Cages inside cages

Very nice English edition.

Fire Logic: An Elemental Logic novel by Laurie J. Marks

Oh, I love books, they are always pulling the rug when you aren’t expecting it. At first glance, the world setting seems a tad generic… a medieval place, some conflicting nations, scholars, the warriors (some named Paladins, add that) and magic from the elements; and said magic profiles (fire, water, earth, air) appear stereotypical, the characters, painted with distance in the middle of some event. But hey… like some of those reliable friends that burrow themselves little by little in your heart, sneaky beautiful people, Marks has a steady build up, adding depth, closing the distance elegantly and the world is not so simple any more, not some shining fantasy, the people are poor, stinky, with not advanced technology, there is among the main characters determination and courage, but also despair, disability and addiction. I like how the diversity is handled, a fluidity in sexual orientation with no drama in it, there is plenty to have outside. It is funny how we can go to space, but people are still rattled from queer couples and thinking that you cannot share the human experience beyond what you like… just saying.

Also liked very much the slow, but sure approach of the enemy element: the other. They do evil and cruel things, and then you see their humanity too. Those plights of desperate single-minded people, so we have more weight than just an evil role. By the way… How awesomely revolutionary empathy is?

And now, the characters: awesome, just awesome. From those initial generic profiles, so much meat is added giving the book a very engaging quality. It is a journey through land and adventures, but also to growth, transformation and connection. People and meaning lost and then, the people you find when you are lost, yourself among them. What are the things that chain us to ourselves? To our view of the world? Does your viewpoint is a chain too? Fine stuff.

At the end, foolish human, you have been utterly owned. Remember to look beyond appearances, doesn’t it make us wiser?