One of my favorite subject is heirs on the run. Run my pretties! Run! And what an awesome world they are running through.

Clay Harmon's world building really pushes the reader's imagination. On top of all that world building the magical aspect of the story will keep the reader engrossed.

I was provided with a complimentary copy of this book, so I could give an honest review.

Really solid! I enjoyed the characterization of the protagonist a lot, as well as the relationship to the other characters. Too inappropriate for our school library, however (hyper conservative school)

Really enjoyed this book! Ig, the main character, was so interesting to follow and the villains were so hateable. I loved the idea of earth magic and word magic. I do think I struggled for the first half with the first person perspective and Ig's lack of agency, but the second half was much better.

I received an eARC from Netgalley in exchange for an honest review. This story follows Ig, who is flesh-bound to obey his master's orders on pain of death, and gets all wrapped up in politics due to it. The worldbuilding is very unique (the surface of the planet is uninhabitable so they live in large caverns beneath, worshiping and living around magma flows, etc) as is the magic system (having to do with binding elements and therefore manipulating magma flow, etc). This really has an epic scope and adventure feel to it, but sadly I wasn't able to connect with Ig very well so I wasn't propelled through the story. I think that's a personal preference thing, because the writing was very good and other elements are interesting. But it just wasn't for me!

Overall, a solid debut. The characters are developed well and I enjoyed the flashbacks of how Ig came to be enslaved to the magnate's family. I enjoyed this timeline more than the current timeline and that was my biggest qualm with the story. The past was more intriguing than what's happening in the present. Really enjoyed the magic system as well. I like hard magic systems, think Mistborn by Sanderson, and was fascinated as you learned more and more about it. But in the book's entirety, I feel that it needed to be more fleshed out. The main storyline is what really preventing me from giving it full 5 stars. I hope the second book does work on these!

Huge thanks to NetGalley for giving me the opportunity to write a review and my thoughts on this book!

Though I believe this book to have a unique and different concept and approach, it did not align with my particular interest in fantasy fiction.

However, Clay Harmon lays out the foundations of the world in a simple, yet somehow complicated way that expands with every chapter. The magic system is what peaked my interest at the very beginning of requesting the book. There is much more to understand and perhaps it was my own fault too, though I think some explanations could've been made simpler for the readers. I found the first third of the book slightly confusing in its narrative and events.

There is definitely an audience for this book and I believe it'll find its people soon enough, if not already.
Looking forward to what Harmon puts out next, and the next book in the series!

Ig is a slave, bound by magic and forced to carry out executions under pain of death. However, as civil unrest and death counts rise in the volcanic city of Mira, he searches for a way to free himself before he’s ordered to take even more innocent lives.

Flames of Mira by Clay Harmon is a propulsive and genre-bending novel that blends together sci-fi and fantasy.

First off, I really love this book’s science-based magic system. For instance, magic users called elementals undergo the harrowing process of binding themselves to a periodic element (i.e. iron, sodium, or magnesium) in order to wield it. For spoilery reasons that are disclosed later, Ig has the unique ability to use electromagnetism and control lava, which makes for some really cool Magneto or Mistborn-esque fight scenes.

On top of that, I felt that Ig made for a really compelling main character. He’s tormented from all the lives he’s taken and he’s faced with difficult moral dilemmas.

Towards the end, the story even starts veering into cosmic horror territory, which made me a very happy gal indeed, and I can’t wait to see what else is in store for this series because this is genuinely one of my favorite new fantasy series to come out this year.

Flames of Mira is a great debut novel and definitely for the lovers of a more dark fantasy type of books.
I'll go straight to the point to say that I loved the magic system and the worldbuilding of this novel, literally one of the best and most intricate ones that I've read in a while. And I actually cannot wait to see more of it in the upcoming sequel.

My main issue and why I didn't give it 5 stars its because the plot, even though is not bad, it didn't make anything for me. It was pretty straight to the point, with some touches of political intrigue at first but it was quickly abandoned after a few chapters for more action packed scenes.Which is not something bad but if wasn't my favorite. Regarding the characters I didn't quite sympathize with anyone though I liked following our MC, even with his sometimes stupid decisions.

Again, Flames of Mira si worth trying just for the world building alone!

Flames of Mira is a really fantastic debut novel in a very exciting new series. Harmon has created a world full of fire, ice, and magic. The characters are all well developed. The main character, Ig, is a great character to follow with a past full of pain and trauma. Now he is the most powerful elemental, but is not without his limitations. His journey is fascinating. He is a great character to route for to overcome the selfish whims of those that seek to control him. The magic system is really interesting and not like one I have read before. The story was very high stakes and quite brutal. When the book started with an execution by volcano I knew I was in for a ride. This book took me on quite an exciting journey and I am excited where the series will go from here.

If you are a fan of a fantasy series on the darker side I would highly recommend Flames of Mira by Clay Harmon.

