A review by astraia_sun
Children of Fire by Drew Karpyshyn

3.0

The rating on this book went back and forth. I didn't much care for the pacing at the beginning. I wanted to spend more time on each character, to discover their lives and see more than the brief chapter glimpses before we switched and ages several years. What we saw was very interesting to me.

Once the book caught up to itself, I was enjoying it very much, though some of the interesting character bits we saw kind of got pushed aside in favor of the plot. okay, I can deal with that. Until it all fell apart due to one character.

Spoiler

Scythe started off incredibly interesting to me, but literally everything that happened in the end of the book was entirely her fault due to her OUTRAGEOUS selfishness. Bored of a provincial life where her boyfriend can finally be happy and not be a victim of racism, she decides to steal from a couple of travelers and forces said boyfriend to cover for her, which In turn practically destroys their town. A town she absolutely despises, which she tells us over and over. but then she wants revenge?! When it was her fault in the first place and she doesn't even LIKE the place?! Really, it felt like this was the author trying to figure out how to fit her with the traveling party to round out the tank, monk, wizard, and rogue class.

Furthermore, the scene where Keegan very randomly turns himself into a giant to lay waste to Tokyo -I mean the Ferlhame- confused me so much I stopped reading to ask myself if that really happened. It did.

I'm not sure I want to continue. I may just to see what happens to Cassandra as I loved her storyline. I'd rate it at 2 stars but I did like the world building.