The Fire's Stone

I came into The Fire's Stone very excited with inflated expectations because I've been on a fantasy kick and when I first heard about this book sounded like it would hit all the right notes for me. Let me preface this by saying I didn't hate the book. I liked the message, I liked how the three mains played off of each other, and it had some solid writing.

That being said, my main issue with the entire story was that it was too simplistic. The world-building was barebones, the characters (even the 3 mains) seemed slightly underdeveloped, the plot and writing style were both equally basic, as in nothing new or innovative was done with the story.

More nitpicks include:

The cuts between scenes are so abrupt. The passage of time isn't the clearest. I always feel as though I missed a scene that happened offscreen.

The story is told in third person perspective but it shifts very often even within the same paragraph or consecutive paragraphs from one character to another so it's very hard to keep track of who's eyes we're seeing through at any given moment.

There were so many interesting concepts that Huff introduced that I feel like could've added so much depth had she given them more time and attention such as:
1. The Nine Gods Pantheon (and the rest of the religious systems in this world tbh)
2. The mechanics of the magic system they use
3. The different cultures of all these different countries in their world.
4. Locations and geography of the world (architecture styles, landscapes, climates, languages etc.)

Maybe I've been spoiled by all the other great fantasy stories I read last year that anything less than the standards Le Guin, Hobb, and Lynch have set are disappointing to me.

Lastly, this is very much a young adult story and I can definitively state that this is the book that made me realise that maybe I've grown out of the genre.