Fire (Graceling Realm, #2)

by Kristin Cashore

A must-read title for all fans of Patrick Rothfuss and Trudi Canavan, FIRE is an exceptional fantasy novel. From the deft characterisation to the gripping story, the fast-paced action to the evocative prose, this is one of the strongest fantasy novels of the year.

Set in a world of stunningly beautiful, exceptionally dangerous monsters, Fire is one of the most dangerous monsters of all - a human one. Marked out by her vivid red hair, she's more than attractive. Fire is mesmerising.

But with this extraordinary beauty comes influence and power. People who are susceptible to her appeal will do anything for her attention, and for her affection. They will turn away from their families, their work, and their duties for her. They will forget their responsibilities to please her ... and worse, crush nations, neglect kingdoms and abuse their power.

Aware of her power, and afraid of it, Fire lives in a corner of the world away from people, and away from temptation. Until the day comes when she is needed - a day when, for her king, she has to take a stand not only against his enemies, but also against herself ...

• ISBN10: 0575085134
• ISBN13: 9780575085138
• Publish Date: 10 June 2010 (first published 24 September 2009)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 7 January 2022
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Format: Paperback (B-Format (198x129 mm))
• Pages: 400
• Language: English

Reviews

Review originally posted at Simply Adrift.

Fire is a companion novel to Graceling, which admittedly I did not know untill after I had read this but once I found out everything made much more sense, like the fact that it is set before Graceling. Whoops. Good one Jordon.

Fire is a very different story to Graceling, it isn’t an adventure story like Graceling is. It’s more politically involved and about the lands of Dell. This story was different and nothing like I had expected after reading Graceling yet it was still very enjoyable and I’m still reeling and how much I loved this book.

The Monsters

Fire is one of the human ‘monsters’ that roam The Dells. The Dells is full of them. The monsters are the forms of any animal yet they have brightly coloured fur and can control the mind, that is if the human is weak minded. They eat human meat so the power to control the minds of others comes in handy when they’re hungry.

Fire’s hair is an unnaturally bright red. It’s the sign of a monster. Her father was monster yet her mother a human. Everyone fears her, and when they see her they either fall completely in love if they’re weak minded or they instantly hate her and want to hurt her, most with the extent of killing her. All of the monsters are attracted to Fire by the power she controls so when they see her bright red hair they immediately attack her.

Fire’s being attracts the weak minded and other monsters but that is not her only power. She can enter and control other people’s minds, unless they they’re strong enough to block her out. And usually they aren’t that strong.

I loved the idea of the monsters. I found them incredibly intriguing yet scary at the same time. Monsters that can control your mind if you’re not strong enough to resist? That’s scary as hell!

The Romance

The romance in this book had my stomach in butterflies. I absolutely love that it took a lot for Fire and Brigan to fall for each other. You knew it would happen, you wanted it to happen yet it just wasn’t happening. Yet. They wouldn’t let it. It was difficult for Fire to let someone in, to trust someone. I just loved the way it built up.

I found myself getting very emotionally attached to this book. By the end of the book I was emotionally all over the place. I really felt what Fire had gone through, it was very touching.

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed this book. It was nothing like what I had expected yet it was very enjoyable on its own.

Fire is a book that pulls you through all sorts of emotions and leaves you feeling like you need more.

I recommend reading this book if you enjoy fantasy!

Always,
Jordon

This review was originally posted on Simply Adrift

[clementine]

I just honestly couldn't find anything wrong with this book at all. Some of the reviews on Goodreads are negative about things that I loved; specifically, I'm reading some critical things about the nature of Fire's relationships, i.e. that she refuses to get married and that she sleeps with more than one person without being married. GASP.

I actually loved that about her, and it's one of the reasons why Cashore's romances don't irk me the way to so many YA romances do. I often feel that they're forced, unbelievable, and condescending, like, "Oh, you're a teenager? Here's a badly-written romance for you! By the way, the guy is this boring, archetypal girl's first love, and they are going to get married." Cashore's, however, don't seem at all like an afterthought, and the female characters are always so in control of their relationships. They don't need a man to complete them; their relationships are on their own terms, and they never compromise.

The relationships in general are really wonderful, not just the romantic ones. Seeing how Fire developed friendships with Hanna, Clara, Garan, Musa, etc was such a joy, because it all seemed completely natural and subtle. I could feel the love they all had for one another.

Fire herself is such a kickass heroine. The tough, badass female character can be really hard to get right, but Fire was the right balance between strong and flawed. I loved her inner turmoil and the slow transformation she went through. She felt so real, so human. She was one of the most realistic characters I've read this year.