My Rating: 5 out of 5 stars

I was give a free E-ARC of Flames of Mira by Clay Harmon (author), Rebellion (publisher), Solaris (publisher), and Net Galley in exchange for an honest review.

Flames of Mira was published on July 12, 2022 and I apologize for the delay of this review.

Flames of Mira is the first book in the Riftwalker series.

This review will not contain any spoilers.

I would classify Flames of Mira as a fantasy with a possible bit of dystopian or apocalyptic tones.

The world building and setting are the strongest assets of the book. Mira is a country/empire where the story takes place and is divided into city states. There is a great deal of lava, caves, mountains, and tunnels that are featured in this story.

Magic is important part of the story, but it appears only the main character has ability imbued by magic. He is controlled by the ruler of the city-state and another member of his family. The ruler is able to make the main character doing something or prevent him from doing something by saying a word or phrase.

The story is told in first person point of view.

The biggest issue that I have with this story are the characters. The main character is an enforcer-type of character for the ruler and I did not find him engaging or compelling. The main character's internal thoughts is featured in this story, but I did not find what he was thinking or feeling to be interesting. The ruler's adult children are significant and I did not find them likeable or interesting. The characters featured in this story are fully-developed and three dimensional. My problem is I did not care for the main character.

I stopped reading Flames of Mira at 56%.

I rate Flames of Mira 2 stars.

I would like to thank Mr. Harmon, Rebellion, Solaris, and Net Galley for the free E-ARC.

I received a free copy of this ARC in exchange for an honest review.

was really intrigued by this premise and a setting I personally don't see much of [Fire and Ice eh?]. it's a story of antiheroes the lead is a strong silent type that works in ways I hadn't expected really felt like a killing machine of a servant nervously touching stabs of freedom. a clear run of adventure and intrigue, worth a look if you are an average fantasy fan.

I really enjoyed this one. Flames of Mira is the debut novel from Clay Harmon. It’s an epic fantasy that hits all the right notes for me: excellent world building—featuring a truly unique location, a solid magic system, great characters, and an interesting storyline which is told from two points of view: Ig, the personal attendant for Magnate Sorello Adriann (personal attendant being code for secret fixer.) He’s forced to carry out all of Sorello’s dirty deeds due to powerful flesh binding magic Sorello wields over him. The other point of view is Efadora Adriann: the youngest member of the Adriann family and a spunky idealist. While their stories are nothing alike I have to say that there was just something about Ig that kept reminding me of the slave Taita from Wilbur Smith’s brilliant River God novel. 4.5 out of 5…rounded up. Given how much I enjoyed this I’d say Harmon is a wonderful addition the world of Epic Fantasy and can’t wait to see what comes next. Thanks so much to Rebellion, Solaris, and NetGalley for allowing me to read and review an eARC of Flames of Mira.

https://www.amazon.com/review/RBYD1J4I2OS8O/ref=pe_1098610_137716200_cm_rv_eml_rv0_rv

https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/flames-of-mira-clay-harmon/1140377477?ean=9781786185426&bvnotificationId=ca3404b3-01f7-11ed-92cf-0e4fa1faa5d5&bvmessageType=REVIEW_APPROVED&bvrecipientDomain=gmail.com#review/212871757

This book started off strong and stayed that way. I was very impressed.

Ig is a very powerful elemental. He is also a slave. He is bound to his master and cannot disobey an order. If he does, the flesh binding will kill him.

Ig's master is Magnate Sorrelo Adriann. With rebellion in the air, Ig can only hope Sorrelo will die and the flesh binding with him. Unfortunately for Ig, Sorrelo has planned for any outcome.

The magic system is fascinating. This whole book is fascinating and unique. And if you like morally gray characters, this is the book for you. This is definitely one of my favorites for the year.

Thank you to Net Galley and the publisher for an e-arc.
And thank you to Holly Hearts Books on YouTube for putting this on my radar.

Rating 4.5 out of 5 stars.
It is amazing.
It is unique in its world-building.
Characters are great.
Plot is very nice.
Magic system is also well.

Before anything, thank you to Netgalley and Solrais / Rebellion for the opportunity.

It's always saddening when anything makes a splash in a community I'm in, I get lucky enough to be early and end up being in the minority of those who didn't enjoy it. This time, it ended up in a DNF about halfway through.

For me personally, world building in any novel is one of the more entertaining aspects. If it's done incredibly well, then it will be an even better experience for me overall. That's basically Flames of Mira in a nutshell. The world built by Clary Harmon is interesting with enough secrecy in it, to keep me engaged for long periods of time. Add the fact that he created one hell of a SCIENCE based magic system and it's even unique.

This is not easy to do in the genre, not by a long shot.

But the author managed to do it, and the flashback chapter of how some things came to be is probably my favourite one of the ones I read. I wanted to see more of that and obviously more applications of said magic system. Which Flames of Mira has in abundance as well. The book could be brutal at times, and the gory-ness of it is never toned down throughout what I read.

