This epic fantasy follows three main characters: Leo, the king, Elena, his daughter, and Yassen, a former assassin trying to clear his ledger. This story is filled with war and politics, something I find quite intriguing.

The writing in this was just so beautiful. The characters were also so interesting to read about, especially since they are morally grey so there wasn’t really a clear line between the “good” and “bad.” My only problem with it was that the pacing was super slow, but other than that it was great!

Many thanks to NetGalley, New Degree Press and the author for an advanced copy of The Boy with Fire in exchange for my honest review.

FIRST IMPRESSION:

How can I resist a book that is pitched as “Dune meets The Poppy War“? Then the author described this book as “a magical conglomeration of Dune, The Poppy War, Game of Thrones, and ATLA“! How do I not pick up this gold mine of a book that just landed in front of me? Of course, I grabbed it! I would have probably pushed someone to grab this off the shelf if I had seen this in a bookstore! I honestly get chills thinking about the slight chance I would have had of not having read this book!

THE STORY:

The Boy with Fire is a political fantasy at heart. The story opens with Yassen Knight, who was an assassin of the terrorist group that is known as the Arohassin. After suffering a disabling blow, Yassen is useless to the Arohassin now and has flown the coop to his old friend, Samson Kyuut, a fellow ex-assassin who is now leading a military force known as the Black Scales. Samson offers Yassen the ultimatum to help him defend the kingdom of Ravence and its royal family from the Arohassin in exchange for Yassen’s freedom.

Elena Ravence is the heir of the desert kingdom known as Ravence, a kingdom torn between religious fanatics who believe in their god Phoenix and her destructive Prophet, and a people who are loyal to the royal family. Elena is fierce, strong and just days away from her coronation, but she is lacking the one thing she needs to become the undisputed ruler of her people: the ability to wield fire.

Meanwhile, Leo, Elena’s father, is on a mission to prepare the kingdom for a peaceful rule under his daughter’s hand. However, in the midst of clashes between loyalists and religious fanatics, Leo begins to suspect that there are traitors in their midst and that these traitors are working to protect the one person who could end Ravence and her people: the Prophet of their god, the Phoenix.

THE CHARACTERS:

There was something almost magical about a whole cast of characters with South Asian influence in an epic fantasy like The Boy with Fire. In a kingdom like Ravence in the middle of an unforgiving desert, characters like Yassen with their pale features stood out while brown skin, kohl-lined eyes and dark hair were the norm.

From among these characters, Elena stood out to me the most because I could not help admiring her tenacity, her willpower and her raw passion for her people and kingdom. Though Elena lacked the ability to wield fire, she was a brilliant display of all the strengths of a queen otherwise. Then you place her with characters like Ferma, a badass warrior/bodyguard with hair that transforms into knife-like points, and Leo, the tormented and ruthless king that the fandom has unanimously agreed is DILF material. What an amazing trio to reign over a kingdom!

Samson and Yassen came into the story as somewhat of mystery men. They both have sketchy pasts together but then they separated, so the two of them are tentative allies at best, basing their relationship on their childhood brotherhood rather than any real trust in each other. They made an interesting duo because literally, everything felt uncertain about them till the very last chapter of this book, and even now I have so many questions about these two!

THE WRITING:

I really liked the author’s writing here because of her skill, which honestly stunned me at this debut novel level. She excelled at wowing me with her colourful descriptions, her stunning action scenes, and her expert weaving from character to character using multiple POVs.

I found the writing a bit slow-paced until the last third portion of the book, but this was such a great technique to build the already palpable tension that was present throughout the storytelling. By the time the pace picked up, I had to keep the book down a few times to catch my breath because the way the author used the pacing with her plot twists was just genius!

Another great thing about the writing was that the author unapologetically used words of South Asian origin, like “chhatri”, “dupatta”, without following them up with long-winding explanations of what they are. Of course, there was a glossary at the end, so no one is going to end up lost. It felt unapologetically authentic, and I loved it even as I shifted to the glossary any time a word was unfamiliar to me!

