Book Review: Fires of the Faithful

Reviewed By: Harriet Klausner

Fires of the Faithful     Amazon US PB Amazon Canada PB
Naomi Kritzer
Class/Genre:   Fantasy   Woman Main Character
Bantam, Oct 2002, $6.99, 400 pp.

The only thing sixteen-year-old Eliana is looking forward to is graduating the Verdiano Rural Conservatory and performing at the Imperial Court. She doesn’t question the religion of the Lord and the Lady, or the magery that most people love or use or the Fedeli who eradicate all traces of heresy. The war and famine in the world doesn’t touch the budding musicians who are insulated from anything that unpleasant.

Eliana’s views change when the Fedeli come and kill one of her closest friends and kidnap her roommate. She leaves the conservatory, rejects the Circle of mages and the official religion, and turns to the Old Ways. She discovers that the famine is caused by the Mage’s use of sorcery and ends up in a refugee camp where she becomes the rallying point of a people that desperately need a leader that will fix their world.

FIRES OF THE FRUITFUL is an enthralling fantasy saga very reminiscent of the Joan of Arc story. Readers get so caught up in the heroine’s world that they actually feel they are a camp follower. Naomi Kritzer is an expert at characterizations and plotting, so much so that the audience will want to finish it in one sitting and put it on the keeper shelf.

Harriet Klausner

Reprinted with permission. Do Not repost without permission from the author, Harriet Klausner