Feb 03 2009
{book review} kathy tyers: firebird trilogy
I first watched Star Wars when I was fairly young–my parents showed me the Death Star scene at the end of A New Hope after we rode Star Tours in Disneyland when I was six, and I think we watched the whole trilogy not long after–but it’s safe to say that Kathy Tyers’ Firebird trilogy (Firebird, Fusion Fire, and Crown of Fire, republished in 2004 as a three-in-one version) was my first true introduction to science fiction and the reason I fell so much in love with reading and writing it. I came across Firebird on the Christian Book Distributors website when I was in 8th or 9th grade, I think, browsing for something to read when I mostly read Christian books anyway and, I imagine, was getting tired of a lot of the Christian stuff that was available for my age group (in fairness, some of it is genuinely good, but a significant portion is…well, just as lousy as mainstream YA novels, but more moralizing). I fell in love right away and started looking for more Christian sci-fi; I didn’t really have a clue that there’s precious little of it out there. (End-times fiction is a genre all its own, one I really don’t care for anyway despite being mildly obssessed with the Left Behind books when I was younger and dumber. It’s a good thing my taste has improved since then.)
Re-reading the Firebird trilogy from the standpoint of someone whose reading horizons have broadened considerably in the past almost-decade, it’s hard for me to say how much appeal these books would have for a wider audience, in part because they still belong quite firmly in my comfort-reading category…but I think they would have that appeal, if only they weren’t so obscure. (Even the more recent three-in-one edition, published only five years ago, is now out of print. Sigh.) The world-building is pretty solidly defined but not overwhelming, characters are well-drawn, and anyway you’ve got fun stuff like genetically engineered telepaths (described by one reviewer as “Jedi Jews for Jesus”) and a totalitarian regime/religion that demands the death of extraneous heirs in any of the noble houses. Firebird, the protagonist, is of course one of these heirs with an unnaturally short life expectancy, and Brennen Caldwell, at first her antagonist, is one of these “Jedi Jews for Jesus.” Also he’s awesome and was my first fictional crush, for what it’s worth.
To be perfectly honest, though? My main reason for reviewing this here is that quite some time ago, and by that I mean in the neighborhood of three or four years, I convinced a Xanga acquaintance (I blogged on Xanga at the time) to read the Firebird books, after which she proclaimed on her blog that they were sappy but good like that was an indisputable fact. I happened to disagree, so she then posted a couple quotes as examples: one in Fusion Fire where Firebird wanted to wait to have this ceremony because it wasn’t that long after that of her 12-year-old niece, said niece had just been murdered along with her whole family, and Firebird didn’t want to put her mother-in-law through that kind of reminder so soon, and another in Firebird that goes something like “‘Hold me, Brenn!’ she cried. His arms tightened around her middle.” which conveniently leaves out the fact that they were basically flying a fighter jet at the time in a desperate attempt to get away from some bad guys, and more importantly, said jet was designed to fit exactly one person and they had to fit two, so he wore the seatbelt and she sat in front of him so she could pilot. Meaning that while she’s doing loops and crap to outmanuever the bad guys chasing them, the only thing keeping her from sliding off the seat and into the windshield (okay…I’m sure it wasn’t called that) and effectively crashing them both is, yes, him holding her. Sappy? Maybe–I don’t really think so–but those examples just aren’t.
Um. Yes. I am pathetic for feeling the need to declare this years later in a place where the original poster will probably never come across it. But I hate it whenever I mean to say something and don’t, so…there. It’s said. I can go to bed now. :p
