A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet – Book Review Part 1

Originally published January 19, 2019

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Book Review: A Promise of Fire from The Kingmaker Chronicles by Amanda Bouchet

This was a book I stole from my sister when we were over in Brisbane on holiday. She had three books, and I’m not sure what made me read this one. I think another drew me in, but she was reading it, so I had to pick almost at random from the other two. But I’m reading this now, and thought, “Perhaps I’ll do a book review, so I can remember what I thought when I first read the book, and so others can see what it’s about.”

Warning: I’m typing this as I go, so THERE WILL BE SPOILERS.

I’ve just begun. It’s a hot day, that’s for sure, and there’s gods and creatures of myth already intertwined with the storyline. Cerberus is cool, but I’m not sure what he’s doing in the tale, and why it’s so casual that he’s just chillin’ with the main character. And why is his middle head the douche-bag? Who decided that one?

Maybe I like his middle head.

And as for this warlord dude, I’m not sure what I think about him. Her description didn’t really suit me, and I started to make him super ugly in my minds eye. But then I was like, “no, he’s a possible love interest, try to imagine him semi decent.” I’m not at all sure why that thought came into my mind, but I twisted all the words so that now he looks okay, though still not my type. He could turn out completely evil, but at least he’s hot just in case she falls for him.

Though I reread the paragraph where the thought of him being a love interest struck me, and there’s absolutely nothing to suggest such a thing, really. It’s just a random thought of mine.

Maybe it’s his stormy eyes… Anything using my name as a descriptor must be good, right?

Reading on, the next thing I paused to note down was that the main character, who’s name still hasn’t stuck in my mind, is 23. Most characters in my sisters books (and most of mine) are younger, still teenagers in most cases. Even the characters I write for my own stories seem to be so much younger. My biggest and strongest story (still in the works) has a main character who is about 16/17. Though I was 14 when I started writing that story, so at the time it seemed crazy for me to write someone so much older than myself and to pretend I knew the inner workings of the older mind.

I should probably get back on that story soon, or I’ll be retired before I finish it.

This character being 23 should mean I can relate to her more, but for some reason I struggle to relate to older characters, even those barely older than me. I’m 21, but the recent years have gone by in such a blur I forget that sometimes. The characters in my mind are so mature for their age, perhaps that is why having older characters deters me, for how can someone be more mature than the characters I write about? How can someone older than them have gone through as much?

I really am horrible to my characters, but in the land of make believe, putting characters through struggles and drama is just the way of life.

The character is also self-conscious, though it is obvious the writer sees her as beautiful. But being self-conscious of one’s figure is very realistic, and a type of humble you can rarely leave out of a character’s development. I believe it takes a special kind of character to flaunt their figure as if they were completely comfortable in their own skin (at least a special type of character to pull it off). It’s harder to write those characters so they are realistic and three-dimensional, simple because many of us can never imagine such comfort of self and be able to relate, though we may want to have that strength.

Page 8 brings a sudden insight into what powers the main character possesses. She is able to absorb the colourful magic of Desma, and Desma’s words show us that this is an unusual trait that not everyone shares.

Cat. That is the name of the main character. I need to stick that in my mind, for it hasn’t quite stuck yet. Her name seems of little importance in the story line, her point of view more of a factor in our opinion of her. Cat is a simple name, though, and it very much aligns with her seemingly orphaned history, turning up as a bedraggled teen at the circus years ago. It has no history, a little mystery, and is a very vague name that can never be traced.

I get the feeling it wasn’t always her name.

My next impression is that there’s too many characters introduced all at once. This has always been something I struggle with in stories. When I write my own books, each character has a background and a story in my mind (and sometimes written on short stories elsewhere), but for readers they’d have no idea who these characters were. Perhaps it is the same for other characters, but I’ve realised that I hate when many characters are introduced all at once.

I’m terrible with names in real life when I have experiences and faces to remind me who they are. I still don’t know the names of classmates I’ve seen every week for three years. Perhaps that is reflected in my reading. I remember when I was much, much younger and tried to read The Hobbit for the first time. As soon as that first knock on the door in the hill came to be, I gave up. There was simply too many characters listed all at once for me to keep up, I grew bored trying.

I’ve learnt since then, of course. Now I just ignore the names of characters, and hope that if they become important later then I will slowly learn them and understand them as their characters develop. But that means when characters are listed so often in a short piece of the writing, I often zone out or grow bored, as if I’m skimming over words I don’t know how to read. This is something I must remember for my own writing, as there will be readers like me out there that don’t want characters unless they come with a history and a little development straight up.

The first sentence of page nine brings more mystery to the table. Everyone else mentioned has a brilliant magic that can be used to capture the crowd. Cat is envious of their powers. She wonders what she did to ‘deserve’ her magic, as if it’s some foul curse she blames for everything bad to happen in her life. She is tortured by her past, which seems inevitably twined in her magic somehow.

Great. My sister just let me know, “it’s a good book, very sassy.” To that, I replied, “But it’s a Chronicle. If I’d known that I wouldn’t have started reading it, because now I’ll have to get the rest of the series.” My sister then informed me that she never actually finished the book, because half way through it got boring.

Hopefully I find the time and energy (and interest) to even finish this review. If I keep going like this it could be longer than the book itself. I seem to be finding too much to write about and too little to read. I’ll get through the first chapter in depth, and then try to write a summary at the END of each chapter. That might be better than having my laptop open and welcoming as the book is in my lap.

Catalia.

I did it, at last. Chapter one done and dusted. I’m now realising I’m going to hate stopping at every chapter to write a summary, as it is always the chapter breaks that you want to race through the quickest, from one chapter straight into the next. That’s how you hook people in. People like stopping at a good spot, a chapter break, and when the chapter break ends with a dramatic moment or cliff hanger of any form, they read on. And on, and on, and on. Most people won’t stop mid chapter, so why stop at all?

But that chapter was fair enough. Too many characters, too much heat (reading about heat makes me hot, and I have a laptop warming my lap as it is). But there’s enough history and knowledge shrouded in mystery that surrounds the main character and makes her interesting. And the ‘love interest’ returns (that was my assumption, and I quickly read ahead to ensure I was write when writing this (I was)). I’m not even sure if he is a love interest, but I’ve got that in my head now and so he’s more intriguing than he would be if he was just some creepy male character. I wonder how I would perceive him differently if I had though of him as the antagonist or some evil machination from the beginning (like my mind semi-wanted to, based from his description).

But that’s chapter one done, and my review has already gotten a lot longer than anticipated. Perhaps I will post this now, and divide it into parts in the future. I’ll tag this book “A Promise of Fire by Amanda Bouchet”. That way you can find all future posts about the book in one place, as they will all contain that unique tag. In the meantime (before the next post, as hopefully it’ll include a few chapters and not just one), let me know if you’ve read this book before, what you think, and especially how you perceived the Warlord at the very beginning, your first impression. I’m interested to know.