Customer Reviews

Secrets of the Fire Sea. Stephen Hunt

5 star:		(13)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This is my favorite of the series so far. Most of the pacing issues I had with previous books, the sort of situation where everything goes to hell in such a rushed fashion the reader is almost left behind, are delightfully absent in this one. The Commodore drove me nuts, as usual, with his eternal put-upon misery, but even that had a fantastic pay off by the end. I think, after finishing the book, that Commodore Black was one of my favorite characters. His scene at the end is just so visceral. Not punches pulled. And I loved it.

Add in Jethro Daunt, the Circlist priest who was kicked out due do the fact he hears old gods (possessing an amazing talent for deductive reasoning), and his companion Boxiron, the head of a Steamman Knight inexpertly attached to the inferior man-made machine body (with an issue with aggression and stuck gears, not to mention a black market skill set) , and Fire Sea has a cast that not only grabs the readers attention but pulls them through each and every page. Every now and then Jethro appears to be a fantastic hat tilt to Sherlock Holmes, and on occasion made me chuckle with appreciation. His first scene in the book really drives that impression, and I was unable to get it out of my head whenever he was in a scene for the rest of the book.

The main protagonist is Hannah Conquest, ward of the church and math prodigy. She is interesting, but serves more as a reason to bring the rest of the cast together than anything else. Purity and Molly remain far more compelling heroines in my opinion.

The isle of Jago itself presents a creepy, hellish setting. From the corrupting domain of the valvemen to the beasts that roam the exterior of the city there is an omnipresent sense of danger and horror. The book itself is full of murder, conspiracy, and skulking Old Gods, which combined with the setting adds the twisted horror aspect I have come to love and expect from Hunt's books.

The Ursine race added another interesting culture to the social menagerie that populates the world, and the fact the plot hinged on something more mundane than most of the other novels- race/culture conflict between the Humans and the Ursines- the book as a whole was a more intriguing read.

This is a wholly brilliant addition to the series. I highly recommend picking it up!

With engaging characters, rich descriptions and a world that puts me in mind of some of the strangeness of China Mieville's novels, Secrets of the Fire Sea delves into the exploits of the Kingdom of Jackals' greatest detective, one Jethro Daunt and his assistant, an artificial intelligence stuck in a very ramshackle robot body.

Jethro is taken away from the kingdom, sent by the rational inquisition of the nation's atheist religion to investigate some superstitious goings-on on the island of Jago, which has retained a lot more technology than the other countries of Hunt's fallen far-future Earth, mainly due to an abundance of volcanic-driven electricity.

The atmosphere took me straight back to when I first read Umberto Eco's Il nome della rosa (the Name of the Rose, also made into a film with Sean Connery), and is of a similar quality, with the added twist that the setting for this is pure fantasy.

Film director's note, this book is crying out to be made into a decent movie! As it is, though, it is a far more than decent book.

Secrets of the Fire Sea is the fourth book set in the utterly brilliant Jackelian world, its adventures fixed in the far future where the passing of the ages have erased almost all trace of the world we know today (and various disasters and dark ages have knocked humanity back to a Victorian level of technology).

For me, Secrets of the Fire Sea works both as a riveting fantasy adventure or a great thriller, and the novel is one of Hunt's best so far in my opinion. It is a compelling book with a number of interesting characters, particularly consulting detective and ex-priest, Jethro Daunt and his steamman man servant and side-kick, Boxiron.

Rather than the Jackelian kingdom, the action for this novel switches to the Isle of Jago, a haunted, blasted colony locked inside the Fire Sea of the title. I especially love the way the book blends fantasy and science fiction and the way the plot builds to an explosive climax, leaving me wanting more.

'Secrets' is part of a brilliant series which I haven't been able to put down - so much so, I can't wait for Hunt's 5th novel to hit the bookstores.

Very much recommended.

If you enjoy books that keep you on edge through the whole story this is one for you. another great work by stephen. the same suspenseful story he produces with all his jackileain books but with those twists and turns that no other could produce. gives more back story on a few of the character's and of course Ole' Blackey is right in the middle of everything.

As far as the story of Secrets of the Fire Sea is concerned, it's high on intrigue, action and adventure - written almost as a crime mystery, but with the usual fantasy backdrop of the Jackelian universe (for those not in the know, that's an Earth set very far in the future: deprived of resources, with a retro-primitive vibe going on, alongside the odd flash of higher science from earlier ages).

