Customer Reviews

Firedrake (Tome of Fire Trilogy)

5 star:		(1)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(2)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

If like me you were disappointed in the first Salamanders novel written by Nick Kyme, please give him another chance because his second book delivers all the action and pacing the first novel lacked.

Firedrake does not pick up exactly where Salamander left off. The important characters such as Dak'ir, Tsu'gan, Iagon, and Ba'ken (I know, the names can be kinda annoying)have moved on and are occupying new places in the Chapter's hierarchy. I think this is because an audio drama was released, but I am not positive. In any event, the character are still recognizable and you haven't missed much.

Firedrake addresses one of the biggest problems of the first book which was way too much focus on the backstabbing of Iagon. Iagon does not have much screen time here, and I was very grateful. The Salamanders take on the Dark Eldar along with their old nemesis Nihilan. The Dark Eldar are fantastic and this book coincides nicely with the re-release (after many years) of the Dark Eldar army in the 40k tabletop game. The Salamanders show constantly why Space Marines are the main defenders of the Imperium, and the battles contrast the solid fighting style of the Salamanders with the tricky nature of the Dark Eldar.

I am not going to discuss too much more of the plot because I don't want to give things away. Read this book to find out more about the heroes of the Salamanders Chapter and get ready for the final book in this trilogy. Nick Kyme keeps getting better so I have high hopes for Nocturne.

The Salamanders have a special place for me. They represent the first fully painted force that I've had in miniature gaming. Vulkan He'stan was one of the first figures that I painted to what I would consider a "high standard." Further, they represent the Space Marine chapter that most embodies the heroic ideals that I find so intriguing: chivalry and brotherhood.

Firedrake is the second installment in Nick Kyme's Tome of Fire trilogy and picks up where Salamander left off. Change is on the horizon for the Salamanders, with Da'kir, protagonist from Salamander, again playing a key role in the narrative. Da'kir has been elevated to librarian status, and the part he plays in the story has much to do with his Lexicanum training. Running concurrently to the Dak'ir thread is a story involving the abduction of Chaplain Elysius at the hands of Dark Eldar raiders. The two stories provide a nice balance for one another, as Dak'ir's story is a bit more cerebral, focusing more on Dak'ir's internal struggles, whereas the story of Elysius is a much more straightforward affair, a simple, yet interesting survival and rescue operation.

Da'kir's story is interesting, if not a bit slow. Getting the chance to see his Lexicanum training is interesting, but often the pacing of his story is off and, as a result, can become a bit tedious. What becomes very clear is Da'kir's power; he possesses unmatched raw talent, but his ability to control that power is really the focus of his story.

The survival of Elysius is a great deal more enthralling than the story of Dak'ir, if only because more `happens'--that isn't to say nothing happens to Dak'ir, it does, but again, it is all quite cerebral. Elysius is abducted by Dark Eldar raiders. That alone is exciting; however, when Elysius, now sergeant Ba'ken, and Iagon (all from Salamander) are taken through the webway, the story becomes quite entertaining. The depiction of the Dark Eldar is spot on; they are malicious, they are violent, and they possess a graceful lethality. The presence of Lilith Hesperax enhances this, as she is the embodiment of all the aforementioned qualities. Further, Firedrake really provides a nice primer to the Dark Eldar for the uninitiated; I didn't know much about them, but found their description, and that of the webway, really interesting.

On the rescue mission, we also get a chance to see Vulkan He'Stan in literary action. He is a mythic figure to the other Salamanders, and his portrayal is pretty cool. He seems larger than life, fights like a fire-born demon, and inspires the others around him to be greater. In short, he's very cool, and I found it really cool that the Black Library is making a concerted effort to put characters from the Space Marine Codex into the literature. It really helps to tie the 40k universe together and make everything seem more fluid.

While I appreciated the stories of Firedrake, it leaves me feeling a bit torn. He furthers the notion that the Salamanders are protectors and that quality is unique to the Astartes. Their compassion is shown in droves. He provides clear narration and quality battle scenes, particularly the ones depicted in the webway. Kyme has a clear picture of what he wants from the Tome of Fire trilogy, there is no doubt. However, it was also clear that Firedrake is the middle chapter of a trilogy. In actuality, it shares a number of parallels with The Empire Strikes Back; Dak'ir's quest and training is Luke's training on Dagobah; Elysius' capture is the capture of Han and crew on Bespin. And like Empire, there are major revelations that will affect the third chapter of the Tome of Fire trilogy. However, Firedrake lacks a bit of the `oomph' that Empire provides in droves, mostly due to the difficulty grasping a similar level of emotional investment. That's not to say the characters aren't strong, or that we don't care about them; the truth is quite the contrary. Kyme's characters are fleshed out well, there are simply too many of them to invest in. Also, at times it becomes very clear that Firedrake is a middle chapter; Kyme does a lot of setting up future events that we presently see no payoff in.

