Synopsis

Volume II in the chronological short stories of Esterra Stake. Tractwalker. Mercenary. Exile.

From the ashes of despair, an ember awakens.

Esterra’s journey through the fractured lands of Verpace leads her into even stranger and deadlier tracts. In a caustic wasteland, she crosses paths with a naïve steelhunter and a zealous priest who is bent on resurrecting a long-dead cult. As ancient shadows stir and corrupted beasts stalk her every step, Esterra must join with old friends to face a broken world.

But as the licht’s call grows stronger, a new hunger festers within her, a hunger which threatens to unravel the fragile threads of her humanity.

The darkness hunts her, but so does the light. Can Esterra hold her ground against the violence of Verpace, or will it smother the fire in the hearth?

With hints of grimdark and Lovecraftian horror, this second volume expands on the world of Verpace, introduces new characters, and brings back a few favourites. This page-turner has visceral action, wild monsters, mutant abominations, and more.

Quick Review

Fire in the Hearth is a stunning return to the Scars of Magic series, improving on just about everything while retaining the brutal survivalist tale of Esterra Stake.

Full Review

Before we dig into Fire in the Hearth, I feel as though I first need to discuss the previous book in this series and a few of my thoughts on that. Blade of the Wanderer, released in 2025, is where we’re first introduced to Esterra and the world of Verpace. That book—a short story collection—works by showing us several vignettes of her journey and the monsters (both human and inhuman) that she faces along the way. It’s very reminiscent of a monster-of-the-week show, or The Last Wish by Andrej Sapowski. The latter especially so, since the real monsters are not always the inhuman ones.

The series instills a sense of mystery and wanderlust throughout these linked short stories. However, in book 1, I felt as though the most interesting parts of Eserra’s journey were whisked away from us all too quickly. Esterra is a world-weary traveler, who often has to fight her way out of terrible situations, and while Raaymakers does a fantastic job creating those life-or-death stakes, they so often boil down to a simple question of survival. Esterra didn’t fight for any ideals or for anyone, she only sought to make it to the next day.

That changes when she meets Tarr, a traveling scholar who pushes Esterra intellectually. In book one, we got a few stories where they traveled together, but it ended just as abruptly as it began. This happened a few times, where Raaymakers would introduce an interesting character or place that elevated Esterra’s character just to abandon it soon after. Because of that, the first book felt strong—I’ve gone out of my way to recommend it to a few friends who love dark fantasy—but it still felt bit incomplete to me.

I say all this, because almost immediately in book two, Raaymakers shows us that Esterra is not alone. Tarr makes a return in Fire in the Hearth, and we’re introduced to Freya, a child who she saves and bonds with. The stories feel more cohesive than last time as well, since they all revolve around Esterra’s relationships with these two; whether she is protecting them, avoiding them, or returning to them.

The moment I really fell in love with the three’s dynamic was in the story “Dark Revelation.” Whereas many of Raaymakers’ stories involve some psychological or physical threat that Esterra must defeat or evade, this is one of the few times where she can’t do either. She and Tarr muse on why the world has become so dangerous, and they are each forced to reckon with her place in it for a moment. This story felt like Esterra almost got to stop and breathe, only for it to be tragically cut short.

While this collection feels notably different than the last one, it’s still very much about survival in Verpace, with a lot of different tracts to explore. “Once-Men” is a story which would feel perfectly at home in book one: it’s about Esterra surviving in a deadly tract, evading both human hunters and mutated creatures. It’s tense and brutal, just as Raaymakers’ readers will come to expect from this series.

Although “Once-Men” was not my personal favorite story, I think it contrasts well against the others. It’s a reminder of what Esterra’s life is without Tarr and Freya, and makes her decision to be with them all the more impactful.

The final story, “Flashes in the Dark” is my favorite in the series so far. Without spoiling too much, it felt like the perfect finale to Fire in the Hearth, and a turning point for Esterra’s character—one that every other story in this series had been building toward.

I highly recommend Fire in the Hearth. If you enjoyed The Blade of the Wanderer but felt it needed an extra push, I think you’ll find this second installment has that. This book has also, clearly, recontextualized my relationship with book one. Where that collection felt interesting but slightly disjointed, I’m starting to see Raaymakers’ vision for the series, and I’m excited to see where he takes it with the next one.

One final note, I do recommend checking the content warnings before digging into this book. Raaymakers’ writes dark fantasy, so he’s not holding back when describing the ways in which people and monsters hunt (or are hunted by) Esterra. Notably, this book contains depictions of violence against and death to children. It’s not always so bleak, but there are moments which I think could give some readers pause.

Thank you to the author for providing me with a copy of Fire in the Hearth in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.