The Fire's Stone

Staring down the barrel of my mortality as I'm sure we all are in 2020, I've been in the mood to revisit some old favorites. This was a major comfort read for me in college, read over and over who knows how many times. I realized on this most recent reading that in my twenties I failed to appreciate the true message of the story, which is that all fat people are evil, stupid, or both. I was so outraged by the aggressive and pervasive anti-fat message of this book that I barely got through it, but I stuck it out thinking I'd find at least the touching romance I remembered worth revisiting. Nope, not really! Sadly, this book did not hold up at all.

I am reminded of the first time I saw The Wizard of Oz as an adult and got to the part show more where Glinda says, "only bad witches are ugly," and also of the time last year when I watched "Untamed Heart" for the first time in twenty plus years and realized to my utter horror that Christian Slater was a STALKER. It's always awful realizing the things you once loved are poisonous and mediocre and probably helped shape the worst and most problematic parts of you.

I hope Tanya Huff has worked through whatever she was dealing with when she wrote this book. And I'm so glad to live in a time when fun and compelling m/m romance is much easier to find. Second star only for the memories. show less

Didn't work for me, sadly. The retrieve-the-macguffin plot is about as generic as fantasy plots come. The political machinations of the characters are surface level and predictable--for instance, the identity of the character that turns out to have betrayed the leads is obvious practically from his introduction, as is the identity of the original thief that stole the macguffin. There's just not much here to distinguish this book from every other fantasy novel.

Characterization wasn't much better. The main characters might have been more interesting if the author dug into the potential conflicts or power imbalances between them resultant from class, age, and gender, but instead they were mostly blandly supportive of one another. A lot of show more choices they made for the sake of moving the plot forward or developing their relationship didn't seem to have much basis in their personalities or motivations. For instance, the prince character at first sees the thief character as a kind of personal possession, but soon thereafters starts seeing him as a person he likes and seeks approval from instead. Seeing a person as an personal possession is an unusual perspective with great potential to cause harm, especially in a prince that is free to treat certain people as objects if he so chooses, and so one would expect there to be some interesting reason why a character would take such a perspective or an interesting reason why they eventually change their mind, and for that perspective to affect the prince's relationship with other people. Instead, both the prince's original perspective and his eventual shift go largely unremarked upon. The prince takes the thief as a possession because he's a prince from a messed up family, and he starts seeing him as a person because he's a nice guy who empathizes with his tragic backstory, and there's no attention to any possible dissonance or conflict between those two perspectives. It's what needs to happen to move the plot forward, but it doesn't feel like character growth. This kind of issue made it difficult to feel anything for the characters. Overall, a book that's lacking in finesse and craftsmanship. show less

There's queer brown ppl and kick-ass women. Yo. What more could you want though?

Ugh. So exciting and cute. This was a pretty fun book. The characters were all surprisingly great. Chandra could be annoying but she was adorable because she was so young but tried to be grown and cool. Haha. Aaron. I normally am annoyed by characters that broken but he was so awesome. Not perfect. Just awesome with some serious personal issues that I thought were worked out quite well for such a short book. And Dar. Lemme say something about Dar. I was totally in love with him by the middle of the book. I shed tears for this guy. I MEAN! The changes he has to go through getting over his own problems. Huff never chickens out and makes him completely perfect show more and renewed like I've seen some books do. He's a real person and I can identify with his struggle! It was wonderful. show less

Tanya Huff has written an incredibly charming book with action, adventure, and a cast of likeable and nuanced characters. This book was my biggest surprise of the year as I wasn't expecting it to have so much depth and emotion in such a thin little volume. A new addition to my favourites, for sure.

