Review: Dreams of Fire
A novella set in Ireland (back when Gods lived there)
I haven’t read Shauna Lawless’s The Children of Gods and Fighting Men, but I read a teaser for her prequel novella Dreams of Fire, dug it, and decided to pick it up anyway. It’s rare but sometimes I make good decisions.
Novellas
I like novellas. I like being able to finish a book in a day, and I have a theory that market-wise, this is where the industry should head. Putting my daytime, business person hat on… A lot of book people like thick books, but the main problem for books today is market size: there aren’t a lot of book people. Publishers trying to chase larger slices of a small and shrinking pie is just a losing business strategy. Novellas can be finished in a couple hours and provide more direct competition for other forms of entertainment with shorter durations. The first goal of publishers should be to increase the size of the pie. Marketed well, novellas can do this.
Ireland
The setting is a fantasy version of Ireland circa 900 AD — already, a mysterious, fantastical place. Historically, this is where most of my people are from before they came to the USA. They came during the potato thing. So, on a personal level, I like reading about Irish mythology, history, and the place itself. I’m not sure if it’s just an American preoccupation because almost none of us are from here if you go back more than a few generations, but once you get slightly older (but are still very attractive and youthful), you start trying to place yourself. No one in my direct family line has died within a thousand miles of where they were born since they left Ireland. If my current location holds, I won’t break the streak. We’re restless movers. I’m from Southern California but my parents aren’t and my soon-to-be children won’t be. I’ve never been to the other side of the Atlantic or otherwise outside the Americas, but you look for connections to a place your people are from, no matter how tenuous.
Dreams of Fire
The novella tells the story of a young woman who is a member of a dying race of magical people, the Descendants of the Tuatha De Danann, and the story of another dying race called the Fomorian. You read the novella from the perspective of the Descendants, but it is clear that both groups have been pushed to the brink. Their magic weakens and the mortals crowd them out. The Descendants take a more peaceful approach, and the Fomorian a more violent one, but both deal with the challenge of losing their place.
The central conflict of the novella is between the two groups, but a significant portion of the action is more personal. The protagonist’s father is sick and her sister is coming-of-age. She is haunted by dreams.
It’s beautifully written, touching.
The magic is interesting, and I’m sure a larger component of the main novel series. The scene where we learn what happens after death is moving.
You should read it. It’s good.