Book Review: Fire Country by David Estes

Fire Country

By David Estes

Publisher: David Estes

Published: Jan 12, 2014

ASIN: B00B7VTXFO

Amazon Synopsis:

In a changed world where the sky bleeds red, winter is hotter than hell and full of sandstorms, and summer's even hotter with raging fires that roam the desert-like country, the Heaters manage to survive, barely. 

Due to toxic air, life expectancies are so low the only way the tribe can survive is by forcing women to procreate when they turn sixteen and every three years thereafter. It is their duty as Bearers. 

Fifteen-year-old Siena is a Youngling, soon to be a Bearer, when she starts hearing rumors of another tribe of all women, called the Wild Ones. They are known to kidnap 

Youngling girls before the Call, the ceremony in which Bearers are given a husband with whom to bear children with. 

As the desert sands run out on her life's hourglass, Siena must uncover the truth about the Wild Ones while untangling the web of lies and deceit her father has masterfully spun.

Book Links

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My Thoughts:

Fire Country was a totally amazing book from page one. I loved it. Set in a world where conditions are hot and harsh, survival is difficult and life is short, David Estes draws you into the lives of the people in such a way that you feel invested in them. We get to know Siena the best as the story is told from her point of view. She is a Youngling, a pre-Bearer, a few months short of the Call, when she will become a Bearer and her Call will randomly be chosen for her from those available in the tribe. No choice. No love. Only duty. That’s the law.

But Siena doesn’t know if she really wants to do that. She’d much rather just be friends with Circ. She’s grown up with him and they are best friends. She can tell him anything. And when she receives her Call, she won’t be able to be friends with him anymore. She’s also heard rumours of a tribe called the Wild Ones, who are supposed to be all women, who kidnap Youngling girls before the Call ceremony.

It was easy to imagine that this might be the way the world might be as the aftermath of a worldwide nuclear war or other apocalyptic disaster where only small pockets of people survived. The relationship between Siena and Circ was definitely a romance even though there was only one kiss in the entire book. He did a masterful job of developing the relationships between characters.

Siena and Circ obviously were my favourite characters. Greynote Roan was my least favourite character because he was abusive to Siena, selfish, cruel and ruthless to the people of his tribe for his own personal gain. He only had one redeeming quality, which I can’t share with you as it would be a spoiler.

The language used to describe the world made the world feel very real. You could almost feel the heat. I enjoyed the language used for the characters to talk – even though they might have been swearing, because they were using their own special vernacular, it didn’t feel like they were swearing to me, making this a nice, clean read.

I also loved the humour. Perry was awesome!

Fire Country was well-paced, full of action, intrigue, clean romance and interesting characters. I would highly recommend it to all science fiction/fantasy fans. I gave this book 5 stars out of 5.

Thank you to the author David Estes for providing a copy of Fire Country in exchange for a fair and honest review. A positive opinion was not required. All thoughts are my own.

About the Author:

David Estes was born in El Paso, Texas but moved to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania when he was very young. He grew up in Pittsburgh and then went to Penn State for college. Eventually he moved to Sydney, Australia where he met his wife and soul mate, Adele, who he's now been happily married to for three years.

A reader all his life, David began writing novels for the children's and YA markets in 2010, and has completed 17 novels, 14 of which have been published. In June of 2012, David became a fulltime writer and is now travelling the world with his wife while he writes books, and she writes and takes photographs.

David gleans inspiration from all sorts of crazy places, like watching random people do entertaining things, dreams (which he jots copious notes about immediately after waking up), and even from thin air sometimes! Recently he's been inspired by some of his favorite authors, like Suzanne Collins, Veronica Roth, and Maggie Stiefvater.

David's a writer with OCD, a love of dancing and singing (but only when no one is looking or listening), a mad-skilled ping-pong player, an obsessive Goodreads group member, and prefers writing at the swimming pool to writing at a table. He loves responding to e-mails, Facebook messages, Tweets, blog comments, and Goodreads comments from his readers, all of whom he considers to be his friends.

Author Links
The Official David Estes Fan Group

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