Synopsis
Tell me how it happened…
Layne was a soldier, conscripted to fight under the Fox in a vengeance fueled march. He, and his friends, were due for a fated confrontation, one that has ended in blood and loss. Now, the inquisitors want to hear every detail of his conscription, his training, and the duel against the assassin in grey.
Quick Review
An Inkling of Flame balances an almost cozy found family story with the horrors of war, with plenty of other political and religious machinations working under the surface. This novella packs a punch.
Full Review
An Inkling of Flame tells the story of four close friends, who each follow the same faith under Tidur. The first half of the novella largely sets the stage, establishes their relationships, and dare I say is almost cozy. That part of the story doesn’t shatter so much as it twists and fades as Tidur calls his followers to war.
The second half is the story of that war—first of training for it and then fighting in a battle. Author Z.B. Steele tells a kind of anti-war story in this part, as the friends discover how brutal and callous war is. How quickly things can take a turn for the worse. And Steele does not hold back on showing the viscera and blood of these moments.
The story ends on a similar note of being anti-war, but adds in a new element, a character who appears to be in open rebellion against Tidur and the other deities like him. Unfortunately, we never get to learn much about that, though the way it’s presented I expect that we might in the novels in the Song of the Damned series.
I recommend An Inkling of Flame. It’s a well-written story that balanced the found family of these four friends, and the devastation war brings them. I read this novella without having dug into Steele’s novels yet, but I had no trouble getting invested in these characters and following along with the story. I imagine that anyone who has read Steele’s novels will enjoy this even more.
Leave a Reply