In Ash, on one side of the world, Aleya Ana-Ulai, City Guard and bastard of the royal family, is desperate for a chance to prove herself. Her family may have written her off as a mistake, but she’ll prove all of them wrong. Or die trying.
On the other, Kirby of Wall’s End is searching for redemption and her village’s lost idol. An ancient curse may have killed her brother (though that may have been faulty architecture), be leading to the death of her village, and might have caused her own issues, but who else is going to go? She just never knew that to fix it, she’ll have to leave everything behind.
Somewhere in the middle is Nylophon of Carthe. With his shield brother (ohmigod, and they were shield brothers) dead and his men distrustful and unsure of his bravery, his only chance to redeem himself may be the vanquishing of that meddlesome woman from Ash that has crossed their path.
Fate sets them all on the path to Nivela, a city once poised to conquer the world with the power of a thousand stolen gods and the might of the WorldLord. But the gates have been closed for years, and the city is a ghost town. The old magic slumbers, possibly dead — or waiting for a spark to light it anew…
Cue “At the Beginning” from Anastasia….
They had me at “Slowburn Sapphic Fantasy inspired by the fall of the Roman Empire”, not gonna lie. Yes, I know the ending was probably very realistic, but I kind of wished for something more like the ending of The Priory of the Orange Tree. I thought it was interesting to have the story from several characters’ points of view; it gave a varied take on the story. (Bonus points for having them all sound different; I hate when authors have multiple POVs but they sound like the exact same person.) Was not expecting Sumerian or Mesopotamian flairs. One critique is that for something that is billed as so important (it’s the title of the book for Go, for Sat, for Someone’s sake), Idolfire kinda wasn’t? On the whole, I got the distinct feeling of it being more of a McGuffin or a plot device than an actual part of the story. Did not expect Nylophon to grow on me, an opinion I’d probably share with Aleya. Kirby is an interesting name, made more so by the fact that it just seems to jar slightly with the naming preferences of the rest of the book. (It doesn’t fit with the other villagers of Wall’s End, never mind seem like it would belong in the same world with Aleyas, Scorias, Nylophons, Buranas, or Taires.) There is a realization almost at the end of the book about why idols look the way they do that I had never considered, and yet seems so commonsensical I don’t know how I missed it. Love that some of the people who appear towards the end of the book don’t get names; as they are barely shoved in, unimportant additions to the story there is no reason why they would. A weakness is the villain though; at the end, she’s kind of…meh? Blah? Unimportant, because the journey matters more than the destination? Less scary than the future? All of the above?
The story flowed incredibly well and quickly, and the prose sparkles. One of the highest compliments I can give about Curtis’s writing style is that the characters come across as real people; they’re snarky, and self-pitying, insecure and fallible, caring and thoughtful. Even though this is a fantastical work, the characters come across as people you wouldn’t be surprised to meet on the street.
All in all this is a book I enjoyed reading and would recommend. In fact, I’m thinking of picking up her other works; a Sci-Fi book that says it’s about a space hotel but is really about climate change is one I want to pick up.
(And thanks once again to ElCicco for gifting this to me in the 2025 CBR Book Exchange!)
