Critique: The Fire Eternal (Chris D’Lacey)

Five years after the events of the first book, Zanna and David’s child Alexa is introduced.

 

*****SPOILERS*****

 

As always the author gave us plenty to laugh about. But it does seem like he’s trading humour for world-building.

Tam says he has a long life line and Zanna says, ‘It might shorten if you don’t let me concentrate.’

Tam makes Zanna’s face twitch then he says, ‘Sorry, I think I might have amused you.’

Alexa calls polar bears ‘boley pears’ which is the cutest thing I’ve ever read. Plus she calls the tv the ‘tellingvision’.

Gwilanna tottering around in her ice cube is hilarious.

 

After an absence in the previous book, we get good descriptions.

The fairy door in the garden opens with a crack of light and a hazy ripple that show the ‘shift in the fabric of the universe.’

Dragons ‘mirror’ the Earth, having ‘a body of clay, a heart of fire’.

When Golly animated Gawain’s eye, it’s described in a really gross way. Excellent.

 

There were a few writing errors.

In a couple of chapters, the point-of-view character changes many times in quick succession which is bad writing.

Prem:Ix are the Ix version of Pre:men. Surely the colon in both words would be in the same place? It makes no sense for them to be in different positions.

In the middle of a sentence, it says, ‘The Fire Eternal’ but the ‘The’ shouldn’t have a capital.

When making darklings, it says ‘It took as long as it took.’ What a pointless sentence.

 

With heavier and heavier world-building, there are a few things of note that need to be kept in mind.

            Gwilanna’s mother was a Premen. This is the source of Gwilanna’s longevity and magic. Her mother was meant to be illumed with the dragon Ghislaine and this unfairness seems to drive Gwilanna.

            With each Premen generation, the Fain and human were finding it harder to un-commingle. This made both humans and Fain (these called Ix) more aggressive. The Ix are threatened by dragons.

The Prem: Ix force Lucy to make darklings, gargoyle-like creatures that are the opposite of dragons.

Gwillan creied his fire tear because he thought Liz died and it landed in the obsidian knife, creating dark fire. Gwilanna takes it.

 

There are many cases of things being said or done that don’t quite add up.

The group had left for the Arctic in November and David ‘disappeared’ in February. The trip was only for twelve weeks so unless they left at the end of November and he ‘disappeared’ at the start of February, this timescale isn’t feasible.

When Zanna says she wants to run a ‘new agey’ shop, Lucy says, ‘at least it’s not you hippie veggie stuff’. But ‘hippie’ and ‘veggie’ are two words that describe ‘new age’ really well.

Tam talks about Diana from Greek myth. But Diana is the Roman name for the Greek god Athena.

It says that there is ‘common ancestry’ in the lineages of Groyne and the Pennykettle dragons. Groyne is a narwhal tusk and the dragons are made from clay. Where is the common ancestry? The only explanation I can come up with is having the auma of actual dragons, maybe Gaia, but this is tenuous.

Henry calls fairies ‘diminutive dryads’. Sigh. Dryads are nymphs of oak trees. Fairies and nymphs aren’t the same thing so dryads can’t be, either.

It describes Premen as human-Fain hybrids. Hybrids are children of two separate species. Premen are humans with Fains inside them so that’s hardly a hybrid.

Lucy and Tam go to David’s previous address before he moved to Wayward Crescent but it doesn’t exist! We saw David in book two pick up a letter from his parents so where did that come from if they don’t exist?

Arthur thinks, for no apparent reason, that Alexa (pre-birth) sent Gawain’s claw to Arthur during Arthur’s monk years. We find out in the final book this is true but Arthur really has no reason to think this.

The Ix want to kill Alexa so that David’s sadness will multiply in the human collective, creating dark fire for the darklings. Why would David’s sadness for his murdered child be multiplied in the human collective but other parents losing their kids don’t?

 

Those weren’t the only problems, however.

Alexa pronounces Gruffen’s name as ‘Ruffen’. Zanna says it the right way and the prose says, ‘pronouncing his name correctly this time.’ Um, yeah, we figured that one out.

Thoran and Ingavar, the polar bears from the last book, fuse into one being. this polar bear doesn’t have two characters inside so it seems they were fused simply for convenience rather than for the plot. Then it’s revealed that Ingavar and David are one!

It’s very convenient that Gretel gives Groyne flowers for understanding accents just when he needed them. There was no reason for Gretel to expect Groyne would encounter someone with a weird accent.

For Fain to know themselves completely, they need to ‘experience creation in a physical state.’ That is, they need to mate. But this doesn’t follow.

Tam, twenty-five, tells Lucy, sixteen, that she’s a ‘good-looking kid.’ Vomit. Yes she’s reached the age of consent but she’s still legally a child. Then they kiss later! Double vomit.

There are questions that remain unanswered for the entire series. They’re quite important to the plot so having them unjustified is undesirable. When Premen failed to un-commingle, both humanity and Ix became aggressive. But why? Lucy’s phone becomes a portal to take her to Farlowe Island. How exactly? It says, ‘This was the End of Days.’ Um, why?

 

Many of the political themes spoken about in this book are very relevant today. Indeed, you could read this book and think that it was written really recently.

Talking about climate change, it’s mentioned, ‘we all seem to care but we don’t know what to do.’ I think this perfectly sums up people’s predicament.

Jodie and Tam have a conversation that I’ve had with so many people. Jodie says the ‘temperature of the Earth has always fluctuated. It goes through natural cycles.’ Then Tam replies, ‘It’s the rate of acceleration that matters.’

The author talks about disinformation and how politicians spin the facts for their own purpose.’ Then we get, ‘When the populous is confused, our leaders are well and truly in command.’

 

This was an interesting book with interesting world-building. But it’s in this book that it becomes complex. Maybe too complex for the intended audience (it’s still marketed for children rather than teens). Not only have the characters aged but so has the readership.