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Fires of the Faithful door Naomi Kritzer
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Fires of the Faithful (origineel 2002; editie 2002)

door Naomi Kritzer

Reeksen: Eliana's Song (1)

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273796,459 (3.49)1 / 32
From a gifted new voice in fantasy fiction comes the thrilling saga of a war-ravaged land and the remarkable young woman destined to restore it. . . . For sixteen-year-old Eliana, life at her conservatory of music is a pleasant interlude between youth and adulthood, with the hope of a prestigious Imperial Court appointment at the end. But beyond the conservatory walls is a land blighted by war and inexplicable famine and dominated by a fearsome religious order known as the Fedeli, who are systematically stamping out all traces of the land's old beliefs. Soon not even the conservatory walls can hold out reality. When one classmate is brutally killed by the Fedeli for clinging to the forbidden ways and another is kidnapped by the Circle--the mysterious and powerful mages who rule the land--Eliana can take no more. Especially not after she learns one of the Circle's most closely guarded secrets. Now, determined to escape the Circle's power, burning with rage at the Fedeli, and drawn herself to the beliefs of the Old Way, Eliana embarks on a treacherous journey to spread the truth. And what she finds shakes her to her core: a past destroyed, a future in doubt, and a desperate people in need of a leader--no matter how young or inexperienced. . . .… (meer)
Lid:sandstone78
Titel:Fires of the Faithful
Auteurs:Naomi Kritzer
Info:Spectra (2002), Mass Market Paperback, 400 pages
Verzamelingen:To Write About (inactive), Fantasy, Finished in 2011, Put aside in 2010 (inactive)
Waardering:****
Trefwoorden:fantasy, created world, first read, read, tsu-mm, lesbian, qzfantasy

Informatie over het werk

Fires of the Faithful door Naomi Kritzer (2002)

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1-5 van 7 worden getoond (volgende | toon alle)
Pros:
- gay
- butch
- the fastest I've read a fantasy novel in over a decade
- interesting worldbuilding
- gaaaaaaaay

Cons:
- despite the window dressing, it's all Christians all the way down
- still a sort of formulaic fantasy novel

What is up with that cover!! Eliana spends the first section of the book in shapeless gray robes and short hair, and most of the rest dressed like a dirty short-haired peasant Joan of Arc. There's multiple plot points where she's uncomfortable in or outright refuses to wear dresses.

So, despite some (creative, I grant) differences in festivals, goddess-worship, sexual morals, details of the stories, and etc, this is a lightly disguised version of early christians vs the catholic church in more-or-less Italy, plus some enviornmentalism. I don't know a lot about early christian history so I'm sure there are many things I'm missing, but I know enough Aramaic/Hebrew (it's probably Aramaic, I just don't know enough to confirm it's *not* Hebrew) to know that she's not working that hard to come up with her own stuff.

I have some very mixed feelings about christians using Aramaic/Hebrew for their religious purposes. On the one hand, sure, Jesus spoke Aramaic. On the other hand, your scripture is written in Greek! The christian religious use of Aramaic/Hebrew is always suspicious to me, strategically giving christianity a fake patina of age by tacking it onto jewish history/scripture/thought as the only natural continuation. When you're writing a story about your "Old Religion" being violently suppressed by institutional (Mary-worshipping, lol) catholicism, too.... eesh. Where'd you stash the Jews, polytheistic greco-roman pagans, etc. in this story?

On the upside, Eliana is not a capital-B believer and has a lot of questions and doubts about Redentore sexual and other morals. On the downside, I am never going to be a fan of a fantasy monotheism when you can "prove" a given religion is the correct one, as Lucia's story seems to do. I'm not sure if the story is just gonna let that stand or complicate how much of her conviction is confirmation bias.

Either way, I ordered the second one from an online used bookstore and I'm looking forward to reading it. ( )
  caedocyon | Mar 6, 2024 |
I really enjoyed this book, but I have a very hard time describing it.

The blurb is largely accurate but potentially misleading. I’ll get to why in a minute.There’s a number of different things going on, but it’s probably best to start with the back cover blurb:

For sixteen-year-old Eliana, life at her conservatory of music is a pleasant interlude between youth and adulthood, with the hope of a prestigious Imperial Court appointment at the end. But beyond the conservatory walls is a land blighted by war and inexplicable famine and dominated by a fearsome religious order known as the Fedeli, who are systematically stamping out all traces of the land’ s old beliefs. Soon not even the conservatory walls can hold out reality. When one classmate is brutally killed by the Fedeli for clinging to the forbidden ways and another is kidnapped by the Circle–the mysterious and powerful mages who rule the land–Eliana can take no more. Especially not after she learns one of the Circle’ s most closely guarded secrets.

Now, determined to escape the Circle’ s power, burning with rage at the Fedeli, and drawn herself to the beliefs of the Old Way, Eliana embarks on a treacherous journey to spread the truth. And what she finds shakes her to her core: a past destroyed, a future in doubt, and a desperate people in need of a leader–no matter how young or inexperienced….


What I really liked about Fires of the Faithful was Eliana. She’s a wonderful protagonist. She’s brave and smart, even though she’s coming from the Conservatory, where she was kept isolated from the rest of the world. She’s willing to help other people even if it causes danger for herself.

The back blurb doesn’t mention it, but Eliana’s lesbian. It’s not the focus of the novel or a coming out story, it’s just something that she herself realizes towards the end of the book. Since she doesn’t realize it herself in Fires of the Faithful, there’s not a romance plot, but it sounds like she’ll get together with her love interest in the next book.

