Being a wyvern isn't all it's cracked up to be. Just ask sixteen-year-old Sky Hawkins. Sure, there's a whole cult celebrity following for her kind, and her
were-dragon ancestors flew the skies and changed the course of history when they revealed their existence, but these days the most her kind can manage is to
breathe a little fire and smoke... and Sky can barely do that. She doesn't even get out of going to high school - which wasn't so terrible before her family was
stripped of half their wealth and most of their status by the wyvern Council of Aspen, Colorado after her mother's last failed heist... after which she
disappeared, tearing the heart out of the family. Now shunned, Sky's father won't let her or her brothers steal so much as a nickel from a piggy bank, let alone
pull off the sort of thefts on which wyvern society prides itself; one more failed job could see them permanently cast out from their own kind. Then her former
boyfriend comes to her with information: he knows what Sky's mother was trying to steal when she disappeared, a strange jewel from his family's vaults. If Sky
can finish the heist her mom started, maybe she can have it all back: her family's wealth, the Hawkins honor, her friends, and most importantly her family. She
just has to pull of a job that bested an expert thief like her mother, using nothing but a handful of amateurs and shaky intel... and all without alerting her
father or overprotective brothers.
Review
This is a fast-paced tale of modern-day dragons (if dragons in human form) and jewel thefts, if not an especially deep one. Sky sometimes feels a little
immature for her age; at times, I couldn't help wondering if the tale had been aged up to young adult from an earlier, middle-grade-geared draft, as it went out
of its way to avoid having serious harm come to anyone despite grave threats. The characters feel thin around the edges, too, though they do their jobs in the
story competently enough, from Gabriela the fantasy-obsessed human to Maximus the somewhat shifty wizard, even Sky's trio of brothers who can be either major
pains or major assets, depending on whether or not Sky can persuade them to her cause. Still, the story has some fun with itself, even as it telegraphs twists
and messages and occasionally draws itself out overlong, and the heists themselves are nicely tense. It technically wraps up by the ending, if with (likely
deliberate) series potential packed into the final chapters in a few unresolved threads and themes. All in all, Fire and Heist makes for a quick and
entertaining read, establishing a world I wouldn't mind revisiting - just maybe not at hardcover price next time.
In the land of Renthia, natural spirits move the winds and grow the seeds and keep the waters flowing... and also bring hurricanes and twist the trees
and raise floods and storms and worse. Without a strong queen to keep them in check, the spirits would rid the land of all humans and turn everything to
chaos. But this is not a hereditary calling: any girl, from the lowest outlying villager to the highest courtier, who has an affinity for the spirits -
able to sense them and bend them to their will - may be trained and potentially selected to serve as an heir, to step up when the current queen fades or
falls.
Daeleina, a girl of rustic Graytree, never thought such a fate would be hers... until an attack of rogue spirits utterly destroys her village, and she
alone manages to spare her family with a single, desperate command, telling them to stop.
From service to a lackluster hedgewitch to earning entrance into a prestigious academy at the capital, Daleina struggles to grow her gifts. She knows
she's not strong enough to ever be an heir, but she'll never see another village destroyed as hers was if she can possibly help it. Perhaps, she thinks,
she could aspire to be a guardswoman, or even perhaps a royal champion like the one who came to the remains of Graytree after its fall. But fate is a
strange and sometimes terrible thing, and she finds herself drawn deeper into the world of spirits and the capital, and the machinations of an
increasingly ruthless and desperate queen.
Review
I've read a few titles by Durst, and have yet to be disappointed by her. This story, first in a series, establishes an interesting fantasy world of
wild, unpredictable natural spirits forever torn between urges to create and destroy, and humans who find themselves forever pincered between needing the
life they imbue to the land (without them, crops wouldn't grow and rivers wouldn't run and even fires won't spark) and knowing the spirits share a
seemingly innate hatred of people. Daleina never intended to harbor aspirations to power, until the attack on her village - an attack that turns out to
be less random than it first appeared - revealed her modest gifts. Unlike some stories, she never truly does become the strongest or the fastest or even
necessarily the wisest after the obligatory training period and setbacks; others remain inherently better at summoning and controlling spirits. What she
does have, from the start, is determination, if not to succeed - she never really does see herself as crown material - then to not fail. Her path has
some sidetracks and setbacks, complicated by the queen's increasingly desperate desire to grasp for immortalizing glory beyond her fading skills that
drive her to cross lines that cannot be uncrossed. Side characters have their own journeys and revelations, too, particularly the disgraced champion who
takes a chance on training the middling academy student from the fringes of civilization. The plot moves fairly well, even if the rough sketch of it
isn't vastly different from other tales of small-town girls making their way in a bigger and fantastic world, and it comes to a satisfactory conclusion
that feels earned. I'll have to see if the next book is still available on Overdrive; this is a world I wouldn't mind revisiting at all.
