In a time where shows like Game of Thrones and The Witcher are at the height of popularity, Forged in Fire and Stars has all the ingredients to appeal to all readers. It is the tale of an exiled princess, a divided kingdom, and a legendary blacksmith known as the Loresmith. Tasked with forging the weapons of the Gods, the Loresmith served alongside the Kings and Queens to protect the kingdom. Ara has always known about these revered blacksmiths. In fact, she was set to inherit the title from her father until the monarchies downfall and his death many years earlier. Going about her life Ara is resigned to be simply a blacksmith until the lost Princess Nimhea and Prince Eamon find her and convince her to join their mission to retake their throne and for Ara to claim her rightful place as the Loresmith. There is only one small problem. To claim her birthright, she must petition the Gods themselves. What follows is a whirlwind, dangerous adventure where Ara discovers the truth about her family’s history while forging a new and better future for her Kingdom and herself.
Forged in Fire and Stars has a simple to follow narrative with well defined and structured plot points throughout. The single character, third person narrative allows for straightforward communication of the plot to the reader and the insight given into the main character, Ara, and her emotions and motivations are well conveyed. Andrea Robertson has set out to take her readers on a journey and while the characters themselves are interesting, the twists that occurred throughout the plot lacked finesse and it felt like I was simply being told the story instead of being able to immerse myself in this new world.
The world and political structure Robertson has created is complex and there are many invested parties involved in this story: the dethroned royal family of which Nimhea and Eamon belong, the Vokkans who exiled the royal siblings, the Gods and then everyone else.
The pace of the book was overwhelmingly deliberate and has a large amount of exposition to develop the world and the characters’ ways of life. The overall feel of this book is that of a prequel and that this book has been used to set up the rest of the series. This made the book feel underwhelming and in my opinion, the book would have been more enjoyable if there was equal focus given to developing the plot within this book and creating a succinct narrative as there was given to the explanatory world building.
The subtlety of the presence of a magic system in this book was unique and refreshing and really separates it from other YA reads in its category. The mythology system was well constructed and imaginative and I loved how unique the Loresmith legend is. What really shines in this story is Ara. She is such a unique heroine it is hard not to fall in love with her. In some situations she is wise beyond her years, in others she is naive and yet the fate of the Kingdom rests on her shoulders. She is the perfect vessel to guide the reader through the perils on this adventure.
Forged in Fire and Stars has an overall interesting concept that has great potential. I was really looking forward to learning more about this exciting world based off the synopsis and the comparison to Six of Crows and An Ember in the Ashes series. This created some very big shoes for this book to fill and unfortunately for me the execution was lacklustre. I would be very interested to see where this series goes next as there is just so much potential!
Forged in Fire and Stars is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore!
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Synopsis | Goodreads
Games of Thrones meets An Ember in the Ashes in this action-packed fantasy from the internationally bestselling author of the Nightshade series.
Ara has always known about the legend of the Loresmith: the blacksmith who served alongside the kings and queens of every generation to protect the kingdom. It was her fate to inherit the title–though she never truly believed it would come to pass since the monarchy’s downfall years before.
But when the lost Princess Nimhea and Prince Eamon steal Ara from her quiet life with a mission to retake the throne–and take her place as the Loresmith–her whole world turns upside down. Their journey will take Ara on a dangerous adventure to discover new truths about her family’s legacy, and even to face the gods themselves. And with a mysterious thief as an unexpected companion, Ara must use all her skills to figure out just who she can trust, and forge the right path forward–for herself, her kingdom, and her heart.
From internationally bestselling author Andrea Cremer comes a gorgeously written new fantasy series perfect for readers of Leigh Bardugo’s Grishaverse or Sabaa Tahir’s An Ember in the Ashes series.
