{"id":111,"date":"2002-03-08T16:36:02","date_gmt":"2002-03-08T21:36:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog-test\/?p=111"},"modified":"2002-03-08T16:36:02","modified_gmt":"2002-03-08T21:36:02","slug":"wells_martha_el","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/2002\/03\/wells_martha_el\/","title":{"rendered":"Wells, Martha: Element of Fire, The"},"content":{"rendered":"

<\/a> <\/a> <\/p>\n

Martha Wells’ first book, The Element of Fire<\/cite><\/strong>, was recommended to me a while ago. I’d read a couple of her other books in the meantime, and, at best, was hardly blown away. When I was prowling the library the other day looking for non-sexist books, though, I came across this and remembered I’d been meaning to look at it. Since the jacket copy invoked “the swashbuckling tradition of Steven Brust and Ellen Kushner,” I figured I had to give it a shot.<\/p>\n

The Element of Fire<\/cite> starts with a bang, as a kidnapped sorcerer is rescued from an evil sorcerer’s house by one of our dashing protagonists, and lives up to that opening. If it’s in the tradition of Brust, it’s more Five Hundred Years After<\/cite><\/a> than The Phoenix Guards<\/cite><\/a>, though without the elaborate prose. I have this horrible urge to describe it as “if Emma Bull had crossed Five Hundred Years After<\/cite> with The Serpent’s Egg<\/cite>“—which is an early Caroline Stevermer novel that this reminds me of in some ways, though I may be remembering incorrectly.<\/p>\n

Before a court already well-supplied with intrigue—a weak King and a scheming royal favorite, a strong Dowager Queen and her loyal Captain of the Queen’s Guard—come two puzzles. A mysterious sorcerer with a grudge against a completely different country has apparently decided to start attacking Ile-Rien. And the King’s bastard half-sister, Kade Carrion, has re-appeared; not only does Kade have a decent claim on the throne, but she’s half-fay and the Queen of Air and Darkness, to boot. (As an aside, I now have one option for a use-name if I ever run away to the Border<\/a>—not only does it sound cool, it’s close enough to my present name that I might actually remember to answer to it.)<\/p>\n

This was a terrific book, with everything I look for in a fantasy: well-rounded, fascinating, strong characters; nifty magical bits; lots of desperate acts of derring-do and last-minute escapes; a nasty yet nuanced bad guy—actually, a couple of them—and even a decent romance. It’s a pity that I haven’t found anything else Wells has written this enjoyable.<\/p>\n

(Death of a Necromancer<\/cite><\/a> is set in the same world some time later, but I can’t remember if there’s any connection. There has been a copy in the used bookstore that’s on the way back from my dentist’s; next time I’m there (all too frequent, alas; damn this tooth-grinding), I’ll see if it’s still available.)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Martha Wells’ first book, The Element of Fire, was recommended to me a while ago. I’d read a couple of her other books in the meantime, and, at best, was hardly blown away. When I was prowling the library the other day looking for non-sexist books, though, I came across this and remembered I’d been … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Wells, Martha: Element of Fire, The”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[48,87,15],"tags":[432],"class_list":["post-111","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-books","category-ile-rien","category-sf-and-fantasy","tag-wells-martha"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=111"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/111\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=111"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=111"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/steelypips.org\/weblog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=111"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}