FIREBRAND - P.K. Eden
Cerridwen Press
ISBN: 978-1-41991-132-3
November 2007
Fantasy

New York City, the Fairy Realm, and the Underworld Realm – The Present

Amber Drake came home to find an intruder in her apartment. She called her friend David to tell him what was happening, then entered her rooms to investigate. From that moment, her world changed.

David Mack was appointed a year ago as the human guard to the Keeper of the Triad, Amber Drake, in the Upworld (New York). Amber knows nothing of her approaching appointment with prophecy, but David broke the rules and fell in love with her the moment he met her. He and Serina Ward, a.k.a. the fairy Teezal Thistlecomb, have been keeping watch on Amber, waiting until she came into her power to explain her preordained future as the first tri-bred, or person containing human, fairy and troll bloodlines. Her coming was foretold, and only she can save all the people from a chaotic and evil future if the troll king were to rule over all the humans in Upworld, the fairy in Everwood, and the trolls in Underworld.

You can imagine Amber’s reaction when she learns not only isn’t she entirely human, but also her entire heritage has been kept from her while she has been hidden for her own protection. Imagine, too, that the protection hasn’t been completely successful; for the troll king knows who Amber is and has plans for her vastly different from her fairy protectors.

The Triad, The Coming, or The Prophecy has been known since Adam and Eve were expelled from Eden for betrayal, along with the guardian of paradise and the serpent. Now Amber must sacrifice her life so the three worlds might survive in peace, but will she?

The ideas in FIREBRAND are far-reaching and distinctive. They are presented in a slow escalation of information as Amber learns who and what she is and what she is expected to do. This presents the rules of this world in an easy way for readers to understand. However, I always have a problem with preordained prophecy because, logically, the end must be preordained, too. This might be a quirk to this reader only. I also had a few qualms about stilted dialog here and there, but the story overcomes and rises above most of these faults.

The love Amber and David come to share has a poignant side in that both know it will end at The Triad. Sub plots and love stories involving secondary characters add interest. For a relatively short (two-hundred plus page) novel, FIREBRAND contains an amazing amount of world building based on common folk and myth motifs with the added dash of the Garden of Eden. Author P. K. Eden took a chance on an unconventional setting and plot, and her inspiration paid off. FIREBRAND packs a huge punch of action and danger with a doomed love story you will enjoy.

Robin Lee