Fire - judging and cleansing

kw: book reviews, fiction, fantasy, magic

Coming of age can happen at any age. The term is mostly applied to the early teens. A later transitions is called "finding oneself" or a "midlife crisis". Fire Study by Maria V. Snyder is her third novel about Yelena, a Soulfinder, and all three have had such learning crises as their theme (I didn't read the first two, I located synopses).

I almost stopped in an early chapter. The book seemed to have a common Disney theme: horribly abused young person turns out to be someone really special who saves the day. I kept reading, though, and the novel soon left my expected formula behind. Ms Snyder is that rare writer who can animate more than one hero/heroine, and bring to life complex characters who are neither all good nor all bad. Yelena is the focal point of the book, but she is recipient of as much help as she lends to others.

As a Soulfinder, Yelena is feared, and expected to become a power-hungry magician. As the story unfolds, she gradually learns what she is actually good at, which isn't magic as it is typically known, other than an ability to heal very grave cases. But she can't start a fire, not even a little one, nor cause even a small object to move, by magical means.

Her soulfinding ability affords her a little protection from a powerful magician who wishes to destroy her; in a fight, she can attach the person's soul and, unless the magician disengages quickly, destroy it or drag it out of the body, killing her adversary. She is just a bit more ethical than the average bear, though, and doesn't resort to such killing until somewhat late in the story, when she learns that her primary skill is helping the soul of someone who has died find its way to the sky.

She also learns that the people's fear of Soulfinders is based on confusion with Soulstealers (I'd have used the word Soulthief), those who kill others to appropriate their magical powers. There is also an alternate way to steal magic that relies on a gruesome ritual, potentially making any person with magical gifts into a Soulstealer, effectively. Once Yelena knows the difference, she learns to liberate the souls enslaved by Soulstealers and send them to the sky, reducing the thieves' extraordinary powers.

She has four primary helpers: her lover Valek, her Story Weaver (kind of a magical psychiatrist) Moon Man, her horse Kiki, and an unnamed bat. Her adversaries are primarily two, the duplicitous Roze and an otherwise unnamed "Fire Weaver" who lives in the underworld. A gift Yelena learns, in a rather dramatic way, is how to pass through a fire into the underworld, and how to return.

But all these are metaphors. None of us matures without learning to confront our greatest fears. Living in denial means living a partial or crippled life. We may not be wise enough to choose the right helpers, but oftentimes our best helpers find us. We all have the opportunity to "entertain angels, all unawares". The best stories help us learn about ourselves.