I absolutely love Cashore's worldbuilding. Wow, guys. I wanted to live in that world, and I didn't want the book to end, because I didn't want the world to stop existing in my imagination. I think one of the most amazing things is how much of the world is implied. Cashore writes descriptions really beautifully, but she didn't have to spell out every single aspect for me to imagine it vividly.

Man, I feel like I could write about this book forever, but it really boils down to the fact that it was, in my eyes, perfect. I truly couldn't have asked for a better reading experience. I was absolutely charmed by Graceling, but Fire blew that out of the water for me. I would love a sequel, and I never say that.

[Briana @ Pages Unbound]

Kristin Cashore proved with Graceling that she has an incredible talent for giving characters voices. She does not fail readers in Fire, giving the titular character her own voice that sounds nothing like Katsa’s. Furthermore, her worries, talents, mannerisms, and thoughts are also very much distinct. And if readers are in the mood for some more quotable sentences, they are here, too. Fire presents some fascinating musings about the nature of war.

The same creative treatment given to the protagonist is given to the Dells. Though located in the same world as the seven kingdoms of Graceling, the Dells is distinct, but off so thoroughly from the other kingdoms by a mountain range that the people have never heard of the other countries or of Gracelings. Which means, vice versa, that readers have never heard of anything quite like the Dells until now—a world where rainbow monsters stalk, both animal and human. Cashore essentially starts from scratch here, and gives readers a setting just as detailed as her first.

Unfortunately, the entire premise of Fire can be hard to relate to. Literally every person who sees Fire fall immeasurably into love or lust with her. Heterosexual females are insanely jealous. She is just that beautiful. And the monster animals? They all want her, too. One look at the hair that earned her her name, and they all go wild in their desire to kill and possess her. Don’t even ask what happens when Fire is on her period and they can smell her blood.

Fire does her best to reject all this attention and exude a “woe is me” attitude, and, truly, it must be annoying to be stared at whereever you go and have men constantly trying to touch you and propose marriage. But most readers will have experienced nothing like this and will find it difficult to sympathize deeply with Fire. Cashore might have made Fire’s attractive power more effective if she had toned it down. Also, her weariness of being so admired occasionally leaves her to sound a bit whiny. “I’m tired and sad, but I still look beautiful when really I want to look a mess so that my outside reflects my inner turmoil!” The troubles of being gorgeous.

Fire’s (and really everyone’s) acceptance of casual sex is also somewhat concerning. Katsa is almost irrationally against marriage in Graceling, but she appears to see sex as something to be shared with someone she loves. Fire sees sex as a comfort she can get from her friend Archer. Archer sees sex as something to do with every woman he ever comes across. His attitude on this topic can make it hard to like him as much as Fire does and as much as Cashore apparently wants readers to. By the end of the story, readers know far more about who slept with whom than they might have ever wanted to. And, of course, there is the convenient fantasy herbal version of (obviously infallible) birth control. So nice all of this can happen without too many consequences.

On a side note here, Fire spends an awful lot of time thinking about how much she wants babies and being jealous of any woman who does have a child. This would have been fine, except that it often reads like some sort of response to Katsa’s aversion to having children. Cashore’s hand in making Fire different from Katsa is a little too evident here, even though Fire does have some very legitimate and moving reasons for her feelings.

Fire is well-written and fast-paced. The characters are complex and the world is absolutely magic. In many ways, however, it is very different from Graceling. Readers will have to decide which one they like better, or if they like both.

[Kelsenator]

Check out my full review on my blog Kelsey's Cluttered Bookshelf

This is set years before Graceling, and on the other side of the mountains from the first area. There are no people with Graces here, just monsters. The monsters are like normal animals to some extend, but they are rainbow coloured, beautiful and will eat you as soon as they can. Even rarer are the monsters in the form of people, who are too beautiful for most others to handle. Fire is one of these, with bright flame red hair, a beautiful face and the ability to hear and control thoughts.

The description is definitely right in saying you don’t need to have read Graceling to get this one. There is the mention of a certain young boy from the first book, and he does play a small role in this which was pretty cool. The story itself, there was a lot to it! So much kept happening, and changing, and developing, spies and allies and a possible war looming as well as the characters meeting and bonding. I had a hard time putting it down because I wanted to know what was going to happen next.

Fire was a pretty cool character, but just like Katsa, she didn’t want children or to marry. But she did have her reason, of not wanting to pass on the monster genes that were inside of her and have another monster like herself wandering around. Her cruel father is an example of this power gone wrong, and she wanted to prevent that from happening again. She actually does become moody at one point because other women can have children and she won’t, and it was so sad to read.

So although this wasn’t what I expected after reading the first book and I really wasn’t expecting the monsters, it was well written and kept my attention the whole way. I ended up loving Fire’s character and her strength and watching her development into using her powers to help others.

