Dreams of Fire by: Nathaniel Wayne

 

One of the goals which I have been attempting in 2021 is to read more self-published works, having done one in 2020 and this year I’m shooting for five.  Dreams of Fire is the third self-published book (fourth if you count Theft of Swords) I have read this year and the second from a YouTuber.  This one is from Nathaniel Wayne aka Council of Geeks, most well known for their Doctor Who content.  This is also a fantasy novel that while not explicitly part of a series, once read it clearly ends on a point where there is going to be a sequel, however, Wayne doesn’t adequately fill the book with enough plot to keep things going.  Dreams of Fire is essentially an extended prologue for whatever Wayne’s follow up will be, and when viewed through that lens it mostly works.  The plot as a single installment does have some arcs based on the emotions of its characters, mainly the protagonist Farris and a character I can only describe as the main antagonist, Professor Raines.  Farris is on the run while Professor Raines is chaing an escaped subject from her laboratory.  They are our two major point of view characters for the novel which actually does work really well, though Wayne includes some other characters to flesh out the world, especially the Fey.  It is these other points of view which doesn’t actually integrate well in the book, only really serving as worldbuilding for the rest of the book and setting up sequel material.

 

Wayne’s worldbuilding, however, is something that they excel at, taking several pieces of fantasy tropes and lore and putting them into a blender to develop a world that plays like a mix of classic and modern.  Other reviews refer to the setting as electropunk, which is apparently a subgenre similar to steampunk, characterized by blending modern technology such as electricity and magic.  As it is a subgenre that I am unfamiliar with, Dreams of Fire could easily be taking wholesale from other examples of the subgenre, but as far as I can tell it is at least putting its own spin by still having that classic, high fantasy setting with several guilds and obviously the fey.  The Fey creatures which appear here are taken from other classic tales, with your traditional sprites and fairies, as well as the Morrigan, a figure taken from Irish mythology associated with war and crows.  The magic system, or possibly two magic systems (it isn’t clear that the Fae magic is separate from the elemental magic), introduced here is presented as soft, though there are clearly rules that restrict it from being the softest of systems.  There’s also some nice little cultural details like insights into the many constables throughout cities and some of the games that people play in the society as a reflection of the relationship between humans and the Fey.

 

Farris is an elemental, someone whose body builds up and expels the elements, with his being fire, and much of this story is about him trying to hide his abilities and survive.  The survival aspect is fun though Farris is not a character who gets a whole lot of development, acting as a naïve person as a way to allow the audience a view into the world.  He does learn and tries to make his own, with one confrontation with Professor Raines at the end of the book which is a good emotional climax.  Professor Raines, on the other hand, is your classic determined academic, not entirely trusted due to the entirety of the book and going above her superiors to find a rogue elemental which escaped from her lab.  Raines is a character who doesn’t seem to be entirely complex right until the end where Wayne pulls a great little twist that may be a little predictable, but does recontextualize many of her actions throughout the book while changing her in the eyes of the audience.  There are other minor villains, including a mercenary determined to find Farris who is a lot of fun, if a little one note, and a matron who is the one person to show Farris genuine kindness and reappears at the end which is a lot of fun.

 

Overall, Dreams of Fire is an excellent first novel from a first time author with an interesting setting, some very fun characters, and the pace of a high speed chase from start to finish which is a lot of fun.  The biggest issue with Wayne is not writing style, they have that developed quite well, or even the characters, but the fact that the novel is prologue for something bigger and includes some points of view that are only there to set up things in future books which doesn’t quite work.  Though this is a series and author to watch and recommended. 8/10.