Bursts of Fire

The first volume of a projected seven book epic fantasy series, Bursts of Fire tells the story of three princesses who are touched by magic and known as magiels. The story is told mainly through the point of view of the three girls: Meg, the eldest, her sister Janat, both teenagers, and Rennika, the youngest. Their mother is the imperial magiel of the kingdom of Orumon. While the small kingdoms of Shangril have been at peace for five hundred years, the girls’ mother has a foretelling of a war to come, but no one will believe her.

The adventure opens with a surprise attack on Orumon, but their mother has an escape plan ready and sends the three girls out into the wilderness of a world at war to flee from the siege of their home. The mad king Ormond who started the war is bringing fire and destruction and a desire to overthrow the established religion, destroy the Prayer Stones the populace rely on, and establish a new religion of the One God. A varied group of survivors of the conflicts, led by the merchant class, gather to oppose Ormond through a truce or open warfare if necessary.

The girls join the rebellion and go through a coming-of-age, each with different ambitions. Sometimes together, at other times separated, they go through a series of adventures while learning something of love, and family, and country. The fortunes of those opposed to King Ormond rise and fall with harrowing escapes and adventures as the girls struggle with what it means to have to grow up quickly while becoming assassins, battle tacticians, and wielders of magic.

Readers also see something of what is going on with the other side. King Ormond has two legitimate sons and a bastard son who is the eldest. In the background is the king’s chancellor whose actions and motives are behind the outbreak of war and destruction. This volume ends with the rebels besieging their enemy in a citadel inside the city of Coldridge. The attack falters, but the sisters are reunited and flee, safe for the moment.

Bursts of Fire opens with a one page black and white map of the kingdoms and a four-page prologue. Amongst the end matter is a three-page “Reader’s Group Guide”. A detailed and complex tale of love and loyalty told through several points of view, Bursts of Fire should appeal to readers of high fantasy and adventure as seen through the eyes of three young women as they grow to maturity quickly in a world of fire and religious uncertainty.