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Wednesday, January 21, 2015

Book Review: The Fire Seer (Coalition Of Mages #1) by Amy Raby

The Fire Seer (Coalition Of Mages #1)
by Amy Raby

266 pages
Published August 25th 2014
Taya has risen from humble roots to become a fire seer in the Coalition of Mages. Eager to prove herself, she arrives in the town of Hrappa to locate a “jackal” - a mage operating outside the Coalition’s authority - who has murdered three people.

But in Hrappa, she discovers that the man assigned to be her bodyguard is Mandir, her nemesis from years ago. When she and Mandir were students, he bullied her so severely he was sentenced to a year of penance and moved to another temple.

When Mandir sees that he’s been partnered with Taya, all his old torment comes rushing back. He’s had a crush on Taya since the day they began their training, but he pushed her away, ashamed of his attraction to someone so far beneath his social class. He regrets that now and intends to make an honest attempt to win her heart - if she can forgive him for his past sins.

But first they must find the murderous jackal, before the jackal finds them.


"Magical Henchmen or Empowered Saviors?"

Two magically empowered leading characters enter a mission to find a "jackal" (outlaw) in what seems to be a caste system society. The setting of this book lends the reader their own interpretation of time and place of the story. Imagine a far past time of ruling classes and serving classes or a future society that has embraced a similar caste system.

The book combines mystery, intrigue and moral issues with a smattering of romance thrown in for good measure. In the beginning our leading characters seem to be called in by the city magistrate to help solve the problem of a dangerous magical outlaw that has committed 3 murders (hence the "empowered Saviors), but somewhere in the middle I began to wonder if these Saviors are really not just "henchmen" for a higher power coalition. They seem to be bound by laws that prevent them from helping citizens that are truly being taken advantage of by a higher "caste" of the population.

There was a romantic undertone that developed throughout the story. Enemies at first, the characters develop a strong bond in the end because of shared core moral values. The story left you with the knowledge that there would be future escapades for this couple.

I felt a little disappointed and would like to have seen more background information on how the characters obtained their powers and exactly how their powers worked. Perhaps that will come in future series. All in all an easy ready but I did not feel particularly "drawn in" to the story.

I give this book 2 1/2 sheep




JeanieG

About the Author:
Amy Raby is literally a product of the U.S. space program, since her parents met working for NASA on the Apollo missions. After earning her Bachelor’s in Computer Science from the University of Washington, Amy settled in the Pacific Northwest with her family, where she’s always looking for life’s next adventure, whether it’s capsizing tiny sailboats in Lake Washington or riding dressage horses. Assassin’s Gambit is her debut novel.

1 comment:

  1. Thanks for the review, but for now, I am not really interested in it. Perhaps after there are some more books in the series.

    ReplyDelete