Review: The Burning Sky

The Burning Sky (The Elemental Trilogy #1)
by Sherry Thomas
YA Fantasy
Amazon  /  Goodreads

Plot Summary:

Iolanthe Seabourne is the greatest elemental mage of her generation—or so she's being told. The one prophesied for years to be the savior of The Realm. It is her duty and destiny to face and defeat the Bane, the greatest mage tyrant the world has ever known. A suicide task for anyone let alone a sixteen-year-old girl with no training, facing a prophecy that foretells a fiery clash to the death.

Prince Titus of Elberon has sworn to protect Iolanthe at all costs but he's also a powerful mage committed to obliterating the Bane to avenge the death of his family—even if he must sacrifice both Iolanthe and himself to achieve his goal.

But Titus makes the terrifying mistake of falling in love with the girl who should have been only a means to an end. Now, with the servants of the Bane closing in, he must choose between his mission and her life.

Review:

The world-building in this book was really exceptional.  Complex and exciting with some great ideas about the nature of magic.  The Crucible especially was so intriguing, and I loved the idea of being able to fall into a world through a book.  This novel is also a great read because the plot moves quickly - there are so many dangers and trials for Iolanthe to overcome with the help of Prince Titus.  The gender switch aspect to the story is another intriguing facet - although I didn't feel like it was really explored in this book.  But it did add a farcical aspect which kept the story entertaining despite the desperate dangers.

There's so much going on with this book that made it a great read, that I was fine with being a little disappointed by the the other major aspect of the plot - the romance.  Iolanthe and Titus are fantastic characters on their own, and I really enjoyed their interactions and the push and pull of their emotions, but I also felt it was a little too emphasized throughout.  Their tension felt inflated to me, because almost every chapter had a moment (or several) where they were overcome with their feelings for each other but always pulled back.  I also thought their connection wasn't very well delineated - it mostly seemed superficial, and a little too "insta" - relying more on physical attraction, or attraction based on their forced camaraderie.  The story switches between their two POVs as well which added to the overemphasis on their feelings since the reader has to deal with their emotional confusion from two perspectives.  I think it would have been great to only know what Iolanthe was thinking with the reader being kept in the dark as to Titus' plans as Iolanthe so often was.  The changing POVs just felt too jarring to me unfortunately.

There was one more aspect of this story that I found a bit perplexing - the nature of prophecy.  The prophecy adds suspense to the story because the reader doesn't know exactly how it will be fulfilled and it can be very deceptive by setting up expectations, but it seems like the fulfillment of the prophecy was often cheating because the characters made themselves fulfill it by following exactly what was forseen.  This didn't bother me so much, but I would be interested in seeing what would happen if the characters directly went against what the prophecy foretold.

This first book in this series sets up what sounds like a really great epic confrontation, and I am looking forward to knowing more about Iolanthe's powers, and how she will overcome the very powerful Bane.  This book has a fantastic take on magic, some nail-bitingly suspenseful moments, and great characters - I think it is a great start to the series.