And that in turn, made me excited for what is coming. The plot in itself is not new and could be considered generic, but that doesn't usually matter to me in the bigger scheme of things (generic could be fun with the right execution) IF and only if there are other elements to enjoy in the book.

And that is where the book lost me. Despite the amazing world building, the characters in the book and especially because it's a single point of view for a long period of time, were not interesting to follow for me. At all.

Whenever this happens to me, I continue to hope that I will like the characters, but I couldn't this time.

I do hope to be able to come back to this series someday down the line and retry it. As I truly believe that Clay Harmon could end up being a very brilliant new author in the genre. But until then, this sadly didn't work out for me.

“I looked back, and it was like I was the only one who saw the beggar’s body, his bleeding mass now just another prop for the city.”

I don’t read a lot of Grimdark, and Clay Harmon’s impressive debut novel had me thinking about why. I realized it’s mostly because the often-high death count isn’t given enough meaning, at least when the deaths aren’t part of the main cast.

Flames of Mira does the opposite. Cook, guard, homeless person, major character - all deaths are treated with the same gravity because our shared humanity, (or as is the case here, a corruption of that humanity), is central to both the book and its protagonist’s struggle.

Ig, a slave in the subterranean city of Augustine, is in the heart-wrenching position of being both powerful and powerless. An ‘Elemental’ with control over rock, metals and other elements, he is bound by flesh-magic to Augustine’s ruling Magnate and forced to commit atrocity after atrocity. To disobey means an excruciatingly painful death of his physical self. To obey means the death of his psychological and spiritual self.

Ig’s navigation of his awful situation is further complicated by his relationship to the Magnate and his children. I think this is my favourite aspect of Flames of Mira. Harmon could easily have portrayed the abuser-abused relationship with clear black and white lines. Instead, he gives these relationships a nuanced complexity that produces conflicting feelings in Ig and in us.

The Magnate’s son, Prince Emil, is the only archetypally-good hero and even he needs to be on constant guard against his darker impulses. His ambitious sister Sara is less ‘good’ and her vacillation between affection and cruelty takes the story in fascinating, unpredictable directions while allowing Harmon to explore the role of love and power in unequal relationships.

Efadora is the third of the Magnate’s children and the third of the book’s point-of-view characters. (Flames of Mira is also told from young-Ig’s point of view). Multi-pov novels can be risky when the reader doesn’t connect with all the point-of-view characters, but I was never disappointed to leave one for another and Efadora’s snarky humour is a welcome balance to the darkness in this world.

In the end though, it’s Ig who steals the show. He’s constantly warring with who he was before he was abducted and abused and who he is now. In the beginning, his new self is closer to the surface, but as the story progresses, his pre-slave self begins to break free.

Readers who like their magic systems hard but not dry, will love the geological-based magic here. I won’t delve into the mechanics too deeply, (it’s best you discover them for yourself), but I will say physics and chemistry play an integral role.

Harmon’s descriptive writing is first class. I had no trouble picturing every part of this unique world, and he definitely knows his way around action scenes. The third act is pedal to the metal and damn-near impossible to put down.

Flames of Mira is the first book in The Rift Walker Series. If the sequels are as good as this one, they won’t be easy to put down either.

Thank-you to Netgalley and Rebellion Publishing for the opportunity to review a pre-publication copy of Flames of Mira.

A fascinating story, a mix of grimdark and epic fantasy, an original and well developed world building.
I loved this story, loved the setting and the magical system, loved the characters.
Good storytelling and pacing.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine

I don't really know how to review this, I liked the concept, the ideas, the world, but for some reason I found the characters to be bland and unlikeable, the story to be plain.. Overall it was a pretty okay book, i just find it very hard to rate and write a good review about.

What a huge disappointment. My main problem with it was the characters since the plot is paper thin and really simplistic. The characters don't act as people especially as people that want to survive or to achieve their goals. Every single decision from every main character is one that leads them predictably to more danger and further away from what they want. Multiple times characters are advised to do/not do something that the reader knows is a good advice and the character does the wrong thing every time. And why? To be convenient for the plot to move along otherwise it would be impossible for the plot to go on. Without that, there would be no tension and no story. Since the characters didn't care about their own goals and lives, why should I? There is no development, everyone is the same throughout the whole book and they have no personality whatsoever. And I really did not like how one of the characters is basically a deus ex machina.

Regarding the world building and the magic, the world seemed really interesting but the amount of info dumps in the middle of the story really took me out of it.

Thank you Netgalley, author, and publisher for the ARC.

Received arc from Rebellion and Netgalley for honest read and review,and this view is my own.
This was a great start to westbound be a brilliant series.Loved it from the start and had me hooked from the beginning.
All characters are well written and being set around volcanoes was a different feel completely.
Clay Harmon has done a fine job with this one.
A good start.