Fire of the Forebearers started slow for me despite kicking its plot off early and making distinct effort to build investment in Kura as its main character with decisions, consequences, and motivations. The initial chapters of her story are in particular full of fantasy elements as well, with centaurs, talking animals (a simple, but often rewarding concept throughout the book) ancient spirits, hybrid monsters, and more. Most of it’s fairly well handled (the magical sword of legend mcguffin ends up being fairly cliche) but the book still failed to really catch my interest. Even now, I’m not entirely sure why, but I attribute some of it to Kura largely being alone through most of the beginning, lacking other character to interact with aside from brief action scenes or dialogue, but also the lack of a clear direction of from her. Yes she has motivations, but it takes a bit for the immediate plot to clarify enough for her to actively undertake it. It’s as she begins the pursuit of her family, in the blind hope of their survival, and she meets other, lasting characters, that the narrative began to entertain me.
After that the strength of the book’s writing comes into full effect, primarily with the inherent conflicts surrounding Triston as a genuinely decent prince of the kingdom the rebels are attempting to overthrow, and Kura coopting the prophecy to aid in the rescuing of her family bring a pleasant bit of character work and a nice subversion of the trope.
Throughout the book the prose and character work is quite strong, and the pacing, aside from the start, flows well with a good mix of action and interaction scenes. Both Kura and Triston are likable as MC’s, with decent complexity, and regularly make meaningful decisions to display character and agency.
