Review of Raven Fire

 BOOK TITLE: Raven Fire

AUTHOR: Emma Miles

DESCRIPTION OF BOOK COVER: Girl on horseback in a ring of symbols surrounded by blue flames.

GENRE (optional): Fantasy

PAGES (optional): Not enough (heh) - 439

 

 

 

 

BLURB:  Is prophecy real; can Arridia and Joss defeat a god?

 Evil never sleeps, and neither can the fire spirits who have guarded Kesta and her family so faithfully for more than fourteen years. United in a desire for peace, the four lands beneath the sky have enjoyed relative stability, but under the surface stirs unrest. Greed, ambition, disquiet, rebellion; and the ever-present threat of Geladan’s crazed god discovering she has been fooled.

 Quiet Arridia is a Raven Scout, dedicated to the principles and hopes of her parents. When an opportunity presents itself to come home, she grasps it, longing to settle and find the love she has patiently waited for.

 Fun-loving Joss is drawn to the court of Elden with all its colour, noise, and intrigue; but has he taken on more than a young man can survive?

Raven Fire is the final part of the breath-taking Fire-Walker saga.

If you could, would you dare to change the world?

 # OF STARS: 4.5

 ***

SO.

I actually blitzed through most of the series all at once in the last few weeks and then didn’t review them singly because I’m a terrible human.

There.

This is my review for just Book 4, but honestly, I loved the whole series. It was so nice to be reading straight up fantasy again! Maybe I should turn my pen back to my first love…

*Achem Side eye to the glaring fans.* sorry.

 

Book 4 take place 14 years after the end of Book 3, which makes it almost a standalone in its own rights. In fact, you probably could just about read it and enjoy it without having read the first three, simply because it follows Kesta’s children more than the original characters, with the addition of Catya and Dysarta from Queen of Ice. I say ‘almost’ simply because I don’t think it would have been as good without having read all the build up from the previous books – you probably wouldn’t care as much about what’s going on the in final battle and some of it might not make as much sense. But you could read it alone, which just attests to how tightly plotted and logical the book ends up being.

The magic system stays consistent for four books! I love it when authors do that properly!

So, what did I enjoy? The magic, the plot, and the characters. Even the side characters are fabulous. Rosa, darling, could you be anymore amazing! Though now I’m a wee bit concerned about what the future holds for her… And the ending was satisfying, which has been a great thing for the entire Walker series. (I’m not counting Queen of Ice here because I’m still a bit bitter, not going to lie).

So why not 5 stars? Bitty things mostly. Catya still vaguely annoys me (though she was a lot better in this book) and I almost felt like the Elden stuff was slightly disconnected from everything else, probably because it was a lot of new characters that we didn’t really meet or deal with prior to this book. That meant that some of harder hitting stuff didn’t hit quite as hard as it probably should have. I really did feel more emotionally drawn in when we were in the Fulmors. I think it would have also been an interesting note at the end to see Geladan and what impact the ending is about to have on it, just as a thread to future books, but maybe I’m just hoping for future books and that’s on my head, hah.

All in all, a satisfying conclusion to a great four book series and I’m looking forward to returning to this world some day.

Pros: Wonderful, solid world building, great characters, and an overall great plot

Cons: I mean, if you don’t like fantasy, don’t read it. Duh. I also found that the stuff in Elden was slightly disconnected feeling. And I don’t know, Jhedera could have been even scarier? But that’s nitpicking in the extreme.

***

As a note, I loved all four books in this series. I’m thinking about getting printed copies too because I like the covers.

Can we say omnibus some day?

***

Second note: The Curious Case of Prince Charming is on Kobo! There may be a delay in publication of Blood Moon and Shifter’s Oath though, simply because I haven’t heard from my editor yet and I’m wondering if she got swamped. Such is life.