THE PLOT:

The Boy with Fire had a great deal of political drama in its centre. I loved how the author weaved multiple POVs to explore the various aspects of what was happening in Ravence, because this kingdom was a political mess at the start of the story (sounds familiar, but oh well!).

I thought I might grow bored since I tend to read a majority of romance-themed books and the romance here is a very slow burn, but oh boy was I wrong! From the very beginning of this book, there was a palpable tension and this just grew and grew throughout the story. I was impressed by how the author built the story scene-by-scene with every scene contributing something meaningful to the story.

The majority of the book was conflict-heavy with political parties clashing, leaders clashing, and racial clashes coming into play. Even the characters themselves were distrustful of each other and everyone was suspicious of everyone. I feel like the author took the concept of conflict in the plot to a whole other level with this. In contrast, the climax and the resolution were quick and felt like a slap to the face!

My favourite bits were definitely Elena and Yassen’s scenes, though I really wanted more Samson scenes too!

THE WORLD-BUILDING:

Aparna Verma’s world-building was just stunning! It’s a wholly new fictional world of her construct with multiple kingdoms, religions, and cultures.

I don’t think I have seen anyone say this yet, but her scenes of Ravence marketplaces and landscapes really gave me Star Wars vibes, with the images of colourful, outdoor markets coexisting with holopods and hovercars! It felt like Star Wars but with desi vibes!

My Star Wars rant aside, I am obsessed with the South Asian elements in the world-building here. This high fantasy felt so much more beautiful to me with the beautiful array of South Asian food, culture, and architecture that the author weaved into the story. Is it because I relate to it more? Probably. Maybe the festive vibes of the impending coronation and such were just much more visually pleasing to me since I have experienced something similar since childhood. And come on! Indian festivals? Who can stop visualising all the colours and food and people?

Also, I am so happy to see kingdoms that are doing their own thing! There was Ravence with its desert and its Prophet. Then Jantar with its metal and brass cities. And there are so many more kingdoms that the story hasn’t explored yet, like Mandur with its navy, Pagua with its stealthy air force, and so on. It gets me so excited about the rest of this trilogy and all the directions this story can go in!

Then the enemies to lovers romance – a trope that drew me to this book. I will admit that it was a very slow burn but I preferred that because the romance did not feel forced when it actually blossomed. And to be honest, all the chaos happening left and right really made me forget about the romance halfway through because I was so intrigued by the mystery of it all!

THE THEMES:

There was strong South Asian representation in this story. Like I have raved about throughout this review, this is a high fantasy that is unapologetically South Asian and diverse. There is even disability representation since Yassen suffers from terrible burns to his arm that debilitates him significantly in the story.

I also liked how the author explored themes like racism and religious fanaticism through the people that she created. It is an interesting parallel to our own real-life situations that are painfully relatable at times. With the crown of Ravennce passing from one ruler to the next, there is an interesting matter of what leadership entails as well since Leo and Elena share greatly differing views on how to rule a kingdom.

FINAL VERDICT:

I am still reeling from reading this epic fantasy that is Aparna Verma’s The Boy with Fire. It delivered so much more than I expected on all things from its representation to the world-building and characters. This series is already firmly on the favourites shelf and I am bound to keep shoving this down everyone’s throats till its sequel goes live. Read this for the twisty plot, for the amazing South Asian representation, for the powerful world-building, and the badass cast of characters!

I saw The Boy With Fire being talked about by two mutuals on twitter, and once I saw that it was being pitched as Dune meets The Poppy War, I knew I had to jump on it. I made the right choice, because after reading it, this book has stood out as one of the best adult fantasy books I’ve read in a while.

While there are multiple things I loved about the book, I want to start off by applauding the writing and the world building in particular, because they were so good. The world building was such a unique blend of fantasy and sci-fi that made the book fun and truly engaging to read, and I think that pulling from Indian/SA lore was a big breath of fresh air, one that this genre needs. The writing style contributed to that in the best way possible, and while I didn’t know where Verma was going with the sci-fi aspects at first, by the end of it, that was one of my favorite parts of the world she had built (the game arena & game suits were so cool to picture). I’ve seen some criticisms about the pacing, but I personally tend to believe adult high fantasy books benefit from some time to set up the world, and Verma did such a masterful job that not only was the pacing pretty perfect for me, I can hardly believe that The Boy With Fire is her debut novel.

