Blue Fire by Janice Hardy
Feb. 22nd, 2015 09:35 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
quippeThe Blurb On The Back:
Nya must leave the only home she’s ever known.
Trust the very people she always hated.
And become the weapon she never wanted to be.
War rages in Nya and Tali’s dystopian world yet somehow the sisters have survived, forced into hiding. But when their escape plan is ambushed, Nya finds herself alone and friendless in an alien city.
Nya’s only hope of rescuing her sister is to risk sharing her secret with the underground resistance – and face the new menace that threatens her world …
It’s several weeks after THE PAIN MERCHANTS. There’s a price on Nya’s head, trackers are on her trail and the Duke is tightening his grip over the divided city but she and Tali are determined to find as many Takers as possible before they leave Geveg. When Nya is captured by men keen on claiming the reward, she’s taken to Baseer – the Duke’s own capital. There she discovers an underground resistance determined to replace the Duke, but the resistance is divided and there are uncomfortable links to her parents. Worse, the Duke has developed an indestructible army of Undying – Takers armoured in pynvium - and together with Vinnot, is developing a new and terrifying weapon to cement his control over the three cities – a weapon that he needs Nya to wield for him ...
The second in Janice Hardy’s tween-marketed PAIN MERCHANTS TRILOGY broadens out the world building and the scale of Nya’s struggle but the large cast of characters made it difficult to keep track of who’s who and results in none ever really standing out. Having read the first book in 2009, I also found it difficult to remember what had happened before because Hardy only gives a brief recap of previous events. There are some great ideas here – I still like the way healing can be used and exploited and I liked the fact that the opposition are not homogenous and has its own divisions. Unfortunately the book simply isn’t long enough to allow for life to be breathed into the characters or for the scope to be fully expanded. I was also disappointed in the Duke (who’s two-dimensional at best), the traditional fantasy focus on a legitimate heir rather than examining democracy left me disappointed and the ending is rushed and failed to satisfy me. There’s still enough here for me to want to check out the finale but this sequel simply didn’t live up to the promise of the first book for me.
What does work are Nya’s reactions to the things that she’s done and the things she knows she’s going to have to do. I wished that there’d been more of her relationship with Tali given that Tali remains essentially a plot point more than a character, but there are promising hints of information on Nya’s parents and their connection to the Duke, which I hope will be expanded upon in the conclusion.
The Verdict:
The second in Janice Hardy’s tween-marketed PAIN MERCHANTS TRILOGY broadens out the world building and the scale of Nya’s struggle but the large cast of characters made it difficult to keep track of who’s who and results in none ever really standing out. Having read the first book in 2009, I also found it difficult to remember what had happened before because Hardy only gives a brief recap of previous events. There are some great ideas here – I still like the way healing can be used and exploited and I liked the fact that the opposition are not homogenous and has its own divisions. Unfortunately the book simply isn’t long enough to allow for life to be breathed into the characters or for the scope to be fully expanded. I was also disappointed in the Duke (who’s two-dimensional at best), the traditional fantasy focus on a legitimate heir rather than examining democracy left me disappointed and the ending is rushed and failed to satisfy me. There’s still enough here for me to want to check out the finale but this sequel simply didn’t live up to the promise of the first book for me.
Trust the very people she always hated.
And become the weapon she never wanted to be.
War rages in Nya and Tali’s dystopian world yet somehow the sisters have survived, forced into hiding. But when their escape plan is ambushed, Nya finds herself alone and friendless in an alien city.
Nya’s only hope of rescuing her sister is to risk sharing her secret with the underground resistance – and face the new menace that threatens her world …
It’s several weeks after THE PAIN MERCHANTS. There’s a price on Nya’s head, trackers are on her trail and the Duke is tightening his grip over the divided city but she and Tali are determined to find as many Takers as possible before they leave Geveg. When Nya is captured by men keen on claiming the reward, she’s taken to Baseer – the Duke’s own capital. There she discovers an underground resistance determined to replace the Duke, but the resistance is divided and there are uncomfortable links to her parents. Worse, the Duke has developed an indestructible army of Undying – Takers armoured in pynvium - and together with Vinnot, is developing a new and terrifying weapon to cement his control over the three cities – a weapon that he needs Nya to wield for him ...
The second in Janice Hardy’s tween-marketed PAIN MERCHANTS TRILOGY broadens out the world building and the scale of Nya’s struggle but the large cast of characters made it difficult to keep track of who’s who and results in none ever really standing out. Having read the first book in 2009, I also found it difficult to remember what had happened before because Hardy only gives a brief recap of previous events. There are some great ideas here – I still like the way healing can be used and exploited and I liked the fact that the opposition are not homogenous and has its own divisions. Unfortunately the book simply isn’t long enough to allow for life to be breathed into the characters or for the scope to be fully expanded. I was also disappointed in the Duke (who’s two-dimensional at best), the traditional fantasy focus on a legitimate heir rather than examining democracy left me disappointed and the ending is rushed and failed to satisfy me. There’s still enough here for me to want to check out the finale but this sequel simply didn’t live up to the promise of the first book for me.
What does work are Nya’s reactions to the things that she’s done and the things she knows she’s going to have to do. I wished that there’d been more of her relationship with Tali given that Tali remains essentially a plot point more than a character, but there are promising hints of information on Nya’s parents and their connection to the Duke, which I hope will be expanded upon in the conclusion.
The Verdict:
The second in Janice Hardy’s tween-marketed PAIN MERCHANTS TRILOGY broadens out the world building and the scale of Nya’s struggle but the large cast of characters made it difficult to keep track of who’s who and results in none ever really standing out. Having read the first book in 2009, I also found it difficult to remember what had happened before because Hardy only gives a brief recap of previous events. There are some great ideas here – I still like the way healing can be used and exploited and I liked the fact that the opposition are not homogenous and has its own divisions. Unfortunately the book simply isn’t long enough to allow for life to be breathed into the characters or for the scope to be fully expanded. I was also disappointed in the Duke (who’s two-dimensional at best), the traditional fantasy focus on a legitimate heir rather than examining democracy left me disappointed and the ending is rushed and failed to satisfy me. There’s still enough here for me to want to check out the finale but this sequel simply didn’t live up to the promise of the first book for me.