This should be obvious since the blurb says she’s at a conservatory, but music plays a large part in the book. Eliana’s violin is with her constantly, and she cares deeply about music. Music also ties on to the religion in the book and to the magic system. The Old Way songs sound beautiful and are hinted to be the basis of another magic system.

What the back blurb also doesn’t quite say is how large a role religion plays (maybe you were supposed to assume it from the title?). The kingdom resolutely follows the New Way, and the Spanish Inquisition like Fedeli resolutely and violently smother any traces of the Old Way. After her friend Belle converts to the Old Way and is killed for it by the Fedeli, Eliana starts to see a lot more of the religion and eventually converts to it for largely political reasons.

What might make some readers run for the hills is that the Old Way (minus the music and magic bits) is almost exactly Christianity. Seriously, even most of the names are the same or very similar. More on that in the next paragraph or so, but I need to add that it’s not proselytizing. If there was any message on religion, it was the necessity of tolerating other beliefs. There’s sympathetic characters of both the New and Old Ways, and there’s one scene in particular where the priestesses of each both bless the child of an interfaith couple.

According to the author bio, Kritzer has a BA in religion. It shows – I think what she was exploring in Fires of the Faithful is how religions change, grow upon, and supplant each other. For instance, the New Way takes some from the Old Way, and how the Old Way is now thought of reflects the New Way (for instance, God is referred to as female, presumably an influence of the Lady from the New Way).

What I don’t entirely understand is why she used Christianity to explore these ideas in a fantasy setting. The obvious answer I see is that her world’s based upon medieval Italy, of which Christianity would be part and parcel. But given how much else is different (the cities, the New Way, the magic), keeping this one element doesn’t make sense. Was she keeping it to highlight the influences of the New Way? Or how little the characters actually know of the Old Way’s theology?

Anyway, I really liked it, especially as it was a departure from the norm. It felt like a YA fantasy, but it didn’t use the almost mandatory elements I see in all the others. I’m not sure who exactly I’d recommend it to – YA fantasy readers in general, anyone looking for a good female protagonist, people who like music, someone looking for a lesbian protagonist or a book exploring religion. It hits a lot of points.

Originally posted at The Illustrated Page. ( )
1 stem pwaites | Aug 18, 2014 |
I'm very glad this book was recommended to me. I liked the way it was written: reading it was effortless. The characters are nice, and, unusual in fantasy, a lot of them are women. The main character in particular turns out to be someone with common sense. It is clear that she doesn't know everything, but she does know how to use her brain, and she has an idea about how to lead, from being a musician and seeing how orchestras and such are led. I'll admit, I sometimes felt that Eliana's good sense was a bit of a setup: some of the people around her had remarkably little common sense. Particularly the leaders of the 'Redentore' (a religious movement) were too naive. Some of that could be explained from not really knowing what they were doing either, but I think some of it was also from giving Eliana some contrast. It didn't bother me too much, though. Eliana is competent and she achieves her goals. It bothers no-one that she is a woman. Fighting is done by both men and women. So the book has a lot going for it!

Besides that, I also liked the society that Naomi Kritzer has created. The religious beliefs in particularly are interesting: one of the religions clearly has Christian roots, but with a few exceptions: God is female, for instance. In this case it is the Christian religion that is the old religion that was superseded by something new (it is usually Christianity that overtakes an already existing older religion). In fantasy, the Christian-like religion is usually not shown in a positive light, so it is interesting to see that here it is. ( )
2 stem zjakkelien | Jun 26, 2014 |
Interesting fantasy novel. Usually the "bad religion" in fantasy is a pseudo-Christian religion & the "good religion" is a pseudo-pagan, Kritzer reverses this (she is Jewish btw). I was concerned, this might turn into proselytizing, but it remained neutral in its treatment of the 2 religions used for the backdrop - you see more balance towards the end. ( )
1 stem DesertMoon | Nov 27, 2009 |
First of all, WOW! what a fabulous detailed thoughtful fantasy, it looked such a thin book I really did not expect the plot to be so good and the charachters to grow on me. I have had turning the storm, the second in the series for 2 years and waiting for this book to come up somewhere, quite a hard find! I loved the idea of Magic and Music. ( )
1 stem viciouslittlething | Dec 2, 2008 |
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» Andere auteurs toevoegen

AuteursnaamRolType auteurWerk?Status
Naomi Kritzerprimaire auteuralle editiesberekend
Accornero, FrancoArtiest omslagafbeeldingSecundaire auteursommige editiesbevestigd

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From a gifted new voice in fantasy fiction comes the thrilling saga of a war-ravaged land and the remarkable young woman destined to restore it. . . . For sixteen-year-old Eliana, life at her conservatory of music is a pleasant interlude between youth and adulthood, with the hope of a prestigious Imperial Court appointment at the end. But beyond the conservatory walls is a land blighted by war and inexplicable famine and dominated by a fearsome religious order known as the Fedeli, who are systematically stamping out all traces of the land's old beliefs. Soon not even the conservatory walls can hold out reality. When one classmate is brutally killed by the Fedeli for clinging to the forbidden ways and another is kidnapped by the Circle--the mysterious and powerful mages who rule the land--Eliana can take no more. Especially not after she learns one of the Circle's most closely guarded secrets. Now, determined to escape the Circle's power, burning with rage at the Fedeli, and drawn herself to the beliefs of the Old Way, Eliana embarks on a treacherous journey to spread the truth. And what she finds shakes her to her core: a past destroyed, a future in doubt, and a desperate people in need of a leader--no matter how young or inexperienced. . . .

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