Il dominio del fuoco (Ember Quartet, #1)

by Sabaa Tahir

C'è stato un tempo in cui la sua terra era ricca di arte e di cultura. Laia non può ricordarsene, eppure ha sentito spesso i racconti su come fosse la vita prima che l'Impero trasformasse il mondo in un luogo grigio e dominato dalla tirannia, dove la scrittura è proibita e in cui una parola di troppo può significare la morte. Laia lo sa fin troppo bene, perché i suoi genitori sono caduti vittima di quel regime oppressivo. Da allora, lei ha imparato a tenere segreto l’amore per i libri, a non protestare, a non lamentarsi. Ma la sua esistenza cambia quando suo fratello Darin viene arrestato con l’accusa di tradimento. Per lui, Laia è disposta a tutto, anche a chiedere aiuto ai ribelli, che le propongono un accordo molto pericoloso: libereranno Darin, se lei diventerà una spia infiltrata nell'Accademia, la scuola in cui vengono formati i guerrieri dell'Impero... Da quattordici anni, Elias non conosce una realtà diversa da quella dell'Accademia. Quattordici anni di addestramento durissimo, durante i quali si è distinto per forza, coraggio e abilità. Elias è la promessa su cui l'Impero ripone le proprie speranze. Tuttavia, più aumenta la fiducia degli ufficiali nei suoi confronti, più lui vacilla, divorato dai dubbi. Vuole davvero diventare l'ingranaggio di un meccanismo spietato e senza scrupoli? Il giorno in cui conoscerà Laila, Elias troverà la risposta. E il suo destino sarà segnato.

• ASIN: B011A2A4WU
• Publish Date: 8 October 2015 (first published 28 April 2015)
• Publish Status: Active
• Format: eBook (Kindle)
• Pages: 414
• Language: Italian

Reviews

[Ele.ments]

4,25 ⭐️

[writehollydavis]

Loved the dual POV, writing style, and prose. The tension, action, and romance were perfect and I'm so excited to continue the series!!

[herseriallife]

Such an amazing fantasy series, you can't never guess the end of this first book and can't wait to read the rest of the series. I'm hooked. Why did it took me so long to read this series!!!

[lessthelonely]

OK... Fine, I think it was time to give a book 5 stars.

I started reading this book in the middle of watching "Damages". The first few pages were interesting enough, but they didn't really grab me much for me not to want to keep watching the third season. But then, at some point in the early pages, stuff just picked up and kept going all the way up!

I believe it was after the ending of Part I? Might be completely wrong. This books understands character, this book understands plot and most importantly, it understands writing! The vivid descriptions of emotion (though, sometimes, the sort of "magical realism" with fantastic creatures seemed too much), the thought process of the characters, their motives... It's all perfectly clear!

To be honest, it wasn't a book that wowed me with plot twists - I was really more enthralled in the characters' dynamics, but I do have a little qualm with this book: the disposable love interests for the main characters. I find no joy in having characters that appear to exist solely to hinder at the main couples inevitable romance. And this isn't an argument from shipping, though I do ship the main couple, but from the fact that it's HEAVILY OBVIOUS what the main ship is. It's in the book's back, though indirectly! Laid out in perfectly understandable terms for whoever reads it.

Outside of that, this is an instant favorite for me. 5 stars. Gotta save up to buy the next one.

[mhintofg]

3.8

[alindstadtcorbeax]

Star Rating: —> 4 Stars

O. M. G.

*squeeeeee* !!!!!!!!

Please excuse me while I continue to freak the f*ck out about why I waited so long to read this, and more importantly, HOW FREAKIN’ INCREDIBLE THIS WAS!

On to A Torch Against The Night! RTC

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

This book is so well-loved. It’s one of the few that my friends who read have strongly recommended to me… friends outside the blogosphere. Here in the book blogging world, An Ember in the Ashes is so beloved and highly suggested. I was sure it was going to have incredible characters and so much adventure and that I was going to love it. I never thought for a moment I would feel otherwise.

