I’ve been a fan of Traci Chee since The Reader and so I knew I had to read Kindling. It’s a book about war, the price of loyalty, and what we would do to break free. Full of heart and action, Kindling is another winner from Chee. Keep reading Kindling for my full thoughts.
Summary
Once, the war was fought with kindlings—elite, magic-wielding warriors whose devastating power comes at the cost of their own young lives.
Now, the war is over, and kindlings have been cast adrift—their magic outlawed, their skills outdated, their formidable balar weapons prized only as relics and souvenirs.
Violence still plagues the countryside, and memories haunt those who remain. When a village comes under threat of siege, it offers an opportunity for seven kindlings to fight one last time. But war changed these warriors. And to reclaim who they once were, they will have to battle their pasts, their trauma, and their grim fates to come together again—or none of them will make it out alive.
Review
(Disclaimer: I received this book from the publisher. This has not impacted my review which is unbiased and honest.)
If you loved the multiple POVs of We Are Not Free – or in general – and don’t mind some fantasy, then you have to read Kindling. Featuring a cast of characters which will make a place in your heart, Kindling is about those who were necessary, who aren’t anymore. Those we needed in times of war, weapons we crafted out of necessity and cruelty, but now that we’ve all ‘moved on’ are discarded. Meant to pick up their broken pieces, to reconcile their actions with this new world, alone. Kindling is about what happens when we are promised a future and it’s broken. When our violent purposes is removed, when then?
No one wants to look at the necessary casualties, the stark sacrificial pawns and knights, when we don’t need them anymore. To stare our own failures, and dangerous successes in the eyes during the day. For the Kindlings, they were molded into weapons, burning through their lives for the ‘better good’. But the world that has been ushered in doesn’t resemble what they were told. Seeing this dynamic play in Kindling was phenomenal. It’s full of an unlikely group staring down the limits of mortality, of burning sparks, and just trying to make what we do matter.
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Kindling merely solidifies Traci Chee’s place in my auto-buy author category. There were some literal sentences and scenes that stopped me in my track. Find Kindling on Goodreads, Storygraph, Amazon, Bookshop.org, Blackwells, & Libro. fm.