Thursday, May 7, 2009

Wildfire-Sarah Micklem

Wildfire
Sarah Micklem
Scribner, Jul 2009, $26.00
ISBN 9780743265249

The slave Firethorn the healer, precognitive sheath and bedmate to her owner is hit by lightning while following her master Sire Galan though she knows she disobeyed his explicit order she wait for his return. Firethorn assumes the god Ardor Wildfire struck her visage; her healing is slow and painful while her face is off center and her memory and speech spotty and incoherent. Additionally she has gained an eerie skill of seeing shades.

Although a bit upset with his bounded healer for disobeying him Sire Galan remains attracted to Firethorn, but has doubts about her unbecoming behavior just before his enemy King Arkhyios Corvus abducts her from the battlefield. Soon after the monarch leads his soldiers in battle against the loyalists of Queenmother Caelum, who wants to take the throne form him. His side contains her vicious Wolf warriors, but he flees across the mountains guided by Firethorn’s dreams to the haven Lambanein

The sequel to FIRETHORN is an entertaining fantasy as the intrepid Firethorn continues to grow while undergoing further adventures. The story line is action-packed starting with the heroine’s disobedience, but is not quite as fast-paced as the previous novel because there is information overload describing the Gods. Still readers will enjoy WILDFIRE as “the Gods Must Be Crazy” to encourage the latest human fatal mistakes.

Harriet Klausner

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