The Element of Fire

[sawyl]

Prompted by one of Liz Bourke's recent write-ups on Tor, I've uncovered an utter delight in the form of Martha Wells' The Element of Fire. Set in the kingdom of Ile-Rien, a place were magic and fayre folk exist alongside a court that owes more than a little to Alexandre Dumas, it follows Thomas Boniface, Captain of the Queen's Guard, and Kade Carrion, the King's fayre half-sister, as they try to grapple with a scheme to destroy the kingdom.

The story opens with the news that the mysterious Bisran sorcerer Urbain Grandier has come up with a way to strike against the Ile-Rien by abducting one of its preeminent wizards, Doctor Galen Dubell. Charged with Dubell's recovery, Thomas carries out a daring raid on a house in the capital Vienne believed to be owned by Grandier and recovers the missing wizard, in the process triggering a fire that burns the place to the ground. Meanwhile, across town, Kade Carrion has come attached herself to a Commedia troupe in order to gain access to the palace and, by extension, access to Ravenna, the formidable Dowager Queen, who may finally be willing to allow her to return to court.

When Kade and Dubell — co-incidentally her old mentor in the magic arts — appear at court, all hell quickly breaks loose. Dubell causally offends Denzil Duke of Alcene, the King's closest friend, while Kade's acting job is brought to an abrupt end when one of the clowns transforms into a monster and attacks. Realising that Grandier must have done something to the palace's magical security precautions to allow the monster to enter, Thomas and Dubell undertake a review of the wards. During one of the these reviews, a terrible explosion strikes the palace, and the guard find themselves fighting a savage incursion from the Unseelie Court.

The rest of the novel follows Thomas and Kade as they struggle to come to grips with the consequences of the attack on Ile-Rien. Some of these are physical and magical, in the form of various supernatural monsters and horrors, but most are political. With a weak king on the throne, much of the real power at court stems from Ravenna, the former regent. But despite her reputation as a blood and thunder queen, Ravenna is unable to openly oppose King Roland without running the risk of triggering a civil war, so she must instead rely on carefully judged threats and suggestions to oppose the influence of Denzil, Roland's psychopathic favourite. Denzil is a powerful character who, despite being granted great power and wealth by the King, despises his subservient position and conceals his plots to overthrow Roland with a drawling court demeanour that suggests that he's just another viciously cynical fop — something that doesn't take in Thomas for a second. And all of this is made worse by the careful maneuverings of Grandier who, like a puppet master, pulls the strings of the various actors, manipulating them like a master.

The setting works extremely well, both as a combination of the fantastic with the faux historic and also as a vision of a society on the edge of abrupt change — Thomas and his Guard with their wheellocks and leather greatcoats coexisting with the Albon Knights with their misplaced chivalry and metal breastplates. The characters are extremely well drawn and Wells has a knack of creating a convincing portrait with a few quick lines, giving the minor characters a feeling of authenticity and allowing her to establish important pivotal characters, such as Roland and Ravenna, without needing to give them a great deal of time in the spotlight.

As a whole, The Element of Fire is extremely successful and enjoyable, and I'm really glad I discovered it — the discovery of excellent, formerly out-of-print novels being one of the great joys of ebook reading. I'm definitely going to make a point of searching out the rest of Wells' novels.