Robots and Vamps

Reviewed by Matt

Disclosure: This novel was purchased by the reviewer’s own hard earned cash.

Child of Fire is Harry Connolly’s debut novel and the first in the Twenty Palaces series. This novel has kinda blasted onto the scene with it being awarded one of the best 100 books of 2009 by Publisher’s Weekly along with the likes of Boneshaker, The City & The City, The Windup Girl, etc. Child of Fire has some pretty prestigious company for a debut urban fantasy novel. From reading the back blurb the two items that piqued my interest were that it dealt with magic and there was a secret society. These are some of the usual staples in a urban fantasy magic novel but I was curious enough to determine if Mr. Connolly could distinguish his story from the others.

Ray Lilly is not your average hero in your typical urban fantasy novel. As far as I can tell he has no discernible powers and has very little knowledge in the ways of magic. We learn a little bit about his past in that he had a rough time and he ended up in prison. He was convicted of killing some people but it was done while saving others. At the beginning of novel Ray is suddenly released from prison by the Twenty Palaces Society in order to become his new partner’s wooden man. His partner, Annalise Powliss, is cleaner for the Twenty Palaces Society and her job is to hunt down rogue magicians. As Annalise explains a wooden man is the decoy for the enemies to go after while she sneaks in the back to take out the bad guy. Needless to say, Ray is not very excited at the prospect of being a decoy and what it really amounts to, cannon-fodder. His life expectancy just got very short.

Annalise and Ray are assigned to uncover the strange happenings in the town of Hammer Bay. Okay, maybe describing it as strange is a bit of an under exaggeration. The town’s children are all randomly bursting into flames and then worms escape out of their body. After each of these incidents a spell flows over the town folk and they forget that the child ever existed. Their investigation quickly leads them to the town’s patriarch, Charles Hammer, as the responsible person. They confront Charles with hopes of killing him and taking his spell book. Unfortunately, things quickly go awry and Annalise is severely injured in the battle. Our heroes beat a hasty retreat to the nearby hotel. Now Ray is forced to investigate and take on the bad guys all by himself armed only with his wits and his ghost knife.

Mr. Connolly takes a different tack with his character in this book. Ray Lilly has no magic powers and he is not under any type of tutelage. He is only armed with ghost knife that he created some time in the past. The ghost knife only causes damage to magical items or beings and inanimate objects. It will not hurt living flesh. For example, there are several times during the novel that Ray flips the ghost knife at gun to cut it half or slice off the trigger. This makes the story somewhat grounded in reality as Ray is forced to use his wits to get out situations instead of always relying on magic. I liken Ray to Horned Rim Guy in the TV show Heroes; HRG is badass with no powers in a world full of people with special abilities but he is the one guy you don’t want to mess with.

The actual plot itself is alright but nothing spectacular. There is a lot of running around the town from point A and then move onto point B. In between Ray must fight a bad guy and destroy a building or two. Then he goes to hotel to discuss the events with an ailing Annalise. There times in the story that I would lose interest and become bored. Maybe this is because the villain is revealed early on in the story.

The story could have also used more humor. There are a few chuckle moments like Ray saying to himself, maybe if he does good then Annalise will promote from a wood man to a tin man. Humor is hard to write but it was sorely needed in this story.

The couple of items that really disappointed me most about this novel were that the magic system was only lightly touched upon and the Twenty Palaces society was briefly mentioned. I assume these items will be further explored in the proceeding novels but I would have enjoyed some nuggets.

In my opinion this was a middle of the road urban fantasy story, not the best but certainly not the worst by any means. Mr. Connolly’s decision to use a non-magical protagonist is an excellent idea and can make for a highly entertaining adventure. I just wish the story had more originality combined with a sprinkling of humor.

Author’s website: Twenty Palaces