I received this book for free from my own shelves in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Source: my own shelves
The Fire Rose
by
Mercedes Lackey
historical fiction, paranormal fantasy in a Kindle edition that was published by Baen Books on January 9, 2014 and has 416 pages.
Explore it on Goodreads or Amazon
Other books by this author which I have reviewed include Unnatural Issue, "The River's Gift", Finding the Way and Other Tales of Valdemar, Foundation, Intrigues, Gwenhwyfar: The White Spirit, Owlknight, Charmed Destinies, Changes, Beauty and the Werewolf, Invasion, Home From the Sea, Dead Reckoning, Conspiracies, Bedlam's Edge, Crown of Vengeance, Redoubt, Harvest Moon, World Divided, Elemental Magic: All New Tales of the Elemental Masters, Sacrifices, Steadfast, Burdens of the Dead, Bastion, Victories, Blood Red, The House of the Four Winds, Games Creatures Play, Closer to Home, Born to Run, Wheels of Fire, When the Bough Breaks, Chrome Circle, Changing the World: All-New Tales of Valdemar, Under the Vale and Other Tales of Valdemar, Arcanum 101, A Tangled Web, Winter Moon, Moving Targets and Other Tales of Valdemar, Elementary: All-New Tales of the Elemental Masters, No True Way: All-New Tales of Valdemar, From a High Tower, Hunter, Closer to the Heart, Silence, A Study in Sable, Elite, Closer to the Chest, Tempest: All-New Tales of Valdemar, A Scandal in Battersea, The Hills Have Spies, The Bartered Brides, Dragon's Teeth, Eye Spy, Breaking Silence, Pathways, Passages, Magic's Pawn, The Black Gryphon, Magic's Promise, The Serpent's Shadow, The Oathbound, The White Gryphon, The Silver Gryphon, Beyond, Spy, Spy Again, Oathbreakers, The Lark and the Wren, The Gates of Sleep, Phoenix and Ashes, The Wizard of London, The Robin and the Kestrel, Oathblood, Take a Thief, Exile's Honor, The Silver Bullets of Annie Oakley, Owlflight, Brightly Burning, Exile’s Valor, Sword of Ice and Other Tales of Valdemar, Crossroads and Other Tales of Valdemar, Crucible, Choices, Into the West, Into the West, Sun in Glory and Other Tales of Valdemar, The Case of the Spellbound Child
First in the Elemental Masters historical fantasy series (Goodreads notes it as #0 in the series) focusing on the Elemental Masters, people who have magical control over air, water, fire, or earth and is loosely based on a fairy tale. This story is set just before the 1906 earthquake in San Francisco.
My Take
It’s Beauty and the Beast in the form of a woman scholar and a wealthy businessman whose dabbling in magic went sideways with Lackey using a third person global subjective point-of-view from Rose’s, Jason’s, and Paul’s perspectives.
The story is an intriguing balance of help, both self- and education, and perversity. It’s a blend of Rose’s precarious existence, Jason’s life-changing problem, and Paul’s self-interest.
The inciting incident appears immediately, setting up Rose’s disastrous change in her life. Not at all what she had expected. A truly cerebral woman with a previously sheltered life.
Jason is at first depicted as heartless but it’s a state of mind that flips between his appreciation of the challenge of Rose in his life and his own selfish interests. I want his serving staff!
Rose serves to draw the desperate situation of women in the early 1900s. One that has slowly improved to what women experience today — we still have a ways to go! I gotta say each sex has their strengths and their weaknesses and both are intelligent beings (mostly *grin*) who are capable of making decisions.
While I can appreciate Paul’s value to Jason, I can’t deal with Jason’s tolerance of Paul’s disgusting behavior.
Lackey does have a way with descriptions, making it so easy to see the scene in your mind. Especially the way she describes Jason’s condition, making me understand too well why he needs Rose. Of course, her descriptions of Jason’s house and Rose’s bedroom also make me appreciate the upswing in Rose’s life.
Enticing bored or desperate women into coming to San Francisco hasn’t changed. They’re still being trafficked today. The women aren’t the only ones who are desperate: Simon is desperate to change his shape, Rose is desperate to survive, and Paul is lazy enough — and idiot enough — to be seduced. Yeah, and Jason’s father was desperate to be rid of his son.
