CITY OF FIRE (City Trilogy) Paperback – August 3, 2010

Review courtesy of All Things Urban Fantasy:[...]It has been a very long time since I've read a young adult novel with this breadth of creativity and world-building. CITY OF FIRE gathers an unlikely band of confederates together and sends them whizzing out into an incredibly imagined world of adventure and wonder. From the broad political landscape to the delightful little details about daily life, I was enchanted through it all.Reading CITY OF FIRE reminded me of the all the discovery of reading the first Harry Potter combined with the written equivalent of DINOTOPIA's intricacy and delight. Yep lays out a fascinating magical and political structure for his world, all the while sprinkling the story with visual tidbits like a six-foot tall lizard pushing a broom in the background. The plot swept forward with an amazing amount of information without ever bogging down, due in part to the way Yep balances the lush depth of his scenery with fast paced action and dialog. While CITY OF FIRE was a fantastic entry into this world, I wouldn't recommend skipping straight to later books in the series, if only because you would miss the way each member of Scirye's motley group changes and comes together over the course of book one.The characters in CITY OF FIRE are around twelve-years-old and are definitely pre-pubescent. Given that CITY OF FIRE takes place in the span of a day, I would imagine that we're not going to watch Scirye and Leech grow up in any physical sense over the course of the trilogy, despite the emotional maturity they gain. Packed with adventure, admirable character growth and an inventive world, CITY OF FIRE will be a hit for readers at any age looking for adventure and wonder, but not a hint of romance.Sexual Content: None.

Enjoyed the read

I loved Laurence Yep's earlier books (Dragonwings, etc.) but found this one quite tedious in its constant whirlwind of activity. It's probably more popular with the young readers, but as a piece of literature it doesn't hold up as well.

daughter loves it !

Great!

Laurence Yep is a two-time Newbery Honor Award winner, and I really liked his sea dragon series. It's also nice that Yep gives us Asian-influenced fantasy and Asian characters, since fantasy often seems to be populated entirely by white children. I was very pleased to learn that he was starting a new fantasy series with this book.City of Fire introduces us to an alternative version of San Francisco in 1941. In this world, dragons take human form and a well-to-do diplomat's daughter named Scirye has a lap-sized talking griffin named Kles. Her family represents the ancient kingdom of Kush. At a museum exhibit of Kushan artifacts, we meet the rest of our cast of characters--a boy named Leech, his companion Koko, and a disguised dragon named Bayang whose mission is to kill Leech.When the exhibit is attacked by a huge dragon and other monsters, Scirye's warrior mother and sister fight back, but Scirye's sister is killed and the exhibit is robbed of a strange ring. Determined to avenge herself, Scirye impulsively steals a magic carpet and, with her new companions in tow, sets out to chase the dragonish thief.Their first attempt to retrieve the ring fails, so our heroes must stow away on a plane headed for Honolulu, having realized that the thief is working for a wealthy and powerful man named Mr. Roland. On the island they meet a new ally, the goddess Pele. But even she might not have the power to stop Mr. Roland, who is planning to retrieve the Five Lost Treasures of Emperor Yu--for nefarious purposes, obviously!Certain characters are particularly fun: while Pele may seem like a stereotype to some, I thought she was a hoot as a raucous, pidgin-talking, casually powerful Hawaiian deity in human form. Koko has an intriguing secret, and we do finally learn the mystery of Bayang's pursuit of Leech, who turns out to have magical powers of his own. Yep's world building here is another plus, with the retro vibe of the 1940s along with an alternative Asian history giving the story a fresh fantasy feel.Although the book is written in third person, alternating chapters give us the story from the points of view of Scirye, Bayang, and Leech, an approach I think enriches the narrative.My only hesitation about City of Fire is that it seems to rely more on plot and setup than on character development, but I think that may simply be true of this type of series. For one thing, it's hard to juggle a large cast and give each character much depth. We do learn that Scirye is klutsy compared to her sister and feels she has something to prove and that Bayang begins to question her mission, but Leech is a little harder to get a handle on. I guess I didn't feel as strong a connection to these characters as I would have liked. However, as the series continues, Yep will no doubt add further nuance to his key characters. In the meantime, this series, with enough action to satisfy fans of Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson books, is off to a very good start.

1941, San Francisco. Museum Exhibit opening: Kushan, The Empire of the MoonAs far as exhibit openings go, this should have been simple. Sell tickets, open the doors, wow patrons socks off. Nope. Not this book. Look 2 over on the shelf. The events of this alternate universe are somewhat different.An assassin lurks outside the exhibit waiting to execute her duties. The exhibit is protected by magic. Magic carpets are real. The flying beasts are real. People die. This is NO normal museum exhibit!Laurence Yep creates for young readers a world of what if? What if magic really existed? What if dragons were real? What if we lived in an alternate time/spatial frame where magic and reality intermingled? The quest by Bayang, Leech, Koko, and Scirye to exact revenge (getting even) with Badik for the murder of Ninske and Primo is exciting. Just like scenes from a "Thousand and One Arabian Nights", the magic carpet comes to life, and Chinese mythology sweeps through the skies, the imagined soar in these pages.Plot wise, the book gives a couple of twists. An assassin who saves the life of her victim, who now cannot execute her duties. The presence of an Island being raised magically is unique, and the search for the Five Lost Treasures of Emperor Yu turn this Yep novel into one of his best.I really loved the watercolor cover that is reminiscent of Ralph Bashke's Lord of the Rings and Fire and Ice (Frazetta).All said and read, this book is highly recommended for your young reader.Tim Lasiuta