I liked Firedrake, and again I'm excited to see how Kyme ends the trilogy. Kyme has a plan for the story, and once all three installments are released, I think the story as a whole will be worthy of much praise and a higher score. As it stands, Firedrake falls just a bit short, if only because it is an obvious middle chapter.

The Bottom Line

Nick Kyme's Firedrake is very clearly the middle chapter of a trilogy, providing a nice filler narrative while advancing the overall story and further developing his characters. The story is strong, but the lack of resolutions--which are sure to come in the third installment--and the definitive absence of finality keep it from being great. Read it only if you're previously read Salamander, as the novel will be confusing without the introduction Salamander provides. It is a solid novel, but requires previous reading, and some patience for the final book.


7/10 Above Average

The prophecy is keeps going, but an unexpected hunt diverts the search for the deeper meaning and the renegades.
Suddenly a much darker and older enemy of the Salamanders arises and the Salamanders are forced to rescue their brethren from the nightmarish torture and hunting grounds of the Dark Eldar.
The trials and tribulations once again put the Salamanders against the anvil, and be force to be tempered further or broken.

Welcome to Firedrake and the nightmarish horrors of a Dark Eldar realm. Will the Salamanders be able to find the Dark Eldar outpost? Will they be able to reach their brothers before the Dark Eldar have amused themselves with their pray? How will the prophecy continue?

Only one way to find out, read it. ;-)

To explain where I'm coming from this only the second WH40K novel I have ever read and I've never played the game. I didn't like the first one I read (note I'm not referring to Salamander), but this one was very enjoyable and helped explain alot for those who weren't well versed in the lore. Other reviews have gone into far more detail than I care to about the story and the characters, but awsome was the bottom line. I would highly recommend reading Salamander first from what I understand it sets everything up and goes into great detail about the Chapter and the planet. I had several, "What the F***, is he talking about!" moments even with wikipedia research on WH40K pulled up. The point of these books is to flesh out the back story of the game characters, meaning you aren't going to find the answer to some of your questions anywhere but in the novels. Although it has been negatively pointed out that this is a middle novel and many of the story-arcs are left unresolved, I found that a very positive selling point. Nick Kyme does an excellent job of fleshing the characters out and showing where they are coming from/ how they think. I didn't end feeling unsatisfied I ended thinking tomorrow morning I'm buying the next book.

Now for the negative. For the love of god Nick, stop using this ridiculous vocabulary. I'm glad you got your 20th Doctorate in English literature but that dosen't mean you need to use every word in the English language to write a Military Sci-Fi novel. If as a college graduate and an avid reader my entire life( who comes from an extremely well educated and well read family) I have to keep dictionary.com up the whole time I'm reading a your novel, you might have missed the point. I mean I get it, these are gargantuan humanoids who do the impossible time and again, while they fight frighteningly evil creatures in a viscerally stunning world. But, if you make every skirmish out to be D-Day, the Battle of Trafalgar, and the Battle of Okinawa rolled into one A) you sound overwrought and grandiloquent B) the suspense and wonder are eviscerated leaving me feeling cheated and C) if you toned you wouldn't have to continue making everything more fantastical to keep me interested. Basically, don't spend half a book telling me what a complete badass someone or somethings are then have the main characters kill them by the truckload, then add insult to injury by giving me a 411 page vocabulary quiz on archaic language. If I was going to place this author's wordiness on a scale of Hemingway to Cormac McCarthy he would be that "It was a dark and stormy night..." sentence.

As the followup to _Salamander_, Nick Kyme delivers another excellent component of the 40k universe. Putting the focus onto numerous additional characters than in the first book or the original short story, we get more fleshing out of the Salamanders Chapter of Space Marines in addition to the best suspenseful and combat action writing this side of Dan Abnett.

