2007 Book Log #25-26: Of Darkness, Light, and Fire, by Tanya Huff

Of Darkness, Light, and Fire really counts as two novels, on the grounds that it's a reprinting of Tanya Huff's two first novels; Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light and The Fire's Stone. As a longstanding fan of Huff's later work, I certainly enjoyed reading both of these books, though I could also see how they were rougher versions of the style she'd later develop for the Vicki Nelsons, the Quarters novels, and the Keeper ones.

Gate of Darkness, Circle of Light in particular felt rough around the edges, primarily in the handling of the main male character, the young street bard. I kept having too many "yeah yeah yeah, seen this" reactions to the various and sundry things thrown at him as part of his development arc, and I didn't really quite buy the reasons given for his maturation towards the end. Also, I have to admit I was hugely thrown off by seeing the lyrics of a familiar Mercedes Lackey filksong, "Wind's Four Quarters", quoted as a plot point in the story--duly credited, of course, but still. I'm very used to thinking of that song in other contexts, i.e., Valdemar, so it knocked me askew from the story to see it here. The ending was also rather a bit of "yeah yeah yeah, seen this". I won't go so far as to say "deus ex machina", but one could make a very good argument for that term literally applying here.

Now, all that said, there are other things I also really like in this story. The treatment of the primary female character was interestingly well-rounded and didn't fall into the easy sorts of traps that might have come from having a mentally challenged person as your lead female character. And I liked seeing a young woman from India as another of the primary female characters, too. And I enjoyed seeing Toronto serving as the setting--though, having just whipped through all the Vicki Nelsons as well, I think I even recognized a couple of minor cop characters that appear in both this book and the Vicki Nelsons. I may have to doublecheck that; it would amuse me if this is supposed to be Vicki Nelson's Toronto here.

Meanwhile, over in The Fire's Stone, you have a more traditional fantasy in which a thief with an angsty past, a drunken but charming prince, and a bristly young wizard team up together to try to recover the stolen magical stone that keeps the local volcano from erupting and thereby destroying the kingdom. This one read roughly for me as well, mostly due to the very modern-flavored narrative and dialogue not quite working right for me--for example, the wizard girl referring to the prince as a "jerk". (Though to be fair, after a while I got used to it, and it helped to keep in mind things like oh, say, Avatar: The Last Airbender to get the flavor down.) There weren't any real surprises in the development of any of the characters, nor in the various obstacles they had to solve to get to their goal.

Also, you could really tell that Huff was trying to get the hang of writing a queer-friendly plot--and, for that matter, a poly-friendly plot. We do get two boys attracted strongly to one another here, but at least on the part of one, a bit too much "ZOMG BOY + BOY = BAD" conditioning out of his culture. I see way too much of that in real life, and honestly prefer Huff's later, defter handling of queer-friendly plots: i.e., having queer characters just there and being part of the story without the double-barrelled angst.

On the other hand, points for being one of the few fantasy novels I've read that's not only queer-friendly, but poly-friendly as well. ^_^

All in all, three stars, I think. Not Huff's strongest works, she got her feet under her with later ones, but pleasant reads in general.