I’m a character driven reader who finds great difficulty in connecting with characters, which yes, makes me a clown, but I actually didn’t have much of a problem in this book. Ferma became a favorite pretty immediately despite being a side character and she and her flowing, murderous locks have retained their place among the badass warrior women I would propose to if they were real, age difference be damned. Samson, Elena, Leo and Yassen were all great characters too, and as much as I wish we had gotten to see more of Samson in this book, I really enjoyed getting to explore Verma’s world through their eyes. Leo’s chapters were especially interesting, as I feel like you rarely get to experience the POV of this kind of character, and I just had a lot of fun (and yes, moments of horror) while doing so. The book and the characters got dark, but that added some spice and just made it even better to read. The romance in this was very subtle and super slow burn, so much so that I actually kind of ended up focusing on the wrong pairing (but I actually don’t think it might be completely incorrect now, but we’ll see), but I found myself really rooting for it at the end.

Speaking of the end, I won’t spoil anything but just know that it had me in a lot of pain. I’m lowkey struggling knowing that this book hasn’t even come out yet, because I need the next one NOW. I’m really looking forward to the sequel, and frankly any content that Aparna Verma throws at us, because she’s made me a huge fan.

Aparna Verma’s The Boy with Fire is an Indian-inspired epic fantasy debut, with science fiction elements and superb worldbuilding. It is the first book in The Ravence Trilogy and told from multiple points of view.

Elena Ravence is the heir to the throne, weeks away from her coronation. Her father has trained her well, but she lacks the ability to hold Fire, which is critical for the support of the religious zealots who support the throne. Yassen is a notorious assassin on the run from both the authorities and his former employer. He’s offered a deal to defend the heir in return for a pardon. Last, we have Leo Ravence, Elena’s father. He is fighting an ancient prophecy about the return of “The Prophet” that threatens all that his family has built.

Similar to the Dune trilogy, we have a desert setting with religion, powerful foes, and lots of political intrigue. I struggled a bit in places with some uneven pacing and characters that I didn’t empathize with. But pushing through those weaker parts is well worth the investment to read this unique, diverse book. The descriptions of the settings are beautiful, the best I’ve read in any novel this year. We also get many details seamlessly woven in that make it easy to immerse ourselves in this imaginative world.

Wow!

This has been the year for amazing fantasy books. This book completely blew me away. The characters, the plot, and the romance!!! Just fantastic. I really just loved the sense of adventure this book gave me, I loved every second of it and I cannot wait until the next one.

This book is quite solid for a debut, considering it is high fantasy and the author managed to build such an interesting world with a great setting that keeps your imagination active while reading. Another thing that kept my interest up was the concept of religion and the Prophet: Who are they? What will they do? And the cliffhanger that we get? I was not ready for it.
However, despite the things I liked about this book, I still found it hard to completely fall for it. I was promised an enemies-to-lovers trope, but it did not happen (at least I do not think so). The shift from enemies to lovers was too fast and not backed up by any change of belief in either party and the moment where they become lovers felt anti-climactic. The pacing of the book was also a smaller issue for me since the story drags on and really picks up in the last 15-20% of the book. The themes and storylines had so much potential to grow and expand, however, they did not, which I believe is the cause of me taking so long to read it.
All in all, I see this book as kind of a set-up book or an introductory book to the series (since it will be a trilogy) and I do believe that future parts will improve with the pacing and story-wise. I will be reading the series once it continues and I hope this review does not discourage anyone from reading it since it is a good story.

ARC received from Netgalley and author/publisher in exchange for an honest review. Opinions expressed are my own and have not been influenced in any way.

