A review by themanfromdelmonte
The Element of Fire by Martha Wells

3.0

This is a story of fantasy palace intrigue. You could lose the first hundred pages as most of it is spent in needless exposition and scene setting. I'm guessing that the author has drawn a very intricate map of the palace as much is made of getting from place to place within it. I nearly put the book down because it's not nearly atmospheric enough, there's lots of descriptions of buildings and weapons but it reads more like a mundane travelogue than a novel. However, the pace picks after this (thank goodness) and the novel starts to (slowly) redeem itself. The anti-hero and anti heroine are quite good fun and reasonably well developed. One niggle was Kade's reception at the palace given the nature of some of the things she did while in exile. Surely someone capable of creating a decapitating necklace wouldn't be allowed anywhere near the palace? Another niggle is the late attention paid to the King. He hardly figures in the first two thirds and then suddenly discovers some long dormant sense of purpose in the last part. Thank goodness for 99p offers on Kindle because I would be very cross if I'd spent £14 on the paperback. If you want to how this should be done then try The Curse of Chalion by the master of the format, Lois McMaster Bujold.