Fire Heart by Joyce Chng
I would like to thank the author and Snowy Wings Publishing for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review
Published - Snowy Wings Publishing
Published - 12/11
Price - £14.99 paperback £3.84 Kindle ebook
Wehia t’Doniyat, the eldest daughter of a knifesmith’s holding that specializes in ornamental daggers, wishes with all her heart to make a longsword like the one created by her great-grandmother. She journeys to the City of Swords to be apprenticed under her kinswoman, Hadana t’Tolani, the head of a powerful swordsmith holding. Among strangers and missing her family, Wehia must learn to curb her impatient and reckless nature to endure the hardships that come with being a swordmaker’s apprentice. But despite making a true friend at the holding and being accepted by Hadana, Wehia’s impulsiveness threatens to destroy her dreams of Fire Heart, the sword that sings to her.
Growing up is often learning about becoming in charge of our emotions and not letting them push us to the wrong action. Stories are a way of helping us consider when it is time to take a breath or when we need to stand and fight. In Joyce Chng’s very enjoyable YA fantasy Fire Heart starting a new duology we follow a 17 year old young woman follow her dream to be a swordsmith but in the process must also learn about her self and her wider world.
Wehia comes from a family of knifesmiths who create highly prized utensils and daggers but she has never felt that this was for her. Instead she wants to follow the path of a swordsmith who creates the highly prized swords used for battles, duels and are seen as the best of her skills. She goes to the City of Swords to visit her aunt Hadana and begin apprenticeship but she finds her aunt very cold, the forge and their staff dismissive and it’s a world of poverty and strife with this on the borders. However as Wehia is not going to let anything steal her dream she doesn’t give up and finds the world is less simple than she knew.
I really enjoyed that this is very much a character focused story that in this first half of the duology ficuses on Wehia learning her swordsmith skills and in the process a lot more about the kind of person she is. We follow the months of the apprenticeship and we have a tale that though links to the type of story we associate with a martial art tale as Wehia is focused ok making swords hit just using them we get a less action focused tale and instead more following a small cast develop their relationships.
Wehia is very headstrong and prone to following her emotions. Finding the initial apprenticeships very dull and laborious she pushes back but this is a test in character itself. There is a fascinating dynamic with her Aunt Hadana that often puts them at odds but a healthy dynamic of mutual respect develops and both are learning form the other. For Wehia it’s learning when to use your passion to get the right result and being more focused and the metaphor for creating the right sword is really apt for this tale.
The wider world slowly starts to make an impact. I really liked the way Chng makes us see this secondary world where every Family have skills, each month has rituals and the Forge itself is revealed to be an entire community of women supporting one another (sometimes with mockery). But shade starts to come through to show all is not quite perfect. A key plot thread is Wehia falling in love with her cousin Geri who she finds is betrothed to a noble and Wehia takes this practise on causing strife with Hadana. It’s less action focused but more morality in this part of the story and strength of character ends up winning through
This though sets what feels will be the bigger part of the duology the Border People. A transient group sitting outside the various villages often in poverty and blamed of much. Wehia finds herself torn between seeing the poverty and the acts of Border People attacking her villages but also starts to realise sometimes people get forced into acts. It’s a take that is teaching us that we should not believe everything we hear about those on the edges of society and that our own world can be flawed and biased. This gets really interesting but we stop before Wehia finds out more which did feel a little abrupt while at the same time making me want to see what happens next!
Fire Heart was a really engaging and subtle read that drew me into the world and the characters. The stakes being local and personal really helps you invest in the tale and hopefully the wait for the next book will not be long. Highly recommended for those who enjoy a subtler type of storytelling.