Once, the girl Daleina was the least promising of the candidates training to be an heir of the crown of Aratay, leader of the people and their only defense
against the malevolent nature spirits of the land. Now, after treachery and hardship and loss and much bloodshed, she is Queen... but maybe not for long. When
she begins to show signs of a deadly disease known as the false death, she realizes that she does not have the luxury of waiting years for new candidates and
heirs to be trained up and tested - especially not when Aratay's neighbors to the north, perhaps sensing the new queen's weakness, begin testing their
borders. Daleina orders her royal Champions to find new candidates, girls and women with an affinity for the spirits. Many can be found in the capital's
academies, young and untested... but there are others among the far-flung villages, working as local hedgewitches or even hiding their gifts, lest they draw
unwanted attention from spirits and people alike.
Naelin saw her mother destroyed by spirits, and has vowed never to use her own powers except in direst need, to save her own children. She hasn't even told her
husband of her abilities, which she sees as more curse than gift; he'd just try to find a way to use it to make his life easier and richer. But when he tricks
her into revealing herself - endangering their young daughter and son in the process - it sets in motion a chain of events that will rip her from her cozy home
and quiet life and plunge her into danger and intrigue and possible war.
Review
I enjoyed the first book in this series, a fantasy with strong women and an interesting world with capricious spirits forever torn by their contradictory
urges to create and destroy. I thought I'd enjoy following the series. But this installment has me wondering just how far I want to follow it.
The world remains intriguing, with returning and new characters further fleshing it out. Daleina has been forced past her insecurities, accepting her fate as
the Queen, only to find herself facing a new challenge when the fainting spells of the false death threaten the country; when she's unconscious, the spirits
break free of her will to wreak havok, often deadly havok, on the populace. Naelin is a very different kind of candidate, a grown woman with a husband and
family... and here is where things started to grow shaky. She's a momma bear (to quote the oft-used phrase from the book), entirely devoted to her young
children. She clings to them. She ruffles their hair and hugs them and indulges their antics (I expect I was supposed to find their mere existence endearing,
given how much page time they devoured), and would happily let the rest of the nation and world burn if she could find a cozy little hole of a home to curl up
in with them for eternity. Naelina repeatedly (and tiringly) denies any other priority or need. She is absolutely nothing beyond being a mother, wanting
nothing but to be a mother, demanding to never be anything but a mother with little children to coddle. It's a slow but subtle theme that builds through the
book, that anyone (particularly any woman) who wants anything other than a small picket-fence-equivalent life as house mother is unhappy, suspect, or otherwise
self-deluded. Even Queen Daleina needs a momma bear to protect her, apparently... and she falls into yet another cycle of denial, even if not quite the same
one that ate a little too much time in the previous volume, this time concerning an old rival whom she insists is still actually a friend despite all blatant
evidence to the contrary. How many times must a person be stung before they realize it's not a butterfly they're holding but a hornet? Honestly, I found myself
wishing someone in Renthia would invent baseball just so I could take a bat to the main characters' skulls as they rehashed the same stale and debunked
denials. At some point, the story started feeling stretched, in no small part because people would not just sit down and shut up and accept the obvious to move
the story forward. Nevertheless, things do build to a reasonably satisfying (if not entirely unexpected) conclusion, setting up the third (and presumed final)
installment. I will probably want to see how the story ends eventually, but I'm a little less enthused to return than I was at the start of this volume.
In the desert empire of Becar, death is never the end; one is reborn in a new form, anything from a bug to a person, influenced by the choices one makes
and the life one lives. For the worst of the worst, however, there is only the doom of becoming a kehok, a monster birthed full-grown from the earth and
imbued with rage at its own existence, driven to hunt and kill and destroy. Once a soul has fallen to the level of a kehok, there is no escape, just life
after life as a kehok, eternal torment in bodies that defy nature and minds that can no longer even conceive they were anything but a monster. At least,
there's almost no hope. The people of Becar hunt kehoks, but not simply for defense: they're captured and trained (as much as they can be, with their
inborn bloodlust) for the races that are the high point of the empire's year. The annual grand champion rider earns wealth and fame to last a lifetime,
while the winning racer - thanks to a charm created by the augur priests - is given the chance to break the cycle and be reborn as a human.
