Lady of Fire
By Pirateaba
Lady of Fire is the seventeenth audiobook in The Wandering Inn, and it’s perhaps the most quintessentially TWI book in the series. This book ranges across the entire spectrum of themes the author deals with, from the silly to the chaotic to the downright disturbing. It’s everything that makes The Wandering Inn unique and special.
We start out with a happy-go-lucky pirate adventure with Strategists At Sea, and we explore issues of consent and bodily autonomy from the dark side with the Last Light of Baleros. The visitors from another world start making their mark and we’re introduced to soccer (no, football) and pyramid schemes. The Bloodfeast Raiders bring tragedy and disaster, and the Lady of Fire brings passion and romance.
The Wind Runner returns to the inn, and an old fool takes a half-hearted look outside his cave.
Through it all, the story, twisting and haphazard though it may be, never loses sight of its people. Stories are about characters, and no matter how dark or how silly this tale turns, there’s always the human connection. To be clear, I’m not referring to the race of humans as it’s portrayed in the story, but about what it means to be a human in the real world in this day and age. Life’s messy, unfair, and difficult. We’re all flawed, we don’t see the whole picture until it’s too late, and we make the worst of decisions with the best of intentions.
So too in this book.
It’s one of the reasons I love this series.
In a previous TWI review, I complained about how nothing really happened and the story didn’t move forward, and I expressed some concern that this would be an issue considering how long the later volumes of the web novel version of the story are. That’s still a concern, but it does not apply to this book. Here, things absolutely happen, and the story definitely moves forward. It’s still building momentum for what’s to come, but the progress is tangible. Things change, people do stuff, and the inn once again makes its mark on the world stage.
That’s another reason this series fascinates me. The world keeps growing and changing and we who read get to see everything. Yes, it means the story is slow and meandering, and the meta plot or whatever you’ll call it takes forever to get anywhere, but that’s fine. The Wandering Inn is all about the journey, and while fans and readers may speculate about how it might end, the ending is nowhere in sight. Again, that’s fine, there are more important things in this story than getting to the end (wait, can that be said about every story? I may have to think about that).
Finally, since I listened to the audio book version, and since this is the second book with the new narrator (Erin Bennet), I’d like to share my thoughts on the performance. The short of it is that Erin’s doing a great job. A few of the character voices (mostly the antinium ones) grate a little on me, but the default narration feels completely natural and is very pleasant to listen to. It’s a voice that invites me into the story, shares its secrets, and brings me on an adventure.
I’m also impressed by how similar some of the character accents are to those established by the previous narrator. Yes, the voice is different, but in many cases the pacing/melody of the characters speech is spot on. I could identify Daly right away even though he’d not been introduced and he wasn’t in the previous book. The same goes for Lyonette and Octavia.
What I’ll whine about
Scope and size. The Wandering Inn is not a short story. To my meagre knowledge, it’s among the world’s longest written stories, and it’s still in the process of being written (I read a brand new chapter just the other day). This is at once both a strength and a weakness. It’s a strength in that it allows for in-depth exploration of the world and the characters in a way a shorter story (like Malazan Book of the Fallen) does not. It’s a weakness, in that it’s daunting for new readers to take it on. I’m not sure I would have picked up the first book if I’d known how many there were.
I review books because I want to help people discover great stories. I like to talk about books that matter to me, and I want other people to enjoy them. Lady of Fire is probably the best book in The Wandering Inn yet, but given how many books come before it, I’ll have a hard time sharing my excitement for it with the people around me.
What I’ll gush about
Scope. I already talked about it earlier, but the way this book showcases the entire spectrum of themes The Wandering Inn deals with is amazing to me. There’s grand adventure, traumatising despair, chaotic silliness, and quiet introspection, and I’m here for it.
Action. I mentioned this as well, but this book really picks up the pace. The last few books have been mostly about setting up the board and getting the pieces into position, but in this one, the game is on.
Final Words
The best book of the series so far.
