Reality Bypass

Book Review: Child of Fire – Harry Connolly December 2, 2009

Happy December, gentle readers.

This month K is crazy as she’s writing papers and taking finals.  Upon occasion she paddles bravely to the surface, takes a deep breath and plunges back in.  So we’ll see her sometimes, but the babbling is getting stranger.  Personally I think she’s going to summon feminist Cthulu Santa any time now.

Anyway…moving on to today’s book review.

I picked up Child of Fire after reading a recommendation from John Scalzi.  This is a debut urban fantasy taking place mostly just outside of Seattle, Washington.  We’re introduced to Ray Lilly and his sorta partner Annalise.  The two of them are on a mission which encompasses finding people using magic to be bad and killing them.  There’s some mention made of redeeming them, but that doesn’t seem to happen much.  We know immediately that Ray is under a death sentence, but not why and within a few pages the main plot is introduced, from there it really never lets go.  Ray is put through the wringer, particularly after Annalise is injured and can’t do as much as she usually does.

The book was very interesting on a lot of levels.  It was a very different Urban Fantasy, much closer to the works of favorites like Jim Butcher, but also with a darker horror bent.  I was reminded very much of Lovecraft and the investigator novels.  I liked the male pov, since much of UF is female, and the matter of fact attitude that he brought to his universe.  One of the neat things is that for the most part Ray is just a guy.  He has some knowledge about the way things are and a couple of magic tricks which help him out, but when he goes up against fire breathing monsters the right answer is to run for it and he knows it.  I’m fascinated by the world presented as it mentions some of our favorite UF critters, but stays very firmly with people and the horror they cause with the absolute best intention.  As a study of human nature the book is absolutely brilliant.

This is not to say it was perfect.  It has a few issues of pacing and I was felt a bit teased by some of the information.  We had so MANY hints about Ray’s past and his great sins, but nothing ever really explained.  I think I’ve pieced together the vast majority of it, but my mental picture is still missing some puzzle pieces that I’m not really happy to wait for.  Hopefully we’ll get more of this in the next book.  As my husband put it:  It’s not perfect, but I’m invested enough in Ray as a character and the world to keep reading.

And I do like Ray.  He visits a lot of violence on a lot of people, but mostly in reaction to being threatened himself or defense of other people and at the end of the day he feels bad about it and is trying to be a better person, even as the world around him seems determined not to let him be.

Genre: Urban Fantasy/Horror

Age: 15+

Content:  Violence, frightening images, language and some very mild sexuality.

Overall: 4.5 paws

Jana