The plotline is standard fantasy fare-- a team consisting of a thief, a swordsman, and a wizard set off on a mission to retrieve a stolen magical item that is needed to keep a city from total destruction-- but it's the characters that really stand out. Aaron, the suicidal thief, can't get over the trauma of his cousin's death and struggles with his sexuality; a third son and prince Darvish is an alcoholic and sleeps around constantly, in order show more to cope with his life at court; Darvish's betrothed Chandra is hurt by her father's neglect and only wants to become a great Wizard of the Nine. Each of them has their own demons to face and the author writes it all with a lot of empathy and understanding. I really loved seeing how each of the three main characters undergo their own growths and transformations through the course of the book.

I also really liked how Huff is so inclusive of diversity in this book. The whole story is set in a Middle Eastern-flavoured society where no one bats an eyelash at non-hetero sexualities-- Darvish is a brown-skinned bisexual guy, Chandra has no interest in romance at all (I read her as asexual), and Aaron is pretty much the only white character in the entire book. Also, the outcome of the romantic relationship, which was a little unconventional, was very sweet and very fitting. show less

This was an excellent fantasy that combines "coming of age" with coming into self. There are three main characters who are all struggling to find their place in the world.

Aaron is a thief who is likely clinically depressed and who is just looking for a way to die. When he enters the room of an old woman, he meets someone who becomes a friend and a mentor. But when she dies, he sets off on a plan to steal the jewel on the head of the ruler's staff which she carved as a suitable grave gift. And if he dies, oh well.

Prince Davish is the third son who doesn't have a role in the kingdom or the interest or respect of his father. He fills his time becoming an excellent swordsman, a full-time drunk, and an indiscriminate lover of men and women. show more He surprises himself when he rescues a failed thief from the torture chamber overseen by his younger twin siblings.

Princess Chandra is a Wizard of the Nine, powerful and rather naive. She has been abandoned emotionally by her grief-stricken father who can't get over the loss of his wife. She thinks her only value is as a wizard. She's determined not to marry which she feels with dilute her power. When her father plans a marriage with Prince Davish, she is not at all in favor and is determined to see Davish to convince him that they won't suit.

However, since someone has stolen the Stone which keeps the volcano the kingdom is built on from exploding, their personal problems will have to wait. When Davish and Aaron are sent to recover the Stone and Chandra tags along, they have a chance to learn a lot about each other and themselves when battling pirates, a churning sea, and a magician who doesn't want to give up the Stone.

I really enjoyed this story which was ably narrated by Bill Hensel. show less

Someone somewhere on the internet recommended this book many years ago. Although I have no memory of who, I can tell why. ‘The Fire’s Stone’ is the same kind of soothing, restful read as really good fanfic, or the Parasol Protectorate series by [a:Gail Carriger|2891665|Gail Carriger|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1476925456p2/2891665.jpg]. If it hadn’t been for the specific recommendation, I would not have picked up what looks like generic fantasy. Indeed, the setting isn’t very distinctive and the world-building unmemorable, aside from the cultural norm of bisexuality. The strength of the book is the main characters: a dissolute prince, a traumatised thief, and a dissatisfied princess. Flimsy plot reasons force the show more three to go on a quest together and have feelings about each other. Various romantic tropes are deployed and subverted: arranged marriage and soul-bonding, for instance. I found the dynamic between the three endearing and amusing. Although the plot is predictable, it forces them to confront their inner demons and support one another, which is both compelling and heart-warming. There are plenty of moving and hilarious scenes, along with a welcome absence of heteronormativity. A good comfort read for a cold evening. Unfortunately there isn’t a sequel; I would definitely read it if there was. show less

Wow. I had never heard of this author before reading this book, but quite enjoyed it. The plot is surprisingly engaging for a fairly standard fantasy novel; the three main characters are deeply drawn and given complicated back stories, and wrestle with very real issues such as alcoholism, childhood trauma, and acceptance of love that isn’t just between man and woman. Sometimes they offer sophisticated modern psychoanalysis of one another -- something not often articulated in “real” life -- but I forgive them that because they had me caring about what happened to them and hoping that they all made it in the end. I will look for more of Huff’s books, for sure.