Tamra used to be a top kehok rider until a disaster on the track left her too injured to ride. Then she was a top trainer, until an accident left her rider
(and others) dead and herself blamed. Now she gets paid a meager sum to teach the arrogant children of arrogant nobles how to race kehoks, but none of them
will ever be anything but dabblers. They don't really understand what it takes to be a winner, the iron will needed to dominate a kehok's mind and the
bone-deep thirst for victory. They don't even understand the kehoks, that every moment in a monster's presence could be their last in this life if their
focus fails. She hates it, but she has to eat... plus the augur temple needs their money to train her daughter Shalla, who was chosen to join their ranks
due to the purity of her soul; if Tamra can't pay the ever-increasing fees, they'll take the girl away and Tamra won't see her little girl again until she's
a grown woman and a stranger.
After another training incident costs Tamra her students, her eccentric patron gives her one last chance to produce a winning racer. Which is how she winds
up with the black-scaled lion kehok deemed utterly untrainable by everyone else... and the teen girl Raia, a runaway desperate to escape the clutches of
parents who would sell her off to an abuser in order to line their own pockets. It's also how Tamra and Raia found themselves up to their scalps in a plot
that extends to the very heart of Becar, trapped between courtly schemes, hidden corruption, and a foreign army on the march ready to strike the empire as it
teeters on the brink of collapse - all of which seems to connect to this year's races, and to the black lion.
Review
Another audiobook to kill time at work, Race the Sands presents an interesting world, where reincarnation is a real and studied thing. Augur
priests help people make better choices to improve their odds of a better rebirth, and kehoks present a tangible reminder of the stakes. If you think that
would make a people behave better, though, literally seeing monstrous manifestations of their own tortured futures, though, think again. Whether through
rationalization, ignorance, selfishness, or simply not caring (after all, one only rarely retains memories of one's previous life, so it's not like they'll be
plagued by regrets), people end up being just as terrible to each other as they are in our own world, with levels of corruption increasing in proportion to
power and wealth. Durst manages to mostly avoid the expected here, in worldbuilding or characters, even though the rough sketch here is obviously based
countless tales of underdog racehorses (and their riders and trainers and other associates) making good cross-pollinated with the fantasy staple of an empire
facing both internal and external threats as an untested royal struggles to claim the crown he never wanted. The plot moves fairly well, with some nice twists
and a few setbacks and some nicely intense training and racing sequences, all culminating in a powerful climax. Along the way, the characters have to deal with
many personal issues about love and faith and family and loyalty, and how the line between right and wrong, sin and virtue, that seems so clear in theory is
blurred to near nonexistence in the real world. There are a few points where the tale feels a touch drawn out, plus some character clutter (especially characters
who fall off the tale's radar by the end), not to mention a few instances where Raia's insecurities and young Shalla's naive optimism feel forced, but otherwise
this is a solid story, with a premise and characters and world that could almost support a sequel.
Long ago, a stonemason left the great city of Skye and carved a new family high on the tallest mountain of the land: birds and fish and rabbits and more, and one
stone girl named Mayka. He brought them to life with stories chiseled onto their bodies, tales of love and adventure and bravery and more... but, in the years since
their beloved Father passed in the way of all flesh-and-blood beings, their story marks have faded. When they are gone, the stone animals will become ordinary rock,
as the plodding old Turtle has already done. To save her family and herself, Mayka sets out for Skye, to find a new stonemason to refresh their marks - but real
adventures aren't like the stories Father used to tell them, and the city is bigger and more dangerous than she could've imagined, especially when she makes a
discovery that could change the relationship between humans and stone creations forever.
Review
This imaginative tale explores the power of stories - not just the kind people tell to children or to pass time, but the stories we tell ourselves about who we are
and what we might become, not to mention how we often let other people decide our stories for us. Mayka's story started her life, but she has grown to become more, as
have the animals in her "family" on the mountain. Down in the valley and the city, she discovers that not everyone values stories, or stone creations. Her search for a
stonemason leads to the heart of Skye and into the story of why Father left the city so long ago, a history that ties into the lives of the people (living and stone,
human and animal) she encounters along the way. Her sidekicks - the stone birds Jacklo and Risa from the mountain, and later the carved dragon Si-Si and others - all
pull their weight even as they add elements of fun. The whole makes for a wonderful tale, full of charming details and memorable characters, with a timeless feel and
a satisfying conclusion. It was just the escape I needed.
