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The Chronicles of Nuala #2
Hidden Fires
He had spent a hundred years seeking the woman called Silver; he still didn’t know if he was going to kill her.
On Nuala -- planet of deadly radiation levels, humans who heal by touch, and the rarest metal in the known galaxy -- is a meeting of two con artists ripe for mischief...and maybe murder.
Two misplaced quests explode into a conspiracy of death, treason, and abduction.
On Nuala -- planet of deadly radiation levels, humans who heal by touch, and the rarest metal in the known galaxy -- is a meeting of two con artists ripe for mischief...and maybe murder.
Two misplaced quests explode into a conspiracy of death, treason, and abduction.
304 pages, Kindle Edition
First published February 1, 1991
9 people are currently reading
49 people want to read
About the author
Katharine Eliska Kimbriel
18 books103 followersNOTE TO FANS & READERS: I did NOT write the book "Finding the Strength Inside You" which someone has attached to Goodreads, and coincidentally the author's name is my name. I am contacting GoodReads to see what I can do about this.
In the beginning Katharine Eliska Kimbriel was nominated for the Astounding Award for Best New SF/Fantasy Writer. Katharine’s work has long straddled the line: “too literary to be commercial, too commercial to be literary” – she has a list of itinerant occupations to prove it.
Published novels include the historical dark fantasies NIGHT CALLS, KINDRED RITES, and SPIRAL PATH. On the science fiction side you will find FIRE SANCTUARY, FIRES OF NUALA, and HIDDEN FIRES, stand-alone tales that take place on the same planet.
Katharine prefers being managed by Burmese cats and a handful of gargoyles. Her occasional hobbies have included ballroom dancing, brewing beer, antique roses, and macrobiotic and paleolithic cooking. She also plant trees. 110 so far.
Go to https://bookviewcafe.com/bvc_author/k... for the most recent publishing info. She posts ghost events at her blog (https://alfreda89.dreamwidth.org/), other stuff at Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/katharine.ki...), Mastodon (https://raggedfeathers.com/@KatKimbriel), and BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/catkimbriel....).
She is a founding member of Book View Cafe (https://bookviewcafe.com/blog/). Due to her spending more time living science fiction than writing it, she makes no promises on when her last update to anything happened. Due to Life, Interrupted, she has't updated her web site in 15 years and it's not looking good for the site....
In the beginning Katharine Eliska Kimbriel was nominated for the Astounding Award for Best New SF/Fantasy Writer. Katharine’s work has long straddled the line: “too literary to be commercial, too commercial to be literary” – she has a list of itinerant occupations to prove it.
Published novels include the historical dark fantasies NIGHT CALLS, KINDRED RITES, and SPIRAL PATH. On the science fiction side you will find FIRE SANCTUARY, FIRES OF NUALA, and HIDDEN FIRES, stand-alone tales that take place on the same planet.
Katharine prefers being managed by Burmese cats and a handful of gargoyles. Her occasional hobbies have included ballroom dancing, brewing beer, antique roses, and macrobiotic and paleolithic cooking. She also plant trees. 110 so far.
Go to https://bookviewcafe.com/bvc_author/k... for the most recent publishing info. She posts ghost events at her blog (https://alfreda89.dreamwidth.org/), other stuff at Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/katharine.ki...), Mastodon (https://raggedfeathers.com/@KatKimbriel), and BlueSky (https://bsky.app/profile/catkimbriel....).
She is a founding member of Book View Cafe (https://bookviewcafe.com/blog/). Due to her spending more time living science fiction than writing it, she makes no promises on when her last update to anything happened. Due to Life, Interrupted, she has't updated her web site in 15 years and it's not looking good for the site....
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Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews
March 26, 2011
This is the third in the "Nuala" series, and I'm glad I read them one right after the other, which allowed me to not only make connections between characters and events, but to appreciate the growth of the author's skill. If Fire Sanctuary was an initial exploration, abounding in the many layers of world and culture building, history and genealogies, characters and interstellar plots, Hidden Fires reflects both balance and focus. Like Fires of Nuala, this tale focuses on Darame and Sheel, and the many implications and complications of their lives. Sheel has matured from the reluctant survivor of mass assassinations to a visionary leader; likewise, Darame has left behind her "free-trader" scam artist past...but it has not forgotten her. An off-worlder bent on vengeance teams up with an unstable, power-hungry heir apparent. As in the other two books, the action/adventure, while present, supports the real heart of the book, which are the complex, culturally-shaped relationships.
May 10, 2012
4/5; 4 stars; A-
I really enjoyed this sequel to The Fires of Nuala. Darame is such an awesome heroine.
