ISBN-13: 9780803734616. Hardcover, $17.99
Annotation:
In the kingdom of the Dells, King Nash struggles to maintain control of the kingdom he inherited from his father. Where his father, King Nash ruled for years in a reign of terror, mercilessly enforced by his monster advisor who had the ability to control the minds of his subjects, King Nash wishes to rule his kingdom with less force. However, the monster advisor of the king had one child, Fire, a daughter, who also has the power to rule the minds of his subjects. Fire refuses to use her power to coerce people to do the bidding of others.
As the power struggle for control of the Dells intensifies, Fire finds herself drawn into the middle of all factions, asked to use her powers for the good of the kingdom.
Book Talk:
Fire is the daughter of Cansrel, the advisor to King Nash. Cansrel was a monster/human crossover. Beautiful and compelling, monsters are able to draw people in with their beauty and control their minds to do their own bidding. Cansrel used this power to enable King Nax to keep an iron control over his kingdom. When fear of Cansrel was not enough to control the populace, the very real pain inflicted by Cansrel was the persuasion used to convince everyone to "go along" with whatever the King wanted.
Although Fire's mother was human, she is a monster because of her father's blood. She too has her father's beauty, and his ability to control minds. She is the last human/monster hybrid in the kingdom.
As the story begins, King Nax and Cansrel have died, and King Nash has taken his father's place on the throne. Unable to control the minds of his people, Nash strives to rule them with their hearts. An uneasy peace has descended onto the Dells.
With dangerous neighbors surrounding him on all sides, Nash turns to Fire for help. He desperately needs her mental abilities. He needs to find out who his enemies are, what they want to do, and when they plan on doing those things. There is just one problem. Fire refuses to become the mind-controlling monster that her father was. She will never use her powers to force people to do something against their will.
Fire is pursuaded to come to the Royal City by Brigan, Nash's brother. As Fire spends time with Brigan, and in the court with the Royal Family, she begins to see where her powers would be helpful.
Will Fire agree to help the kingdom in this time of great turbulence? Will she succumb to the lure of power? And is it possible that her power is even more powerful than she had ever thought?
Author Web Site:
Kristin Cashore
Reviewer's Notes:
Fire is a companion novel to the book Graceling. Fire is set in the kingdom to the East of the mountains from the Seven Kingdoms in Graceling. The action in Fire takes place about 20-ish years before Graceling.
I found a very cool video promoting Fire on Amazon. I'm not sure I can load it onto this page without taking up too much bandwidth, but you can link to it here: Fire Video. You'll have to scroll down the page, it's just past the "big" sales information, and before the professional book reviews. Enjoy!
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