Book Review: Gifts of Fire and Ice by Darren Boeck

Genre(s): Epic Fantasy / YA

Content warning: There are a number of combat scenes, as well as some scenes of torture.

Serg and his sister, Val, live in a small village on the outskirts of the empire. Some say the land where they grew up is cursed, and Serg tends to agree. He’s been sickly for the entirety of his seventeen years, and nothing seems to make it better. He’s frail and easily tired, unable to work, and considered little more than a drain on the village’s resources by some. But he has a bright and clever mind.

Val is a gifter. She has the ability to draw magic out of the environment and imbue objects with its power. Gifters are sought after for many things, and with her work, she’s able to provide for herself and her brother. Their life is simple, until the day a band of emissaries from the emperor arrive, seeking her services. The empire is on the brink of war and her talents are needed. She’s reluctant to agree, until a local tries to kidnap her for an enemy of the empire.

The attempt is thwarted, but it sets her on a path with the emissaries, and she refuses to leave Serg behind, despite their protests. The siblings begin their journey, and soon make their way into lands neither has ever seen—and danger they’ve never prepared for.

The concept of how the magic works in this book is very interesting. Beyond the gifters like Val, there are others who are capable of wielding magic as a weapon. The empire is focused on fire magic (which includes light), and eradicates traces of ice magic or those who can use it (which includes darkness). Things have been that way for almost 1000 years by the time the book begins, but due to the imbalance of fire vs ice, the world seems to be starting to decay. I liked this idea.

While I liked this story, it did take a while to build up. There were a few scenes throughout that had a fair amount of action, but there are also many in between that focused more on politics, social dynamics and/or travel. Some of it felt a little slow at times. However, at about the 70% mark, the story got very interesting. And by that, I mean most of the major players were in place and events really started to take shape.

The last 30% of the book went by very fast and a number of events occurred that won’t be resolved until at least the next book in the series. The last part of the book was definitely worth the wait; the action I’d been waiting for came in abundance, and there were a couple unexpected twists that occurred.

I’ll be interested to see how the story continues in the remainder of the series.

Author website: darrenboeck.com