Review: Tell the Wind and Fire

Tell the Wind and Fire by Sarah Rees Brennan
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Full disclosure: I've never read A Tale of Two Cities, so any references to that book in this one are all but lost on me.

That said, it's a unique enough book, updating Dickens' classic with magic and modern social commentary in an alternate New York where the Lights live in luxury and the Darks in walled-off ghettos like the Nazis took over the place. Naturally, the Lights hold all the cards, and the Darks are tired of being oppressed, and the tensions between the two halves of the city keep on simmering until it all catches fire.

Yeah, the story doesn't really tread anywhere new, especially not with that love triangle going on. Though I did at least enjoy the interactions between Lucie and Carwyn (especially the part where Carwyn complains that cream cheese doesn't belong on sweet desserts - which is why I tend to avoid red velvet cupcakes.) Those two are my ship for this story.

I only hope that the presence of an alternate-world Light and Dark system doesn't prove a roadblock in the path to publication for my own Dark Ice Chronicles, though my system's different enough, and the primary conflict is between humans and warlocks as opposed to two types of magicians.

All in all, this book is the weakest I've read from Brennan, but it does have some good ideas and commentaries that are going to stick in my head, even if they're infinitely beyond being twice-told already.

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