I feel otherwise now.

I’m sorry, I’m so, so sorry guys… but I just couldn’t to get into it. I’ve had this book on my TBR for a while, and I’ve had the audiobook on hold through the library for over 6 months. I was really looking forward to it and I came at it with an open heart, so ready to love it. But honestly? It didn’t connect. I was bored. On many different levels.

The writing felt so stiff to me, with a lot of the emotions being stated instead of felt. This bled into every aspect of the book, from the characterization to the action sequences to the setting. It brought the pace down to a crawl and even though I sped up my narration, I still felt like it was dragging. I could only listen to about an hour at a time, because I found myself fading off, bored and indifferent. I’m an avid audiobook listener – this almost never happens to me. I never felt this world come to life, and it’s such a shame.

Maybe if the characters were a little more… I don’t know… alive? Relatable? Round? I would like this more. It felt like something was missing at the core of them, that they were words on a page and nothing more. I stopped caring about Laia shortly after her introduction. Laia had no personality to me – a lot of words about how she couldn’t do something, and then she does it effortlessly. She went through pain, but didn’t suffer for long enough to make it believable. And there’s a few different scenes where someone comes to Laia’s aid and it just didn’t make sense to me – the instant loyalty or the forgiveness.

Elias started with more promise. He had established relationships with those around him and an established place in the world. His backstory stuck to him a little better than Laia’s (not a lot better, though). Furthermore, he had drive and motivation that fit in with his character profile for me. At first. But after a while, Elias began to grate on me – everything he did was gratuitous and his survival in the continuing challenges didn’t make sense. By all rights, Elias should have died several times, I think. Or, at least, had people turn strongly against him. There are a few moments where he is almost likable, where a relationship almost appears with another, but these weren’t strong enough to make me feel the loss in the trials.

And don’t get started with my feelings about the friendship/relationship/something between Elias and Helene. I have issues. Helene started out as a great character, the strongest in the book, and it was just torn asunder to make way for Elias, creating another completely unnecessary and uninteresting romantic arc in a book full of them. I was so disappointed by this choice – I felt like it tore Helene’s character to shreds to make her such a doting puppy.

So… yeah. I have feelings about the characters.

The most basic outline of the plot is interesting. I really liked the idea of the trails, even though I felt like the world building reason for them was super flimsy. Laia’s desire to rescue the only family she had left is admirable, but her character growth arc was too easy and effortless to give the situation as much gravitas as it perhaps deserved. I still want to like the story, but I can’t get past how much I didn’t like it.

And I guess I’m a glutton for punishment because I still intend to read the hardcopy of this book. I have a paperback I got a couple summers ago and I’m determined that my dislike here was just because of the audiobook or the narrators or something. I did find myself getting frustrated with them, particularly the pronunciation of Laia (I kept hearing “liar” and it threw me) and some of Steve West’s pauses in Elias’ narration. Which flabbergasts me, honestly, because I loved his reading of Strange the Dreamer. I’m so befuddled by how little I liked this well-loved book that I’m willing to give it another chance.

This book caught me completely off guard.

[Leah]

So this was fantastic. I’ve been waiting and waiting to read this book because I know it’s a quartet but with book three around the corner, I could hold out no longer.

I loved the writing, I felt like I was properly in the story and I’m really intrigued to see what the rebellions have up their sleeve, if they even come back.

I’m intrigued to see more of Helene, too. Yes, this book is about Elias and Laia, but Helene is such an integral part to Elias’s life, and you could feel just how much they relied on each other.

I absolutely loved Laia - what she goes through in a bid to save her brother was heroic, especially the nasty stuff the Commandant did just for the hell of it or minor infractions.

I cannot wait to read book two, there is tons left to explore in this world and it’ll be interesting to see the aftermath of everything Laia and especially Elias went through because some of those trials were downright sadistic.

[Ashley]

Loved it! I have to admit, the beginning didn't totally grab me. But the last quarter of the book was AMAZEBALLS! It was devastatingly sad but had me totally hooked.