The Blackfire Chronicles, Volume I by Mark Sowers

Blurb:

From the depths of a gargantuan pit in a barren desert rises an enormous stone box. Slaves toil in the broiling heat, digging out the mysterious object which has no door, no windows, no features of any kind. Revan has spent nearly his entire life here. He has only vague and indistinct memories of a time before the toil, digging and torment. Arval, a newly arrived digger, befriends Revan and tells him of the world beyond, of its cities, its foods and its wonders. Yet unseen and unknown to Revan, above the rim of the pit and far to the south, looms the Blackfire – a gigantic rotating wheel of black flames that obscures and dominates the entirety of the southern sky while red and gold lightning flash threateningly and ominously in its fringes. This is an epic tale of two young men who seek to escape their sadistic captors, the brutal and vile Nojii. What will they discover should they finally escape, and where will fate lead them? Will secrets and power, long hidden and lost, be rediscovered?

Review:

I was pleasantly surprised with this novel, all things considered. Especially since I read the short stories before jumping into “The Blackfire Chronicles”. Mark Sower has two different tones, one is… well, not to my liking, which is what the short stories were, and one that is pure fantasy with some sci-fi tones to it. And yes, it’s been a few months since I read the book, however I do have notes.

Say I’m walking down the street and someone asked me about why I am holding “The Blackfire Chronicles, Volume 1”, hypothetically speaking, and I had to describe the book to them first, I’d give them these two sentences:

“Revan was a slave, until he escaped after exiting a cube. From there, he learns of ancient secrets, and tries to warn everyone of what’s to come.”,

and then I’d launch into characters, plot, some world building stuff, and something that I didn’t enjoy about the book.

Starting off, we have the named character from the Amazon blurb. Revan. As a slave at the beginning of the book, he doesn’t really have much going for him, aside from the fact that he doesn’t like being a slave and that he is determined to find some way out. From a person perspective, he’s naive of how things work outside the labor camp he’s in, so when he interacts with the outside world for the first time, he’s just like us, new and unfamiliar with how things work, with the only real knowledge that the Nojii people are evil. Which I liked as a way of expanding the world building and the various details that are there that we discover through Revan.

After that, we have the plot. It starts out different from “the Wheel of Time”, but then it gradually turns into a similar high fantasy epic, just less wordy. Revan is in the pit, shenanigans happen, the villain of the story is introduced somewhere, magic is thrown about, and the next thing we know we’re at the end of book one, and book two is around here somewhere to read. 

As for worldbuilding, there is a map at the beginning of the book, so we can see where everything is. Then, with magic, it’s in some people, it’s not in other people. After that there are the various orders that are supposed to keep the peace (or they’re too busy infighting), and lastly there are the true monsters lurking somewhere in the darkness of the blackfire. Just there, in the dark void of somewhere, watching everything. 

Lastly, if I had to critique something about “The Blackfire Chronicles: Volume 1”, I’d critique the fact that it sometimes feels like I am reading the Wheel of Time (the first five books, I burned out in the middle of the fifth one), but in a different setting, because of how wordy it can get, but luckily its not at the same absurd amount of descriptors as Robert Jordan's series.

All in all, if you like long fantasy epics with hints of some science fiction, and a character you can relate to because like you, he knows almost nothing of the outside world, this book (and series) is for you.

As always, thank you for reading this, like my other reviews recently, long overdue review, and I hope I’ve helped nudge you towards your next read or a new book to add to the TBR pile. If not, don’t fret, here’s a random link to another SFFI review that could be in any genre, which might help you along on your book search or not.

Wherever you are reading this, have a wonderful good morning, good afternoon, good evening and good night.