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A review by savage_book_review
Flight of the Fire Thief by Terry Deary
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.5
I'll be honest, I was a little disappointed by this book. It's a cute little story for kids, but I'm not entirely sure there's enough in here to keep even their attention fully focused. The author is usually so good at finding the sweet spot mid-way between education and entertainment, but in this case it feels like he's missed the mark on both counts.
It just comes across as a watered down rewrite of the first book, except while the story follows on its being told by a completely new character, who basically has the same traits and backstory as the original. It feels like the similarities were used as a quick shorthand to get the story moving without having to develop the new characters very much, and their actions become very repetitive very quickly, so there's not actually that much to enjoy of them. The fact that the premise of Prometheus' story has already been set up means that layer of the story is also removed, and so while he is the lynchpin of the plot, he doesn't have all that much to do in this one, which is a shame because he is by far the mist interesting character!
There are two new elements introduced here. The first is a potted retelling of the Trojan War, which is mainly used as a set up to continual jokes about how, in the ten years of the war, Helen's beauty has gone from being able to launch a thousand ships to ever decreasing numbers. We do meet Achilles and Paris as squabbling rivals, and it portrays Zeus and Hera as bored Gods who are just playing with the human population for their own amusement. It does do a little to introduce the myth to the book's target audience, but again not in the same depth or tone that you'd usually expect from the author. And while I am no expert, I do love a good Greek myth retelling and some of the elements used in here are completely new to me... so I do wonder if the author has chosen to stray fully from the source material and just make up his own events to suit?
The second element are the 'Wild Ones' who have surrounded Eden City. Although it doesn't state it explicitly, the names of the characters and other inferences suggest to me that they are based on Native Americans. Unfortunately, while the role they are meant to play in the story should be quite important, that whole aspect feels very glossed over and they fade into the background really quickly. Again, I feel like this was a missed opportunity - there is so much more that could have been done to develop the plot and the characters here.
There are clear signposts towards a 'big reveal' in book three, which I do have handy as the library has just delivered it for me and I do want to finish the series. But ultimately this book seems to be purely a bridge from the set up to the finale, with very little point in and of itself. Perhaps it would have been better as a duology? I don't know. I keep coming back to the fact that I'm not the 'right' age for this book, but then again this is also true for his 'Tudor Terrors' or 'Horrible Histories' series, and I still love those! Perhaps I'm now learning why I hadn't heard of this series until recently... Ah well!
It just comes across as a watered down rewrite of the first book, except while the story follows on its being told by a completely new character, who basically has the same traits and backstory as the original. It feels like the similarities were used as a quick shorthand to get the story moving without having to develop the new characters very much, and their actions become very repetitive very quickly, so there's not actually that much to enjoy of them. The fact that the premise of Prometheus' story has already been set up means that layer of the story is also removed, and so while he is the lynchpin of the plot, he doesn't have all that much to do in this one, which is a shame because he is by far the mist interesting character!
There are two new elements introduced here. The first is a potted retelling of the Trojan War, which is mainly used as a set up to continual jokes about how, in the ten years of the war, Helen's beauty has gone from being able to launch a thousand ships to ever decreasing numbers. We do meet Achilles and Paris as squabbling rivals, and it portrays Zeus and Hera as bored Gods who are just playing with the human population for their own amusement. It does do a little to introduce the myth to the book's target audience, but again not in the same depth or tone that you'd usually expect from the author. And while I am no expert, I do love a good Greek myth retelling and some of the elements used in here are completely new to me... so I do wonder if the author has chosen to stray fully from the source material and just make up his own events to suit?
The second element are the 'Wild Ones' who have surrounded Eden City. Although it doesn't state it explicitly, the names of the characters and other inferences suggest to me that they are based on Native Americans. Unfortunately, while the role they are meant to play in the story should be quite important, that whole aspect feels very glossed over and they fade into the background really quickly. Again, I feel like this was a missed opportunity - there is so much more that could have been done to develop the plot and the characters here.
There are clear signposts towards a 'big reveal' in book three, which I do have handy as the library has just delivered it for me and I do want to finish the series. But ultimately this book seems to be purely a bridge from the set up to the finale, with very little point in and of itself. Perhaps it would have been better as a duology? I don't know. I keep coming back to the fact that I'm not the 'right' age for this book, but then again this is also true for his 'Tudor Terrors' or 'Horrible Histories' series, and I still love those! Perhaps I'm now learning why I hadn't heard of this series until recently... Ah well!