The Boy with Fire is Aparna Verma's debut novel. This is a high fantasy book with badass, morally grey characters and is inspired by Indian mythology!
I really liked the book. The world building was amazing, i could clearly picture what was going on and i didn't feel like there was much overload of information.
Now, i had a little trouble getting into the book at first ( i mean hello! World- building!) and we were still getting introduced to all the characters, their dynamics etc. So the book didn't pick up until the 50% mark but after that, the excitement and plot twists really consumed me.
Now coming to the characters, i loved LOVED Leo and he's such a complex character; like i know his actions were so wrong but I could understand where he came from. His povs where my favorite!
Elena was great but i think i really loved her character in the end of the book, her toughness and powers shined in the last 40%. Yassen's character was rather bland. I wasn't able to connect with him, but i liked his backstory! Elena and Yassen's chemistry was okayish but that's fine because this was not a book where romance took the front seat! My favorite character was Samson and i really really wished we got to see him in more scenes. And see his relationship with Elena and Yassen individually. I hope we can explore more of the characters complexity and inner workings in the next book.
Even though the first half of the book was slow the plot twists, drama and angsts more than made up for it in the second half. I genuinely did not expect that ending and last chapter truly shocked me. I LOVED it!!! Also, this book has some banger quotes. These words are so concrete, so truthful, one wonders if it could make someone bleed.

"The past is binding, but i want to break it," he said. "If we carry the burdens of our fathers, then we'll never know what it means to be free."

" But you must be ruthless, Elena. If you must become a villain, become one. Become whatever Ravence demands, because without you, it will die."

"Belief is stronger than a god, more fragile than a feather."

Aparna's writing is so so pretty and out of this world that i could feel i was with the characters themselves. She  has a way of describing things that makes you undoubtedly captivated in the book.
Overall this was a fantastic debut and i simply cannot wait to see what happens in the next book<3

This book was such a refreshing read, especially with the mix of ancient Indian elements and mythologies and unique futuristic technology. I enjoyed reading the South Asian characters and their and their complex personalities. I also very much enjoyed how romance was a subplot in this book. and the main focus were the political intricacies of royal life and gaining power. The main characters all had a sense of intense ambition.
A lovely debut!

Thank you to the author and Netgalley for providing a copy of The Boy With Fire. I have reviewed honestly.

Firstly, the world building was incredibly vivid and intriguing. I loved the intricate combination of high fantasy and sci-fi, it really drew me in to the tale.

The characters were likeable, I love morally grey characters and our mains were no exception, although I did struggle to connect with them at times.

The writing style was enticing and enraptured me from the get go.

Overall, a well written adult fantasy book.

The plot of this book was truly remarkable but i found it has to get through at times. On top of that at certain points it felt like there was far too much happening and I found it hard to keep up.

However, the writing style was beautiful particularly the descriptions of the relationships between Ferma and Elaena and Samson and Taseen.

All in all a wonderful book i am excited for it to be released!

I absolutely loved this book it definitely lives up to the hype! I was not disappointed. It was a little slow at times but it was easy to work through.

ambitious concept but did not live up to it for me.

i love prophecies and mythology inspired books so that aspect was definitely interesting to read about. the writing is beautifully worded to draw you into Ravence and the worldbuilding is intricately planned. the magic system, revolving around fire, is a unique addition and made the plot interesting. this is an indian inspired adult fantasy and i'm so happy to see books inspired by my culture! all the indian elements were included so well along with the themes of genocide and colonialism. if you like such fantasies, i'll definitely recommend it to you.

my main issue is with the characters and pacing. the first 50/60% were so slow with repetitive chapters, i considered dnf-ing it. i know it takes time to set up the world in an adult fantasy but there wasn't any significant action happening to move the story forward. the pacing and action get better later on but by that time we're near the end of the book.

i was really eager to see how the characters and the dynamics develop but i felt like we only got surface level development for them and i wasn't invested them or their backstories and motivations. this underdevelopment made me to not care about the interpersonal relationships either. the boy with fire is said to have an 'enemies to lovers romance' so i'm guessing it refers to elena and yassen's romance but there was no such vibes, especially because their shift in loyalties or beliefs were so quick. i was drawn to leo's character as he's a calculating ruler and his pov did not disappoint. ferma and samson, the characters i was actually invested in, did not get much depth.

then again, these problems could be very 'its not you its me' so i'll still recommend this one to people, especially as an indian inspired fantasy by a debut author. i do agree when people say this could easily be read as a young adult fantasy, the only difference being characters over 20. if you like themes of war, religion and politics then you should absolutely give this a shot.

thank you to the author and netgalley for the arc!

