They said that the first generation of man was brought low by its appetites: for knowledge, for wealth, for power. They said mankind’s voracity was so great, the Lord sent his own Daughter to bring fire and devastation to the sinners of the world.
The survivors were few, but over the course of centuries, they banded together to form a new civilization—the Descendancy—founded on the belief that the mistakes of the past must never be repeated.
Brothers Clive and Clover Hamill, the sons of a well-respected Descendant minister, have spent their lives spreading that gospel. But when their traveling ministry discovers a community intent on rediscovering the blasphemous technologies of the past, a chain of events will be set in motion that will pit city against city…and brother against brother.
Along with Gemma Poplin, Clive’s childhood sweetheart, and Paz Dedios, a revolutionary who dreams of overthrowing the Descendancy, Clive and Clover will each play a pivotal role in determining the outcome of this holy war, and the fate of humanity itself.
Song For This Book: We Are Young by fun.
Why? For some reason, this song struck me for this book. Something about the power of youth, I dunno.
4/5
I received an advance copy of this book from Simon & Schuster Canada in exchange for an honest review.
I was really excited to read this book. The science/religion debate is one of my favourite things to discuss or hear opinions on, and with a comparison to books like The Giver, I was immediately intrigued by what this whole thing might be about. Especially with the people in the lightbulb on the cover.
And I was super pleased with what I found inside. I’ve read so many disappointing or underdeveloped post apocalyptic stories over the years that this was a fantastic surprise. The writing and world development is fantastic, and the characters are so well done, with their family and internal struggles. There were so many good things going on that I was actually rather disappointed when I turned the last page and realized that I was going to have to wait for the next one to come along.
The Good Points of Strange Fire:
The thing that really struck me about this book was how the author handled the whole religion versus science debate. There was a lot of potential that this could have gone really badly, and been posed to offend a lot of people by leaning one way or another. But Wallach does an amazing job of presenting everything as the characters see it, and not pushing on side or the other on you. It’s just there and you can make what you want of it, and draw your own opinions. It was really well done, and made for a fantastic story.
I really enjoyed the characters in this book. They were well developed, they each had distinct personalities, and their struggles seemed pretty honest as far as a less than 400 page book goes. Irene/Paz in particular really stood out to me, and I enjoyed her character so much throughout the book.
I loved the variety of locations and communities we got throughout this book, and how each had their own belief system and traditions. It made for a really interesting story. My ARC didn’t have a map, but you don’t really need one with this book, because you can easily imagine what the world might look like. The world was very well developed, which is not something you can say about most books these days.
The Downsides of Strange Fire:
This book doesn’t so much have a conclusion as it just stops at good point. You get all this build up, and then the book just stops, and you’re left waiting until the next one is released to find out what happens. I don’t mind cliffhangers, but give me some sort of conclusion to the book I’m reading.
Some of the middle section of this book dragged like crazy. There was a lot of great information and stuff like that happening, but it was slow and dense for a while. It does clear up towards the end though, and the pace picks back up.
I would have loved more about the Wesah. Or a whole book about them. I’m guessing that more will come in later books, but I don’t have that sort of patience.
All in all, I really enjoyed Strange Fire, and I’m so excited to see where this series is going. It’s a great discussion on religion and science that leaves you to make your own decisions, but will definitely get yo thinking about it, if you’ve ever considered the two subjects together before. If you enjoy religious debates, post apocalyptic stories along the line of The Giver or The Road, or stories with strong family relationships, you likely enjoy Strange Fire!
Find Strange Fire on Book Depository
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