Review: For a Muse of Fire

For a Muse of Fire by Heidi Heilig
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

Welcome to the fourth in my series of reviews of ARCs for which I traded this August, and for sure one of the best, brightest, and most unique new books of the year! Heidi Heilig impressed me a great deal with her first duology, The Girl from Everywhere and The Ship Beyond Time. Now, she starts a new trilogy in For a Muse of Fire, another stellar fantasy in Heilig's signature style. It's dark and deadly, very lavish, highly critical of colonialism, and decidedly unconventional in its structure. Between almost every chapter is at least one piece of ephemera - a bit of dialogue between two side characters, presented in the form of a stage play; telegrams between officials in the Aquitaine armée (the colonial power of Aquitan being largely French-inspired, though with some subtle cultural differences; similarly, the Chakran people and civilization aren't inspired by any one Asian country - I sense aspects of Indian, Vietnamese, and Cambodian cultures, unless I miss my guess); in-universe folklore relevant to the story at hand (my personal favorite being the tale of the King of Death - very definitely a high point); that sort of thing.

Another major reason to read this book is because it's #ownvoices for Heilig as a bipolar writer. One of the driving forces behind heroine Jetta's journey to Aquitan is the possibility of finding a cure for her own illness in the same spring where the Mad King is said to help himself as well. But as with all the best #ownvoices leads, Jetta is nowhere near 100% defined by her bipolar disorder. Her strong family ties help define her as well, as do her magic (dangerous though it may be, using blood-magic necromancy) and her art (coming from a family of shadow puppeteers as she does.) Though I'm not reading this book #ownvoices, as an #ownvoices writer myself - for autism - I very much appreciate how engaging a protagonist Heilig gives us in Jetta. Heilig also helps set a new standard in the business, ensuring the inclusion of all relevant content warnings on the copyright page - something I'm still seeing in oddly few published books.

Perhaps the only issue I had with reading this book as an ARC is that some of the extra artwork details - notably, maps and sheet music - are still TK. For sure, I'll be taking a look at the final product as soon as it comes out to see how glorious these details are - and, knowing the lovely map work Heilig's books have gifted us with before, that's just another way my standards remain high.

And one last question - did Heilig name Leo Rath after the actor Jesse Rath? Just curious.

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