While the first book was focused much more on Dak'ir and Tsu'gan, and their mutual enmity, this book takes place several years after _Salamander_ when they each have begun to adjust to their new roles in the Chapter. Tsu'gan is one of the Terminators, while Dak'ir has begun training as a Librarian. While the former further refines his combat acumen, the latter does the same with his psychic abilities. But while they are clearly pivotal to the overall arc of the trilogy, they are something like bit players in the actual narrative of this book.

The tale revolves about the rescue effort of Chaplain Elysius, who has been taken by the Dark Eldar into the webway. He possesses an irreplaceable relic of the Chapter which must be recovered to access a hidden part of their own home fortress. With recovery of the relic paramount, only the best will do, meaning the First Company, including Tsu'gan, are dispatched to affect the rescue. Their journey into the Dark Eldar zone and their quest for Elysius parallels the Chaplain's own ability to escape the Dark Eldar traps and hunters. He seeks not just escape but vengeance upon the aliens for their base treatment of him and his brothers but also for their very existence, which includes a hereditary racial hatred from ages-past conflicts.

Dak'ir and his mentor Librarian Pyriel, meanwhile, travel to a world where one of the Salamander Captains was lost decades past. Dak'ir is drawn to the world via his psychic powers, knowing that his own destiny and that of his world and Brothers are inextricably linked. The grave world has its own hazards for them to overcome, from dealing with the dead to uncovering the mystery of why their enemies were there in the first place forty years ago. What they learn has implications for the very fate of their Chapter, and for Dak'ir's destiny in particular. The manifestation of his powers, only evident as latent instincts in _Salamander_ is nice to see as something more rare in the Space Marines novels.

Like few others, Kyme delivers a wonderful mix of action, intrigue, and plot advancement all at the same time. From the brutal violence of the many battles to the quests for escape or rescue or revelation, Kyme moves the story along at all times. While there is a reliance upon the prior works (the first book and the novella in _Heroes of the Space Marines_), which would take away from the understanding of a reader who has not read them, there is character development both within this volume and over the trilogy as a whole. The only other aspect that detracted from the read was the poor editing in terms of homophones (such as using "ordinance" instead of the correct "ordnance" and similar word swaps). Otherwise, this one ranks as one of the best in the 40k novel line.

When you read virtually any of these novels, you expect a handful of things: traitors, psychic interactions, and battle scenes. We know there will be battle scenes, but this is ridiculous in it delivery that the whole of the book needs be battles, with short gasps of actual plot development.

Firedrake is supposed to be about the Salamanders attempting to rescue their Chaplain after he is captured by the Dark Eldar. I'm halfway through the book and that has yet to happen. At the rate its going, the climax will occur about twenty pages after the capture, with nary a lead up to be seen. The other half of the plot is supposed to follow Dak'ir, a newly inducted Librarian who's central to a Nocturne prophecy that says he'll lead the Salamanders to greatness or straight into the toilet.

While the plot premise is good, there's quite simply too much faffing about, too much mundanity, too much pointless squad based combat. Combat is central to the plot of these books I know, but when you have 100 pages that could've been reduced to 3, you're simply padding what is already a mediocre plot line. I didn't reach what I genuinely thought was the beginning of the book until Chapter 3.

Overall, the plot of the book is just buried under a giant, steaming mound of triviality. I started skipping several pages at a time until I found the mid-chapter breaks to try and find out what was really supposed to be going on.

I've had this book for a few months and I'm still trying to get through it. It's just boring to me, nothing about the story grabs me. Nick Kyme does a better job in the "Age of Darkness - Forgotten Sons". More power to those that can read this book....

"Firedrake" is the continuation of the Tome of fire trilogy, a fairly new addition to the Black Library Universe that explores the mysterious first founding Legion, the Salamanders (now Chapter for you 40 K geeks). I hope any one reading this review will have read the first novel and come to know the characters and their confusing names since if you have not you will have missed a good book and will be extremely confused. The plot itself is not the greatest fiction ever written but it does delve deeper into the training of librarians, chapter traditions, the fall of marines to chaos and most importantly the depraved culture of the Dark Eldar. I will not go into the plot (which is a lukewarm continuation to the climax in book three) but will say that the battle scenes are superb and of excellent quality; you will feel every bolter shoot that the characters fire and squirm as a chainsword descends downward. If want to explore the ancient chapter or the D Eldar, please read this book (but not before you read part 1), I hope Kyme loos at the possibility of writing a novel exclusively about the D. Eldar.