I finished the audiobook of Of Fire and Ash by Gillian Bronte Adams a while ago. I had every intention of writing this review sooner. However–and I feel I’m not alone in this–I made the mistake of starting the sequel of the Fireborn Saga: Of Sea and Smoke before I wrote my review for the first book. I have since finished Of Sea and Smoke and have started the third book: Of Dawn and Embers. I feel that alone tells volumes of how I feel about this series. Regardless, here are some of my thoughts about the books I’ve listened to so far.
When I first heard of The Fireborn Epic by Gillian Bronte Adams, I couldn’t help but think: “What’s not to like?” Elemental horses. A war. The passing of the throne to an outcast. Swords. Riders. The cover alone is a red-haired woman on a flaming steed. This was my genre if I ever saw it: pure epic fantasy. It had to be my next read.
Yet, Of Fire and Ash caught me off guard to start. I’m still relatively new to audiobooks, so the speed of the read was a little too fast for me. It took several chapters for my ears to catch up. Once over that, the hardest part was the detail heaviness and information dumps in chapter 1. You’re there with Ceridwen when the brand mars her forehead, but the time skip afterwards is a lot to keep up with. It goes against what I was taught. I always heard that you don’t want to dump too much information in your first chapter. That chapter is for hooking the reader, not overwhelming them with character memories or backstory. Perhaps Of Fire and Ash is an exception? Perhaps Gillian got away with it because it’s not her debut series? Regardless, I must admit it almost put me off the story since it felt the descriptions took up more space in a chapter than the plot. Almost. You can bet I’m glad it didn’t.
Though information and detailed heavy, Gillian’s descriptions are beautiful. You can tell she knows her stuff when it comes to horse riding. The world building is very well done and easy to picture. I found myself trying to remember the different metaphors and similes that she used to help expand my own inventory of them.
The only other big thing I had a hard time keeping up with was the amount of characters. Perhaps, the physical copy of the book has a character directory, but for audiobook, it was hard to keep track of who was who. Gillian does a great job giving each character their own unique trait to help you follow along and that’s what I clung to when I couldn’t remember names. Still, it was a struggle when one character would go away for a while and I had to search my recollection of who they were when they reappeared.
Regardless of detail heaviness and amount of characters, I thoroughly enjoyed Of Fire and Ash. Following Ceridwen through her trials, feeling her frustrations, and daring to rise and ride again along side her roped me back into the story several times. Many of us feel like outcasts without a band of riders to have our backs and being alongside Ceridwen as she dares to make connections brings about a hope that the rest of us can as well.
What I do love about The Fireborn Epic is that this story is great for those of us who don’t have horses to ride and/or can’t ride, but we still have that dream to do so. Most little girls out there fall in love with horses, but not all of us can bond a steed of our own. So, reading this tale helps us feel like we can. I mean, who wouldn’t want to bond a steed that could fly or catch fire?
As for Of Sea and Smoke, not a day went by that I didn’t listen to at least one chapter of this story. Most sequels struggle to surpass the first book, but I dare say that Of Sea and Smoke did. The characters are funny, witty, and they grow together. You get to yell at them for their mistakes and grieve with them when its their undoing. My only issue with this book was that Gillian kept killing off my favorite side characters. I’m a little scared to label a new favorite side character lest they die in Of Dawn and Embers.
If you haven’t heard of The Fireborn Epic, I encourage you to add it to your reading list and check it out. If you love adventure and the overcoming of hardship, sacrifice and new identity, tragic backstories and the those with the will to rise and ride again, you’re going to love this series by Gillian Bronte Adams.
Thank you, Gillian, for your story.
nikki diekemper 