ALC and eARC Review: A Fire in the Sky by Sophie Jordan
Release date: 24 September 2024
Rating: 2.5/5
Narrators: Karen Cass, Fiona Hardingham, Joe Jameson, and Will Watt
Narration Rating: 4/5
Synopsis: New York Times bestselling author Sophie Jordan returns to the high-stakes, sweeping world of dragons, romance, and drama first evoked in her bestselling young adult Firelight series, in a brand-new epic adult romantasy series.
Dragons are extinct. Witches are outcast. Magic is dying.
But human lust for power is immortal.
Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous…especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it's her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard...though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship.
When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind.
The wedding night begins with unexpected passion—and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed. Rather than start a war, Fell accepts Tamsyn as his bride...but can he accept the dark secrets she harbors—secrets buried so deep even she doesn’t know they exist? For Tamsyn is more than a royal whipping girl, more than the false wife of a man who now sees her as his enemy. And when those secrets emerge, they will ignite a flame bright enough to burn the entire kingdom to the bone.
Magic is not dead...it is only sleeping. And it will take one ordinary girl with an extraordinary destiny to awaken it.
Review
My kingdom for a great, well-rounded romantasy! The genre, when I first dipped my toes into it, seemed promising. I’ve read quite a sampling now, and very few provide both good romance and good fantasy. A Fire in the Sky feels very much like a student tried to make word count in an essay with filler words. Two characters meet. A marriage is arranged. One of the spouses is duped, and throughout the rest of the story the two, though sexually attracted to one another, develop “deeper” feelings…hardly. Romantasys should develop romance within an intricately developed world, great pacing, and complex inter-relational problems and solutions. That’s not what readers get here; instead, there’s a lot of bloat and the interactions feel forced, stiff, and immature. Readers looking for an easy read with some smut to pass the time will enjoy this one. Just don’t expect much substance.
Primarily, the world building here seems to be simplistic. The focus for this narrative lies on the two main characters and their sexual attraction to one another with casual mentions of creatures and places offering no contextual explanation, well incorporated or otherwise. If a reader has not read the aforementioned Firelight series, a YA trilogy published about 14 years ago, things about the world may be confusing or just not matter. The backstory and world logic therefore seems to be the burden of the reader to find out about, and one can only assume the way to learn more is to read the aforementioned YA series. From 14 years ago.
Let it not be said I lack understanding that Romantasy books should be about the romance first and the workings of the world and magic systems second. With this understanding, I am willing to give lackadaisical world building a slight pass. I know I’m not reading Jordan, Abercrombie, or Clarke—I don’t expect too much sophistication in that regard. However. I do expect fantastic character building and interaction with strong, well written relationship development and romance. A Fire in the Sky does not offer that. The plot meanders, feels bloated with filler, and few things really happen in the story other than the characters moving from one place to another where one bit of action occurs.
For character development, Tamsyn and Fell are a bit flat, and the foundation of their attraction is purely physical lust. Romantasy should have romance. There just wasn’t any here. They bump into one another briefly in passing before they’re forced on one another as bride and groom (though one of them doesn’t know). Then, they spend the next great swath of the narrative not really interacting in meaningful ways. Having read The Whipping Boy by Sid Fleischman when in elementary school, I am familiar with the concept of substitutionary punishment Jordan uses as a plot device. I’m not sure it’s used for more than a gimmick, though. Tamsyn’s role as a whipping girl only lasts for a brief part of the first couple of chapters, and then she’s carried off into the wilds with Fell. She grows up in a castle with an attractive guard and befriends him, but there’s never a spark of attraction in her for any other person before Fell shows up, and then she suddenly discovers sexual attraction. She’s over 20 years old. In a castle. With a bunch of meat wall guards who also have muscles, just like Fell.
Fell possesses a bit more development, but not much. He’s a generically relatable character—seeking to provide protection for his people and receive more for the protection his people ensure the kingdom in return. For someone tested regularly as a formidable warrior, battle strategist, and leader, he doesn’t seem to have many scruples. Sure, he possesses a gentle empathy for Tamsyn, but it’s treated as a surprise even to him. How he feels and acts toward her yo-yos back and forth, giving readers absolutely no consistency.
Overall, 2.5/5 for the story and 4/5 for narration. I probably should not have picked this one up right after reading Susanna Clarke. I can’t really describe it as anything else but simplistically vapid.
Multiple narrators make keeping up with the character POV’s easy, but the narration is very dramatic and gets loud and soft often. I don’t think a narrator should be monotone, but too many ups and downs in voice can be taxing.
My thanks to HarperAudio via Libro FM and Avon via NetGalley for the ALC and eARC (respectively), for which I willingly give my own, honest opinion.
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