Caravan Of Fire by D. & L. Kardenal
Grief is like a desert mirage. It paints the world differently, luring even the best towards danger.
Zaira wanted nothing other than to leave everything behind, hiding among the wandering caravan-city of An Ramash. Struggling with her pain of loss and blossoming djinn powers under the tutilage of the fabled Nazrik, her new life comes to a sudden change with the arrival of yet another djinn.
Harboring this new fugitive brings them face-to-face against enemies both old and new. Hain, Ezair's childhood friend is only one of the many dangers hunting them, and all pale compared to the leader of the fanatical Court of Fire.
Meanwhile, the palace of Shardiz is in uproar after the appearence of a crippled mejai girl. Sethar, brother to the prince is tasked with looking after the murderous magician, using the girl's wits to uncover secrets left behind by a civilization more ancient than the Old Garden. Following the trail of the mysterious Forebearers, Sethar discovers troubling details about both his quest and his passionless assistant.
As their lives converge, sparking a heated turn of events, old wounds need to close and grudges be forgotten, lest the whole world be timber to the flames.
The adventure continues in the magical desert of Seiran, with more secrets, deadlier plots, and even more on the line.
About the author
Dar and Lory Kardenal are a pair of indie writers, and authors of the new fantasy novel Shackles of the Storm. Writing characters and creating worlds and stories on internet forums with other fantasy geeks for a decade, their first novel encompasses that experience to breathe life into the magical world of their work. In their other life they are Hungarian medical student and a neuroscientist on her way to PhD, and devoted servants of two cats.
Review
I was so excited to read ‘Caravan of Fire’ as I loved the first book and couldn't wait to return to these characters! It certainly did not disappoint either as I fell in love with this world all over again. I think you could pick this book up as a standalone though no problem as enough background is given to enable the reader to understand the narrative.
The authors managed to continue to evoke the magic and beauty of this world. I loved the caravan city and the sound of Qatar. It was easy to imagine the world and create defined images of the places featured.
Oh, how a book can change your opinions - my favourite character from the previous book was Chai and now she is my least favourite! For me, the stars of this book were Zaira, Hain and Salar. I loved the concept of ‘family’ which came with their development in this book and I was rooting for them all! It will be really interesting to see where the characters go in the next book now the sides of bad and good have been marked out! As soon as I finished reading this book I instantly went to see if the next was available… Alas, it isn't! But that's the sign of a great story when you want it to continue straight away!
Roll on the next one!
