Firebird [Hardcover]

R. Garcia y Robertson (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 16, 2006

In the fantastic land of Markovy east of Europe, in the Iron Wood filled with werewolves and other unpleasant creatures, in the house of the dreaded Bone Witch, lives a young orphan girl named Aria. Her life is changed forever when a foreign knight, Sir Roye de Roye, enters the forest pursued by enemies, carrying with him the most precious aritfact of the kingdom, the egg of the Firebird. Aria saves him and falls in love with him, and it becomes her mission in life to restore the egg to the firebird's nest. And so she and her knight set out on a wonderful quest, filled with spectacle, romance, and hairs-breadth escapes, to save the land and find a life together.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Garcia y Robertson (White Rose) opens his dazzling stand-alone with the words "Once upon a time" and spends the rest of the book crafting a true fairy tale. In the cursed land of Markovy (which resembles medieval Russia), Aria, a "witch-girl" raised to young womanhood by the powerful Bone Witch, is out gathering herbs when she hears the fire jay calling her name. Following the call, Aria sees an injured knight riding away from the burning town of Byeli Zamak. By ministering to the knight's wounds, Aria begins a wondrous journey that will take her far from her quiet sylvan abode. To remove the curse on Markovy, Aria and her knight, Sir Roye de Roye, must return the "Firebird's Egg," which was stolen by the late King Demitri, to its nest atop Burning Mountain deep in the Iron Wood. Bawdy and bloody, magical and mythic, this joyous novel is sure to please heroic fantasy fans. (May)
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Review

"A rollicking adventure yarn, by turns stirring, touching, undignified, funny, raunchy, and grim. A whirlwind of a tale that races the reader along on the quests and misadventures of Aria and a knight of many accomplishments. Anyone who remembers childhood hero tales of dragonslayers and explorers finding wonders in fantastic unknown lands with nostalgia will love Firebird: here's a NEW hero tale!"--Ed Greenwood

"Like Philip Pullman or George R.R. Martin, Rod Garcia has created one of those genre-transcending works that will thrill and move even readers who don't normally care for this sort of thing. It's one of the few heroic fantasies I've read which takes notice that we're not living in the 19th Century any more, a sophisticated, often erotically charged story about adult human beings in a harsh world. This was my first Garcia novel, but it won't be my last."
--Spider Robinson, author of Very Bad Deaths on Firebird

"Full of marvels, and irrepressibly joyous, it is an exhilarating fantasy story." --Yves Meynard on Firebird

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Tor Books; 1st edition (May 16, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0765313561
• ISBN-13: 978-0765313560
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.3 x 1.2 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,857,632 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Good, October 28, 2006

By 

Brian Martin (Houston, TX United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Firebird (Hardcover)

I picked up this book from a recommendation from Realms of Fantasy magazine. I rented it from the library just in case it was less than stellar.

The book actually is pretty good. I was close to not giving it a chance from the wistful writing at the begininng. It's primarily told through the eyes of a seventeen year old girl and it was reading like a teen novel. I gave it a chance and it got more adult in nature, right down to the gratuitous sex scenes. It was nothing too vulgar or graphic, but some of the scenes read like a romance novel.

The main characters are engaging and likeable, and the story is solid. While there isn't a real concrete villian, the story is more about the journey of the main charatcers to deliver the firebird's egg. They go through enough trials to make up for the lack of a real engaging storyline and a hated villian.

I wouldn't recommend a full purchase at 30 dollars though. The story is short, and not very epic. It's worth a price at paperback or a rent from the library though.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Not my usual fare..., September 14, 2009

By 

Bookish Buffet (Arizona) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Firebird (Tor Fantasy) (Mass Market Paperback)

I'd bought a copy of this book on a whim at a library sale, not really expecting anything other than a typical fantasy story. Before I started reading it, however, I looked through the reviews, which gave me something of an idea of what I was getting myself into.

(Proceed with caution: Spoilers ahead)

The writing itself is actually really good, and before long I was flying through the pages and surprising myself at how often I'd laughed. Still, once I got to the sexual parts, my enjoyment was taken down a few notches.

That's not to say I'm prudish, but the way it was portrayed in the book seemed silly to me. I realize the sex was supposed to be a big part of what the author wanted to write about, but it would have been perfectly fine without much of it, I think. And it wasn't only how often it came up, but how consistently great it was. Sure, this is a fantasy novel, but having it be a bit more realistic wouldn't have hurt. (And of course, at the end, the heroine loses her virginity and it was nothing short of amazing. In a perfect location, no less.) That sort of thing yanks me out of my suspension of disbelief and sends my eyes rolling almost out of their sockets.

The plot was also sort of meandering, especially around the middle, and the ending felt somewhat rushed. It came as no surprise that Aria was a missing princess, or that she'd be reunited with her long-lost lover, or that she wouldn't end up becoming a sacrifice and instead was saved by Persephone and almost got laid by Eros. The actual nitty-gritty parts of the story were great, but it seems like, as a whole, it was only a so-so book.

And for some reason I thought that the author was a woman the whole time I was reading Firebird. It actually wasn't until I had finished the last page and flipped to the author bio that I realized otherwise. At least all the stuff about the sex makes more sense now.

A pretty fun read overall, but not really satisfying.

5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, exciting, thought provoking and an all around good read, August 12, 2011

By 

K. Crow "Story Mama" (Pittsburgh, PA United States) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Firebird (Hardcover)

I am amazed more people haven't found this book! I love when a writer doesn't over explain a time period, premise, etc., but simply drops a reader into a world. This is one of those novels. At no time does The Firebird insult the intelligence of its readers. It creates a creative space and time that is at once magical and believable. Much like Gaiman, it pulls on folktales and myth, but never in a precious way. If you enjoy more adult fantasy, (think Sandman, rather than Twilight,) then I think you will really enjoy this work.