Read Fragment

It has been a very long time since I've read a young adult novel with this breadth of creativity and world-building. From the first chapter, CITY OF FIRE gathers an unlikely band of confederates together and sends them whizzing out into a world of adventure. From the broad political landscape to the delightful little details, I was enchanted all the way through.

Reading of CITY OF FIRE reminded me of the first Harry Potter combined with the written equivalent of DINOTOPIA. Yep lays out a fascinating magical and political structure for his world, all the while sprinkling the story with visual tidbits like a six-foot tall lizard pushing a broom or Pan-Am's new fleet of gyro-copters. The plot swept forward with an amazing amount of information without ever bogging down, due in part to the lush depth of every scene Yep wrote.

My mention of THE SORCERER'S STONE extends beyond world building and creativity, the characters in CITY OF FIRE are around twelve-years-old and are definitely pre-pubescent. Given that CITY OF FIRE takes place in the span of a day, I would imagine that we're not going to watch Scirye and Leech grow up in any physical sense. Packed with adventure, admirable character growth and inventive world, CITY OF FIRE will be a hit for almost any age range.

Sexual Content: None.

Full review at All Things Urban Fantasy.