A good start to a new epic fantasy series...

I liked this book. Maybe not blown away by it but definitely liked it. I had some problems with this book but nothing major.

The Boy With Fire has been presented as Dune meets The Poppy War; I have read neither and don’t intend to do so anytime soon, so I can’t testify to how true the comparison is, but I can say that this book is absolutely brilliant, and can speak for itself! It follows three points of view, all very different, and is set in Ravence, a great city in the desert in an Indian inspired world. I’m not usually big on desert settings, especially for prolonged periods of time, but I loved the way Verma described the dunes, and the way she has created a world that has a much older feel while using futuristic technology. I was thrown for the first few pages by holopods and other tech in the middle of a bazaar, but soon got used to it, and it certainly helps to make this and exciting and unique story.

The two main points of conflict within this story are the possibility of war with the neighbouring kingdom of Jantar, which has been expanding its borders and causing an influx of refugees into Ravence; and the return of the Prophet, the chosen of the fiery god the Phoenix, who is said to one day return and exact justice through the Prophet, burning everything in their path. With all this happening on the eve of Elena taking over the throne from her father Leo, the king is determined not to hand her a broken kingdom, so he arranges for her to marry Samson, a rich mercenary with a large land army, who will supplement their own forces and provide protection for Elena in the form of Yassen, former Arohassin assassin, and now looking for a quiet life. And, in the shadows, King Leo is hunting the Prophet, burning suspects until he finds the one that the fire won’t hurt.

The royal family only agree to Yassen’s presence to keep a close eye on him, and Elena plans on burning him as soon as she can, but as the two get to know one another they find they have more in common than they believed, and you can tell from the start that Verma has a romance planned for them. I was quite happy with that, and enjoyed watching their relationship develop, and could have even done with more romance than the book had. But apart from Yassen, Elena has Ferma, her Yumi bodyguard whose hair can turn into sharp tendrils and cut through anything, and Elena herself is far from defenceless. I really liked the way the female protagonist could hold her own, and it was a nice change to have a reckless young woman who was nevertheless competent, and didn’t need others to fix her mistakes.

However, Elena still can’t hold fire, and she needs to learn by the time of her Coronation Day, and when her father refuses to teach her, she searches the palace library (a secret library, may I add, with multiple secret passages!) and finds a scroll bearing her mother’s initials, which has illustrated forms for wielding fire. Elena’s mother is another mystery running through the novel, and the way she died and what she was looking into at the time was very intriguing.

I think Yassen was my favourite character, but it’s hard to choose because Verna put an incredible amount of work into each of her characters, even the side ones, but I think Yassen was still the most well-rounded and realistic of them all – his backstory was the most interesting, and his inner conflict drove his chapter on. Despite being the most skilled assassin in his organisation, most of the time I feel like Yassen just needed a hug, but I also liked the fact that despite losing the use of one of his arms, Yassen is never treated by the story as useless – some of the characters see him as such, and he occasionally thinks of himself that way too, but the narrative never makes it a big thing. I would probably say he’s the central protagonist, despite there being two other points of view, because he drives the start of the plot and is the one connecting a lot of the narrative threads.

I found that overall this was a fresh and exciting debut, and while I thought I knew where the end was heading, there was a plot twist that I certainly didn’t see coming, and Aparna Verna made me put the book down and stare at the wall for a bit, and I don’t do that very often, so thank you for that experience! I highly recommend this to anyone who reads SFF, and I cannot wait for the next book, because how could you just leave it like that??

I received an ARC of this book from net-galley in exchange for an honest review.

