CHILDREN OF FIRE, by Drew Karpyshyn, is a dark fantasy with many characters, so it has somewhat in common with the Song of Ice and Fire series. In both series, bad things happen indiscriminately, and sometimes it’s tough to read something like that. You want some glimmer of hope to pull you through, but it’s rare to find that in these types of books. [amazon asin=0345542231&template=thumbnail]It’s tough to get through them. But the action moves along here, and each character has a unique role in the story. I was intrigued by the blurb–a creature of Chaos breaks its bonds, just for a moment, to send a spark of itself into four children, so I weathered my way through some slow parts. The characters are quite cynical, but that’s the type of world they live in, so I dealt with it. The story speeds through time, often starting a chapter with something like “In the last twelve years…” so you know that the character has dramatically aged. It’s a way to move the story along, but sometimes that’s jarring and left me wondering what happened in the intervening years. Not important things, I guess, and that leaves plenty of material for short stories from the author, but it’s something that broke me out of the story, since I had to reset my mental character image. There is plenty more to tell in this world, since Chaos isn’t remotely finished, and the book manages to end with most of its threads tied off. There’s always room for revenge, though. This book has grim characters, magic with consequences, and gritty action, and fans of dark epic fantasy will enjoy it.

Received as a digital ARC via Netgalley and the publisher.