Gods of the Flame Sea (Flame Seas, #3)

Well. It does complete the story - the three novelettes make one complete story. This one starts oddly, with a mage (animadj) working on a project, pleased with himself and his plans...and slowly, as he works through what he's doing, the reader goes from interested to horrified. As was heavily foreshadowed in the previous novelette, the half-Efrit child ends up seriously warped, mentally and physically. He successfully gives himself power - magical power, power through the magic of this world - until he breaks, mentally and emotionally. He becomes as a god...and the Fae have to use the same technique to deal with him. I hadn't picked up from the previous books that there was a legal and social requirement that they _not_ play gods - it show more may be more explicit in the first one, it's been a while since I read it. From the second book, I got the impression it was mostly an annoyance that some of the humans insisted on worshipping them. And now they have to take advantage of that belief, rather to their disgust.... Ban's changes are a major part of the story, though I'd love to read the one _before_ Dawn when he joins the Fae and connects with Jintaya. As it is, it's more tell than show (though there's definitely some show there) that he was so harsh and distrusting to begin with and has relaxed so much by the end of this story. It's not bad - this story or the complete three - but it still feels like a side story to me, like some of the ones in Finding Destiny. Enjoyable, but not...I don't know, not central somehow. Not an independent story. It makes me want to know more about Mendhi, and makes me expect a book where some more central hero comes to this world and meets Ban and the Fae "gods". Hmm, maybe that's it - Ban refuses to be a (or the) hero, and so there's no one at the center of this story. It's a team story, with different characters stepping up and moving back to support - which makes it hard to see the focus. Worth reading, though, like just about all of Jean Johnson's stuff. show less

Twenty years have past and the offspring of the Efrijt and Fae halfbreed has delusions of granduer and the both sides must work together to same the people of this world from him.