Try out this awesome fantasy series, there’s lots of action, some romance and great characters!

[Amanda]

Original review: http://onabookbender.com/2012/06/18/review-fire-kristin-cashore/

When I finished Fire and began reflecting on the book, I began to draw parallels between it and Graceling. On the surface level, these are very different stories. In many ways, Fire is nothing like Katsa. Fire is a human monster, and though she has a power, it’s not a Grace, and it seems to more trouble than it’s worth. As much as Katsa was feared, Fire is hated as much as she is loved, and with the hatred comes people wanting to see her existence erased. It is certainly not an easy life, but like Katsa, Fire does have a few people in her circle.

Though romance plays a part in Fire (and in Graceling), I would not call it a traditional romance, and it takes a backseat to the rest of the story. I don’t know if I can quite put into words my feelings here, but there is something about the romance that makes it seem non-essential to Fire’s life. It adds to her life rather than completes it. Cashore has created some very strong female leads, and these characters can — and very often do — stand on their own two feet for what they believe in. There were plenty of times where Fire’s love interest was not even in the story. And, as a side note, there were some things in this story (romance/sex wise) that makes me wonder if YA is really the best classification for these books. New Adult might be a better designation?

What I ended up really really REALLY liking about Fire was the underlying message about who we are. We cannot control certain aspects of ourselves. Fire couldn’t change being a human monster. Katsa couldn’t turn off her Grace. Essentially, you have been dealt certain cards in life that you stuck with. But how you choose to use those cards is entirely up to you. Fire and Katsa both spend time afraid of themselves and their power. What if Fire turns into her father? What if Katsa becomes a remorseless killer? Whatever traits or characteristics you have been given in life, they do not define you. You define you. Just as anything can be twisted into something negative, so too can you twist it into something positive.

And, quite frankly, Kristin Cashore just knows how to tell a good story. There is a specific character we learned of in Graceling that plays a role in Fire, and I was definitely very interested by him. The world is very complex, but fascinating and intriguing to the point it makes you want to be there with the characters. Even if you choose not to search out a deeper meaning in Fire, it is an enjoyable book, and I now fully understand why Kristin Cashore has so many loyal fans. And count myself among them.

[zarahoffman]

The wit and well-rounded plot and characters kept me on the edge of my seat throughout the whole book. Fire is possibly one of my favorite strong female character aside from Hermione Granger, Elizabeth Bennet, and Maximum Ride. Fire was brave and at the same time, retained the reality of being young, scared, and trying to find her purpose in the world. Definitely a must read! I absolutely loved this book!

[Linda]

The story had a very slow beginning, but I think it was needed to completely understand this world, the plot, and the important characters in it.

Fire is a very strog female heroine, with high morals, and a huge heart. Leck needed to be explained in the beginning, if not, the later part he played would not have made much sense at all - and his part was big, and it had a lot to do with who Fire is and what she had to do to save the Kingdom of Dell and those she loves.

Brigan, Nash, Clara and Garan, Asher, Rouen and Bocker were all fleshed out characters, and with their good and bad sides, they helped both Fire, themselves and each other towards a better world without war.

The plot was quite compliated, with a lot of enemies, and even some allies who turned out not being allies at all, however, it was well written, with wonderful descriptions of the world, the nature, the monsters and of the characters, I can 'see' in my mind how Dell looks, and it is beautiful in some places, but barren and grey in others.

The ending was bittersweet, but made a lot of sense. I look forward to the next book in this series - although I'm not so sure there will be any sightings of the charcaters from this book.

[elysium]

There are monsters in Dell, beautiful in animal form and humans become dazzled by them. Fire is the last human monster and is much feared and hated. Monsters are drawn to her blood and wants to kill her.
War is coming to Dell and the king needs her talents because she can bend people to her will. Her father was advisor for the previous king and a cruel man so Fire isn’t liked or trusted in the city.

I’m surprised how much I enjoyed this book since I wasn’t huge fan of Graceling and I felt it was way too YA. At first I thought it was just ok but it got better and better towards the end.

I liked Fire who was strong and she was always trying to be the opposite of her father. And I liked how we have flashbacks about their relationship and what happened. The book has great characters and I really liked Brigan and Archer. Fire and Archer were childhood sweethearts but I think that she got over him little too easily. Like she just suddenly thought she had enough.

Since I liked this so much more than the debut book, can’t wait to see what she does with the next one, Looking forward reading it!

[rakesandrogues]

Wow. I enjoyed this so much more than Graceling! I have to say that I loved Fire a lot more than I loved Katsa. The story and characters were so addicting. Even when I stopped to take a break from reading, I found myself compelled to just end my break and pick up where I left off.