Synopsis: In the mountains of Ruan lies the heart of the occupied country’s faith, and a stronghold of resistance against the oppressive reign of King Abheron. Yet even as this isolated temple hides its warrior-priests and a train of refugees, it conceals a deeper secret, for one trainee priestess, Zira, is more important than even she can know. When a sudden tragedy tears her world apart, Zira discovers that the future of her order and even of her people rests squarely on her shoulders, and to save them she must accept the help of a man who should be her sworn foe.

Review: Zoë Marriott’s Daughter of the Flames is a tale of high adventure and cruel, political intrigues on a classic model, combining many traditional Western fairytale elements with aspects of the Eastern martial arts genre. The wicked uncle, the lost princess and the handsome prince are all present and correct, but Marriott gives the basic structure a modern spin and Zira is a tough, resourceful and physically capable heroine, skilled in combat rather than in etiquette, who makes hard choices for the sake of her people and takes personal responsibility for the fate of her nation.

Marriott is an accomplished writer, and if the quintessence of Daughter of the Flames is familiar, then the tale is well enough told to carry the book on its merits. There are few real twists in the story, but just enough to make sure that the course of the novel is not predictable. With its fiery heroine – who narrates the bulk of the book in the first person – and its largely passive hero, this is a book likely to appeal more to girls than to boys, but this is not to say that boys will find nothing to like.

2008-03-17