3.75 stars

The world building is awesome. You’ve got a city built around a giant sinkhole with the upper levels made of ice, and the lower ones having lava run through it like a river. The author makes good use of this environment in the epic action scenes, as well as the magic system involving magma and the manipulation of rock.

The characters especially the protagonist I found him very likeable and easy to follow, It was a pretty god book and I had a fun time reading it

ACTUAL RATING: 1.5
I do have to say the foundation of the magic system in Flames of Mira is a very interesting concept.
However, for an epic fantasy, it is a bit light on the plot in my opinion and I would have liked if there were more events that solidified the central plot and included more growth and depth for the character and relationship arcs.
Even though the book is written with a dual POV, the main characters get lost within the sea of side characters who has as much definition as our main protagonists. The information overload in this regard makes it difficult to ‘stay’ with any one character at a time.
Harmon’s worldbuilding is inventive and unique but, once again, the overload of information (that isn’t necessarily relevant to that specific scene) can create a distance between the reader and the characters.
Overall, as a debut novel – of this magnitude – I have to salute Clay Harmon for the fortitude and courage it took to actually write the book and I look forward to seeing the author’s progress throughout his career.

The best thing about this book is the worldbuilding, which is really wonderful. Set on a cold planet with a dim star, most life is subterranean. There are molten lava rivers, tree sized mushrooms, caverns lit with glowing plant life and fireflies, and vast cave systems connecting vertical cities built in sink holes. The elemental magic system is also very intriguing. Enslaved Ig is an elemental, and he can control various elements (think periodic table) he is bonded with. This makes sense as he tunnels through rock, but not so much as he coats his arms with lava, blocks swords with his bare hands, or defies gravity. A religion based army of smiths cultivate metal elemental bonding, but other elements seem largely unutilized, except by a handful of very powerful elementals called primordia who serve the sovereign. Little is explained about them. There is also some other lifeform that can control elements and humans, presumably living deep in the planet's core, but little is explained about them either. I really liked the main character, Ig, but it was frustrating that he was in love with Sara who was not at all likable. Ig is bound by magic to obey Sara, and she gives this control to her friend Rodi, and a large, painful portion of the book is about how the two of them make Ig slaughter entire villages single handedly though he desperately doesn't want to. But still he's in love with Sara? So much about the elemental magic, primordia, and deep core lifeforms is left unexplained. I guess that's for the sequel. So - ambivalence. There are some really great elements (pun?) to this book, but I ultimately was pretty frustrated by what I didn't understand or couldn't relate to.