Fantasy Book Reviews

Of Fire and Blood

Author: ShannonTolhurst

Title: Of Fire and Blood
Link: https://www.wattpad.com/story/75815824-of-fire-and-blood-starwritingawardsentry

Of Fire and Blood is about a boy with a dream. A dream to escape the monotony of his country life and explore the world. Isn't that what we all dream about? The story's premise easily wooed me in to read more!

Silus lives with his parents in the Moorlands, the countryside where farmers and other workers dwell. His two siblings have left home and found their purpose, while he himself is stuck in a tedious cycle of chores. In the spur of the moment, he expresses his wishes to his father: he wants to join the town guard and learn to fight. His father rejects this. End of discussion. With his dreams seemingly shattered, he continues on with daily life. During a routine repair of the house cellar, he comes across a mysterious chest with love letters addressed to his mother from a kingdom far away. What does it all mean? How will it change his life? It seems quite obvious to me...but you should read to find out for yourself!

The story needs some major editing, but not so bad that it stopped me from reading. Overall, the writing is decent. It has moments of wonderful imagery where I felt immersed in the setting and the day-to-day activities of the characters. The interactions and dialogue between Silus and his parents clearly established their relationship and his struggles and desire for change. His light-hearted banter with his friend Tamra also hints at budding love. It's clear how each character will play a role in the story. However,  the writing falls flat on a few occasions with the odd phrasing and unusual use of imagery that make no sense at all (at least to me) or simply didn't work. For example: "...The word Marlena wistfully written on its surface..." Maybe the contents of a letter can sound wistful, but just the word 'Marlena'? Nope. I'll just blame it on poor editing.

One of the biggest problems for me is Silus' main goal is weak and unclear. He wants to join the town guard and learn how to fight, supposedly to protect the weak (from dangerous people/beasts). He also dreams of traveling to faraway places and exploring the world, looking for treasures. Which is it? There has to be a central focus or it'll be distracting to readers. Silus' motivations are also questionable. His desire to fight springs from an incident where he witnessed the gruesome killing of a stranger and couldn't do anything about it. Big deal. Was it someone he knew? And his wanting to leave home seems to boil down to the fact that his older siblings got to do what they wanted and he doesn't. This is not compelling enough for me. As a result, Silus comes across as confused, childish, and selfish.

If you've read my other reviews, you know how much I despise info-dumps. Thankfully, Of Fire and Blood rarely commits that sin. But, it does on one occasion, and I feel compelled to mention it as how the offense is committed is extremely common among the stories I've read. Please do NOT have one character ask another character questions that are not relevant to the immediate plot and then follow it with a long-winded reply / explanation of the world or some back story. It's unnatural and screams info-dump.

Of Fire and Bloodhas a lot of potential. If you don't mind the poor editing and awful formatting, read on. As for me, I'll wait for a cleaner version.