Winter of Fire by Sherryl Jordan

 

DNF @ 31%

Sherryl Jordan is a New Zealand author who wrote one of my childhood faves, THE JUNIPER GAME. I had always, always, always wanted to read more from her but her books were never in the stores when I was a kid (maybe there wasn't enough of demand to import?), which is sad because I think she has some really unique stories and ideas and she really made an effort to write strong heroines in an age where that sort of character archetype was sadly lacking.

As with all my negative reviews, I urge you to take this one with a grain of salt. I'm not out here trying to yuck anyone's yum. Even when I don't like a book, I can usually see why others would. This book in particular would appeal to fans of McKinley's THE BLUE SWORD or SJM's THRONE OF GLASS. The heroine's are kind of Mary Sues and it takes big concepts and touches upon them kind of shallowly, but there is female empowerment of a kind and the world building is interesting. I also really thought the intro was sweet, about how the author's work had gone out of print for a while and how happy she was that people could now get it again on ebook (and on Kindle Unlimited, no less).

I personally found the heroine to be too one dimensional and the world building was a little too flat and didn't grab me. I might have enjoyed this more when I was younger maybe... but also maybe not? My tastes in fantasy haven't changed that much since I got older. In some ways, I'm actually a more tolerant reader now than I was when I was twelve (thank god I didn't have Goodreads then, I was such a little shit, actually). If you're a fan of '80s female fronted fantasy, I urge you to check this one out.

Hopefully more of her books end up rereleased on ebook again. I've been having the most delightful time working my way through Liz Berry's backlog (another previously out of print author from the '80s and '90s). It's so much fun to see retro YA and how it's changed from the YA marketing powerhouse of today.

2 to 2.5 out of 5 stars