It’s an easy story to follow with a sense of the time period in Lackey’s writing. The characters are wide-ranging with a similar range in good versus evil. As for action, there’s plenty from Rose’s duties to Jason, her own experiences in the house and with Paul, and her excursions to San Francisco. That culmination of the earthquake and fire were a fantastical blend of the magic in Lackey’s world and real-life events.
I can’t wait to read Lackey’s The Serpent’s Shadow, 2.
The Story
Her home seized, Rose has nowhere to go and no one to help her. And in the Chicago of the early 1900s, she’s a woman lacking the skills for a woman seeking employment.
Then comes a miraculous offer that Rose simply cannot refuse.
Similarly, Paul gets an offer he doesn’t want to refuse, an opportunity to achieve all he desires — a mastery in magic and the freedom to break women. “Fortunately”, for Jason, it’s an ideal situation.
The Characters
Rosalind “Rose” Hawkins has been supported by her father in her pursuit of a PhD in medieval literature and the classics. Professor Hawkins, her father, had the best intentions and the worst judgment. Uncle Ingmar Ivorsson is a toad.
Jason Cameron is a railroad baron based outside San Francisco and a Firemaster. Cameron’s Fiery “Sunset” is an Arabian stallion particular in whom he befriends. Sunrise will become Sunset’s mate. The lazy, pervy, chauvinistic Paul du Mond, a.k.a. Mister Breaker, is Cameron’s personal secretary and valet who wants the mastery of magic. Ronald Cameron, Jason’s father, fell deep into mourning.
Mr Snyder is the butler and valet at Cameron’s San Francisco townhouse. Miss Sylvia is the maid. Her husband, Charlie, is the cook. Smith, a former jockey and horse owner, is the handyman Paul employs.
San Francisco
Master Pao is a Chinese apothecary, a graduate of Harvard Medical School, and an Earthmaster (in the Western styling) and Master of Dragons (in the Eastern styling). Simon Beltaire is a Firemaster and Jason’s enemy. Master Ho is an Airmaster, the Master of Eagles, and a Presbyterian minister. Alonzo de Vargas runs a brothel.
The Summons and/or the Ordeal appear to be spells that graduate an Apprentice to Mastery. Salamanders are the Elemental creatures who respond to Firemasters while Undines, the salamanders’ enemies, respond to Watermasters. Sylphs cleave to Airmasters and gnomes to Earthmasters. A Firemare is a conjured form of a Salamander who can physically touch and be touched.
Chicago
Professor Cathcart, PhD, is an expert in medieval and ancient languages at the University of Chicago, a friend to Professor Hawkins, and Rose’s mentor. Steven Smythe-David was a smarmy student. Professor Karamjit makes an excellent curry. Mr Grumwelt of Grumwelt, Jenkins, and ?? is the Hawkins creditor. Neville Tree is the blackguard, a scion of prominent people, who led Rose’s father astray. Mrs Abernathy has a boarding house. Hull House is a home for the indigent. Back around 1871, at the time of the Chicago Fire, Alan Ridgeway, a Firemaster and Boston Brahmin, took in an abandoned boy. Barnes had been Ridgeway’s gruff manservant.
Madame Blavatsky is a spiritualist. Firemaster Prince Ibrahim had gifted Sunset to Cameron. Marcus Dee is a descendant of John Dee, personal Magician and Astrologer to Queen Elizabeth I. Herr Alexander Metzeger has terrible handwriting. Wallis Budge’s books are boring. Aleister Crowley is the self-named “Wickedest Man in the world”. Eliphas Levi is some form of Master. Caruso was a famous Italian opera singer. In 1906, the San Francisco earthquake devastated the city and Mount Vesuvius erupted.
The Cover and Title
The cover is a mass of browns with the background one of wealth in its fireplace mantel, deep red drape, objets d’arts, and paintings. A wolf in a brown suit is seated behind a small round table covered in a reddish-brown figured tablecloth with a globe with a yellow background (with a red outline) and a behatted Rose inside it. Two green salamanders crawl around the globe. At the top is the author’s name in white with a black outline. Below it is the title with a thicker outline in black and navy. The blues are repeated as highlights throughout the cover. In the bottom right is a circular badge outlined in red with the publisher’s name in blue and their red logo just above it. A vertical line of type in white centered below the badge provides the sales prices.
The title appears to be more of a blend with The Fire Rose a promise of Air and Fire but more Air with Jason the Fire.
