le_domaine's Full Review: Chris D'Lacey - Fire Star
Recently, I reviewed Tikta’liktak, a tale about a young Inuit hunter and his people--the Inuit Eskimos who inhabit arctic regions. I was surprised to realize I’d read another story set, at least in part, in the arctic environs of Alaska and Canada; Fire Star, written by Chris D’Lacey for Scholastic, is that story.
Twice every school year, the book fair comes to our campus. Last fall, when the fair came, I found Fire Star. The cover attracted my attention, immediately. A fierce dark eye stares out at you from a red, scaly upper face which trails back toward the back cover. Underneath this unblinking eye in silver, the title. My hand reached out, before I’d even known it would, and scooped it off the shelf. I heft the 548-page paperback, turn it over to read the blurb on the back cover. Below this are two thumbnail pictures of two other books whose images are exact replicas of the front cover of Fire Star except in the first, The Fire Within, the dragon is green; in the second, Icefire, it‘s white. It appears my book is one in a trilogy. My decision to buy it has been made.
That evening I opened the front cover, realizing that Fire Star was book three in the trilogy and wondering if I’d be able to follow the storyline three books out. No choice but to begin reading since I’d already bought and brought it home.
D’Lacey first introduces us to Ingavar, telling his story from his perspective. Ingavar is a bear, an ice bear. A bear of legend whose ancestors have long fought man for the arctic land they both inhabited, yet never shared. Now, he runs for his life, knowing the men who shoot at him, do so for his pelt. Ingavar is injured and a chameleon-like spirit offers to heal him in exchange for the ice bear’s help in procuring an object of legend, known to have a direct connection to Ingavar by way of his immediate bloodline: Ragnar tooth.
At the center of this quest, the legendary figure the ice bear was to seek was, of course, a girl--a young woman, actually--who was believed to be in the legendary arctic town of men known as Chamberlain, which is actually a village in south-central Saskatchewan, Canada with a human population of about 116. He would know this “girl” by a special mark on her arm. Like all great, historical quests, this was one to be embarked upon with only an elusive clue upon which to begin it, and no small amount of faith by its pursuer.
Oops… a cliffhanger as d’Lacey zips us away to--NOT a little village in the province of Saskatchewan [btw, did you notice the similarity to Sasquatch in the name?] in Canada--but to Scrubbley [I know, doesn’t exist] in the United States to the Wayward Crescent [also, does not exist] home of Liz Pennykettle and her eleven-year-old daughter, Lucy. Liz and Lucy share their home with Bonnington, their cat, and a considerable number of dragons. These dragons are created in Liz’s renown Dragons Den and are supposed to be made of clay, which is exactly how they start out. However, these dragons are Pennykettle dragons. Their names all suspiciously begin with G and they get special ingredients which make them extra special knickknacks, indeed.
David Rain is a student at Scrubbley University and is a boarder in the Pennykettle home. David, currently, is on an educational research expedition to the Arctic regions around Manitoba, Canada along with his girlfriend, Suzanna “Zanna” Martindale, and a professor at Scrubbley U. Dr. Bergstrom. Tootega, Inuit guide for Dr. Bergstrom and his American academic team while they were at the Arctic base observing the northern ‘biome’, does not get on well with Zanna. Before our story’s end, the two would become much more involved in a battle for saving the earth than anyone could have predicted, particularly not the two of them.
Litmus Test
Did Fire Star, the third book in the series, bear up under the test of independent storyline? Was I able to follow it although I had not read the previous two books in the series?
At times, the story could stand on its own. Though difficult to put together the bits and pieces, most could be sorted out. In other places, however, a bit of background information would have made this a much cohesive and comprehensive tale, thus, a decidedly more enjoyable read. While writing this one, perhaps Chris should have taken this point under consideration, making sure he left a clearer trail for his uninformed, first-time readers.
Also, I wondered about a few of the incidents which occurred in the story. Marketed for those ten years of age and up, maybe a warning that subjects concerning unmarried parentage and extreme violence to children were prominently portrayed throughout the book should have been placed in a conspicuous vantage point on the cover. I am aware our children have access to media with mature themes on a daily basis, however, their parents should be allowed to make the decision to allow them to do so, or not--especially when making these materials available to them through their elementary school book fairs.
The issue of geographical locations was amusing and more than a bit intriguing. As far as I could make out, Scrubbley, Scrubbley University, and Wayward Crescent impressed me as being relatively reminiscent of the Cambridge, Cambridge University, Boston, MA geographical relationship, Cambridge itself being a city in the Greater Boston area of Massachusetts. D’Lacey himself lives in Leicester in the UK and teaches at Leicester University (so many parallels between book and reality). His series featuring David Rain have established a huge fan base world-wide.
Final Thoughts
All in all, I enjoyed this 2005 Chris d’Lacey tale of legends, bears, aliens, dragons, magic, and sibyls. In addition to this and the two previous novels, his latest (the fourth) in the series, The Fire Eternal was released in September, 2007.
I gave this one 3 out of 5 stars. Had it been able to stand on its own independent of past novels, I would have eagerly given it 4. All that said, I do believe d’Lacey has an enduring story that can withstand the tides of time in this series. He has most definitely created multiple worlds within worlds. I can recommend it as a good selection for your child’s summer reading, barring the above quantifications.
Thanks for reading, rating, and commenting. Be safe and enjoy the summer!!
In this thrilling final installment of dLaceys popular trilogy, David Rain is faced with a perilous task. The evil sibyl Gwilanna is back, this time d...More at HotBookSale
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