where I can share some of my favorite covers, or talk about any that might have caught my eye. So when I came across this idea on fellow gamer/book lover Angelya's site The Oaken Bookcase, I jumped at the opportunity to adopt it as well. The "meme" was originally created by another friend of mine, Jaedia, on her book blog Once Upon A Time, so be sure to check out both their sites and take a look at some of the covers they have featured.

This afternoon, I came home to an email from fellow blog contributor Wendy, who linked me to British cover art of Drew Karpyshyn's upcoming epic fantasy Children of Fire, as it appears Amazon UK had just put it up.

OH MY FREAKING GOD:

 

Yeah, so much cooler than the US cover:

Normally, I find UK covers are often more subdued, with less colors, are darker and less flashy, etc. In the case of Children of Fire, the UK version may feature the same color scheme, but totally blows the US version out of the water. As Wendy pointed out, the UK cover is majestic and really sets a tone. It makes you go, now that's a book I want to read.

Cover Reveal: Children of Fire by Drew Karpyshyn

The cover to Drew Karpyshyn's new book, Children of Fire has been revealed! Read an excerpt from the former BioWare writer's original fantasy epic before its August 27th release date: 

CHILDREN OF FIRE by Drew Karpyshyn, Excerpt 

by Random House Publishing Group.