I would recommend this book to fans of The Poppy War and anyone who loves darker books. After seeing this book was compared to TPW I had to find out for myself. The whole premise of this story excited me and it did not disappoint!

The Boy with Fire follows three main characters in a kingdom at war. Leo is the king. Elena is his daughter and heir to the throne. And Yassen is an ex assassin that is trying to right his wrongs. This novel has dark themes and characters who can only be explained as villains.

This book was absolutely amazing. The world building, characters, plot, and setting all were excellently done. I was enraptured from the beginning.

The characters were all excellent. I loved that they were not perfect and they were on the border between evil and morally gray. Elena's growth throughout the story was amazing. I did not hate any of the characters but I definitely loved her. Leo was awesome and I loved his dedication to his family. Yassen however was my favorite character. I was always yearning to read his chapters and his background and story was executed perfectly.

The world-building was very easy to follow and I felt like I could see Ravence with my own eyes. Aparna definitely is an amazing author because I never felt bored while reading and she made me want to visit Ravence myself.

I only had one issue and that was in some parts of the book I couldn't tell if the POV was in the past or present, but that wasn't a huge issue. Not enough to take any stars off.

The Boy with Fire is an amazing book and I cannot wait for it to come out!

A solid read, I enjoyed exploring the myths and politics of the novel. The only thing I did not care for was the last 2-3 chapters where Elena suddenly became 'I Burning Queen, I invincible so therefore I will make rash decisions' when she always read like a level headed character to me .

the idea of this book was one that appealed to me very much but i wasn’t the biggest fan of its execution. from page one, i was hooked on the writing style and authors ability to portray the setting in such a beautiful and concise way but as i read on, i found myself having to push through the book. i didn’t feel much of a connection towards any of the characters and the romantic relationships in them felt sort of dull and rushed to me. i think for a debut novel it was really good but i wish the characters had been more fleshed out and that more time had been put into developing the relationships. the world-building was probably the saving grace for this book, in my opinion. it felt so developed and i loved reading about it. overall, i think this is a book for those who don’t care much about connecting with the characters and more so care about world-building and plot.

The themes of THE BOY WITH FIRE were very interesting, from what it means to love a country or a land (Elena's attachment to the desert) to the hunt for power (Leo's obsession with finding the Prophet), I also liked how desperation manifested in each character and played such an important role in the story. However, the writing fell a bit flat for me. I found myself constantly wanting more depth, more everything. The themes could have been explored more, or more could have happened, because the pacing was really slow and I feel like the story never peaked.

This was a great fantasy read! I loved the worldbuilding and the characters in it! The comp to The Poppy Wars is what drew me in and I absolutely loved it for that reason! This was a great first installment and I cannot wait to read more!

<b> ↠ 4.0 </b> ★★★★☆

"What else could two broken people do, other than use their broken parts to mend their wounds?"

A fantastic fantasy debut. What I liked the most was the plot twists, holy shit, they are another level, I loved how it guides us to one way for later change everything, is that all the plot were so interesting and the character subplots too, all the characters were reals, I loved their dubious moral but in fact they did what they thought was correct, but Yassen was the one who surprise me the most, O M G.

The book shows us a new world, and though I liked it how the politics, religion and culture are introduced, I think that in the next books it could be expanse a little bit all the different places. At the beginning it surprised me that the world had technology, is something that doesn’t see frequently in high fantasy, but I liked a lot how it was incorporated, definitely I want to know more and I would be thrilled if the palace training arena existed really. The book has a slow pace that is something that generally don’t bother me, but near the 50% it was a little tedious, is good that after the middle of the book the plot progress and the action start, I have to say that I would have liked to see more fights, more attacks toward Elena, because the main point of the deal was protecting her from the attacks, but there is only one in all the book.

Though the end was amazing for the next book, I really didn’t like the final chapters, they felt anticlimactic, for me the book should have ended at the coronation, or maybe one chapter later plus the prologue that was intense. But in general it was a good book, that surprise me a lot and that let me with a the curiosity to the skies about the second book.

Pst: Where is my synopsis of the second book?

Thanks to Netgalley, the author and the publisher for this ARC.