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My friend Chris had been recommending this series to me for the longest time, and I finally gave in and decided to give it a go. Fortunately, it was well worth it.

The universe of ColdFire is set in a very unique world — a planet called Erna, occupied by settlers from future Earth. However, as it turns out, the settlers were unaware of some things about this planet. It turns out that unlike other planets, Erna has something all-pervasive called Fae. Now, the Fae has a few characteristics — for one, it could be manipulated to perform such things as sorcery. And for another, it could give life to our strongest feelings and thoughts — fear, anger, emotions and the like — and physically manifest them into entities that seek to drain certain things from humans. For instance, if you were scared about a vampire drinking your blood, your fears will create a creature from your imagination that will be a vampire — and this creature would quite literally be after your blood (and anybody else’s, for that matter — so, your fears not only affect you, but everybody around you). If you dreamt about a seductress that would seduce you till you were drained and bloody, your dreams will bring to life such a creature. And the more such a creature is fed, the stronger it would grow. On the other hand, sacrifices and other good deeds also go a long way towards manifesting good intentions. Therefore, just as how violent dreams can result in violent demons and entities, good thoughts would do just the opposite.

The whole series deals with the struggles of a race of humans settled on such a world, and their wants, needs, battles and wars. One of the nicest things about this series is that your understanding of the world grows as you read on. Unlike some authors who set their world in stone, the world of Erna is ever-evolving, and you learn a lot more as you read on.

The other particularly nice thing about the book is that one of the lead characters in the story is an anti-hero of sorts, and has a particularly charming personality, despite his extreme vanity and intentions. The other lead character, on the other hand, is a reverend knight, reminiscent of Church-knights from the crusades. Despite their seemingly obvious differences, the two are more alike than different, and the books do a great job of comparing moralities and the fundamentals of what really constitutes right or wrong.

While the series as a whole is nice, the last book feels like the author decided to proselytise. And there are parts of the second book that reek of comparisons between Catholics (the sanctified) and Protestants (the Patriarch’s followers). It is almost as if the author had a great idea, but was having an urge to preach and compare faiths. However, that still does not take away the charm and the unique ideas within these books.

A good series if you can ignore the obvious overtures to religion (which is confusing since the author’s website has links to Jewish websites, indicating that she may be Jewish). Either way, definitely a recommended read!

Originality: 5/5
Depth of writing: 3.5/5
Language: 3.5/5
Interesting: 4/5
Inspiring: 2.5/5
Overall Rating: 3.7/5

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