The main characters are Jethro Daunt, a detective, and his mechanical manservant, Boxiron. They have to accept a case on an island continent surrounded by a sea of magma, involving politics and religion - a heady mix at the best of the time. I can't praise this novel highly enough. It has wonderful characters, the whole thing is beautifully written with an engaging and witty story. This would make a great TV series - either live action or anime-style. All in all, it's amazing fun and a must read.

One of the best books I have ever read for quite a while... the kind of adventure story that worms its way into your mind and keeps on clawing at your eyeballs until the last page is turned. Secret of the Fire Sea's writing style and story structure has obviously been meticulously planned and executed, with the build up of suspense ratcheting ever higher until the end (which - spoiler warning - may upset those of a religious bent). Brilliant characters and an imagination to match. I cannot wait for Jethro Daunt, consulting detective, to ride again.

Another indescribably great fantasy novel from the pen of writer Stephen Hunt. This one takes us far away from the lands we've seen in the previous three novels and out to a dark isle in the middle of a boiling sea of magma, called Jago. It's a blend of epic fantasy, dark future and a touch of steampunk with a set of realistic and complex characters, including a consulting detective - one Jethro Daunt - and said detective's robot assistant, Boxiron.

I won't give too much away about the plot of Secrets of the Fire Sea, save that it has some really great dialogue and lives up to the previous three works of Hunt, and - to me - reads like a wildly fast paced fantasy take on The Name of the Rose by Umberto Eco. A book not to be missed at any cost!

As a fantasy novel, Secrets of the Fire Sea shows an astoundingly adroit control of language with a wide range of cleverly crafted characters (almost too wide at times - my one crit. of this book).

At times demented, the assured plot is seething with cleverness - a dark detective for a dark future, haunted by what he's witnessed and comforted only by a tin man (okay, a steamman - this is a Stephen Hunt novel). The prose is at times dense, but never less that buzzing with ideas and imagination. Most of it circles around murders in an atheist cathedral on a volcanic hell-hole of an island called Jago, so far in the future you might as be in the past.

Into this mix is thrown such solid protagonists as a submarine pirate on the make, a lost ward of the atheist church, and some missing archaeologists who were far too close to the secret of the title to be allowed to survive (and everything beyond this is heading into spoiler territory).

With such fantastical ideas and an exhilarating plot tossed across every page, Secrets of the Fire Sea is better than the majority of the genre and deserves to become an instant classic.

Secrets of the Fire Sea is, without exaggeration, one of the all time greats of the fantasy genre... striking all the right buttons for me as a reader. Evocative plot? Check. Fantastically original world? Check. Wide breadth of underpinnings beyond pulp adventure despite being pulp adventure? Check.

There is a brilliantly realized tension here between the unconventional and the genre tropes, which are handled with an aplomb that is not easy to find in the field today.

One the one hand it is a fantasy adventure, a genre replete with the garbage of identikit plot lines, on the other it takes almost all of the tropes of fantasy, stick a rocket to them, and lets fire with a wild madness that is truly exhilarating to behold.

Imagine JRR Tolkien writing noir fiction in a world created as a collaboration between Charles Dickens and Neil Gaiman, and you have some feel for what to find between the pages of this novel. Part scifi, part fantasy, part steampunk, but all brilliant.

When it comes to bringing his worlds to life, Stephen Hunt is up there with Frank Herbert and Dune, or Tolkien and Middle Earth, and it's clear he loves packing them full of intrigue and adventure - which is lucky, because that's what I enjoy reading too!

Secrets of the Fire Sea is another fine addition to the series which Hunt started with The Court of the Air, and this book shows how far he has come on as a writer since he started out. Every page is layered with twists and he can really make you care about his characters more than any other writer active in the fantasy genre today.

The strengths of this book are what Hunt's strengths have always been, thought-provoking concepts and good old fashioned, great dialogue and a plot that is to die for (quite literally, as this novel steers effortlessly into detective fiction territory).

As an author, Stephen Hunt reawakened my love for the fantasy novel, which had been bumping along with stilted-quest-after-quest for far too long until he struck the genre.