The Fire Sermon by Francesca Haig
My rating: 3/5 cats
the first book in any fantasy-dusted series has one job: to tell the reader what’s up with this world. and this book does that, but it does so in a breathless rush that never addresses the underlying questions attached to “what’s up with this world,” like “how” and “why” things are this way. it’s a crucial part of writing; the world-building, because without accounting for more than just the surface details, it’s like listening to someone tell you about a crazy dream they had:
so, there was a blast and it destroyed the world and there’s no more electricity but now every birth results in mixed-gender twins and one is always physically perfect and the other is either missing a limb, or has extra limbs & etc, and the perfect twins are known as “alphas” and given all good things, while the others are called “omegas,” hot-branded on their infant-foreheads and sent off elsewhere to struggle and be poor, but not too poor and struggly, because the twins have a bond and if one twin dies, so does the other! if one twin is injured, the other feels it!
– wait, what? but why? and how?
doesn’t matter, it is “unknown,” but so anyway there’s one other kind of omega and they’re like stealth omegas because they don’t have extra fingies or anything but they are seers who can see the future. or sometimes the present but like really far away. or the future. no one knows, it’s kind of an anything goes kind of seeing and sometimes it’s real and sometimes it’s “maybe” and sometimes it’s detailed and sometimes vague or maybe even allegorical.
– wait, what? but why? and how?
doesn’t matter, it is “unknown,” but so anyway there’s an omega girl named cass and she’s a seer and her twinsie brother zach grows up to be really powerful and to most people he would be considered evil, but she understands his emotional layers even though they have been separated for years and even though he kidnaps her and imprisons her, she’s still got twinlove for him and is sure he just needs some perspective and maybe a stern talking to and then he won’t be so bad and she escapes and finds a boy who’s like a science project and they go on the run and kiss and try to find safety and be heroes and they meet rebels and things get complicated and cass really just wants everyone to get along and be together forever twins.
– wait, what? but why? and how?
doesn’t matter, it is “unknown.”
but it kind of does matter, especially since this is being targeted at the adult market. and before you start torching my lawn, i’m not saying anything disparaging about YA fiction, but we all know that there is some YA fiction that is densely plotted and richly textured and as literary as all get-out, and there’s some that is more about delivering instant gratification to reluctant readers, skimping on the details so as not to frustrate a young, less-experienced reader with a limited attention span into going elsewhere for their diversions.
and this skimps on many of the details, in both the world-building and the character development. we have a romance that grows out of not much more than proximity, that sustains itself through challenging situations in the manner of YA romances where although newly met, they understand each other like a long-established couple who don’t even need words to communicate and they will fight, kill, or die for each other and nothing will threaten this bond that’s still sticky with novelty.
it’s also philosophically superficial, finger-skimming fairly complicated social and moral quandaries in broad strokes of murder, heroism, sacrifice, without nuance, by characters who don’t seem to understand the world they are in, the consequences of their linked destinies, and must be reminded of the facts, many many times, by cass.
it’s an intriguing premise, but i need to know that there’s a design to it, something more than “hey, listen to the weird dream i had!” the fact that the synopsis for the second book (on goodreads, at least) is the exact same synopsis as this first book is not encouraging, but i’m going to read it soon so i can read the third book and appease the gods of the gr giveaway!
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now i am one step closer to being able to read the third book in this trilogy, which i won through goodreads, foolishly assuming i’d never win. i’m coming for you, book three!