At first I found myself getting quite annoyed with this guy who thought he had a grievance with her. But, as I read the book I began to feel sympathetic for the plight he had. Kimbriel did a really good job of making the reader see and believe in the complexity of a life where people could travel great distances and spend a lot of time in cold sleep. Of course, these people would then have to deal with the people they left behind aging quite differently from them. Darame's would be assasin is on a quest for the truth when most of the people involved are long dead or long gone.
The political machinations of a madman were entertaining. I liked the fact that, although there were many strong male characters, it was the female characters who saved the day.
I really enjoyed this sequel to The Fires of Nuala. Darame is such an awesome heroine.
At first I found myself getting quite annoyed with this guy who thought he had a grievance with her. But, as I read the book I began to feel sympathetic for the plight he had. Kimbriel did a really good job of making the reader see and believe in the complexity of a life where people could travel great distances and spend a lot of time in cold sleep. Of course, these people would then have to deal with the people they left behind aging quite differently from them. Darame's would be assasin is on a quest for the truth when most of the people involved are long dead or long gone.
The political machinations of a madman were entertaining. I liked the fact that, although there were many strong male characters, it was the female characters who saved the day.
January 27, 2024
I read Hidden Fires by Katharine Eliska Kimbriel because she had chatted with my Dad and some of his coworkers at the Henderson Mine to add realism to the story. As a result, I had anticipated a majority of the story would take place in a modern underground hard rock mine. And I was disappointed in that regard; the mine was a tiny component toward the end.
Most of the book involves the equivalent of political wrangling at court with some street-level rebelliousness thrown in for some action. It’s a dystopian novel set on a radioactive planet settled by earthlings many years previously, but the author was light on details about why the planet was chosen and how its radioactivity had created a caste system based on fertility. Those details matter because that system was referenced throughout the tale. To be fair, I believe this book is the second of a trilogy.
As a trilogy, the hero of the three books is Darame (aka Silver), but this book couldn’t decide if she was the star or Garth, an interstellar trader/smuggler who is seeking Darame to exact revenge for a dastardly scam that killed his parents so many Terra years in the past.
The story’s context was confusing for me. I’m giving it three stars instead of two to give Kimbriel the benefit of my doubt: maybe she covered all that context in Book One. The plot had holes, the map wasn’t clear, and the mine ( as well as its part of the story) seemed forced, like she was running out of pages but promised to wedge it in somehow. Too bad. When she opted for details, she could paint a vivid picture. The story seemed rushed and incomplete.
Most of the book involves the equivalent of political wrangling at court with some street-level rebelliousness thrown in for some action. It’s a dystopian novel set on a radioactive planet settled by earthlings many years previously, but the author was light on details about why the planet was chosen and how its radioactivity had created a caste system based on fertility. Those details matter because that system was referenced throughout the tale. To be fair, I believe this book is the second of a trilogy.
As a trilogy, the hero of the three books is Darame (aka Silver), but this book couldn’t decide if she was the star or Garth, an interstellar trader/smuggler who is seeking Darame to exact revenge for a dastardly scam that killed his parents so many Terra years in the past.
The story’s context was confusing for me. I’m giving it three stars instead of two to give Kimbriel the benefit of my doubt: maybe she covered all that context in Book One. The plot had holes, the map wasn’t clear, and the mine ( as well as its part of the story) seemed forced, like she was running out of pages but promised to wedge it in somehow. Too bad. When she opted for details, she could paint a vivid picture. The story seemed rushed and incomplete.
December 6, 2010
I read this book in the newly released ebook version as a follow-up to Fires of Nuala and I think that was a good idea. Darame and Sheel from Fires are major characters in this book as well, but there is no infodump about the developments of the previous book, so Darame's expertise or habit of dealing with problems herself come as less of a surprise if you have read the first book.
For me this was "The Further Adventures of Darame and Sheel on Nuala", because - as I will explain - I could not like Garth Kristinsson, the third major viewpoint character.
Darame and Sheel were in fine form. Ten years later there has been a general rise in prosperity for Nuala due to Sheel's nurturing instincts as a healer combined with his position as Atare (feudal overlord of his tribe). Darame has presented him with three children (!) - of whom we do not see much in this book, which is a pity because I liked the little I got quite a lot.
Avis, Sheel's younger sister, has married the outworlder she was in love with in the last book and both have forgiven the older sister Leah for her incitement to fratricide and general murder of the other relatives standing between her and the Atare power (which I accepted, considering Sheel and Avis view on family in the last book, but did think rather too tolerant). Sheel was even able to restore her ability to have children and she is happily pregnant now and quite willing to help out the family in general.
The Atares have decided to try and make Nuala stronger as a planet and Sheel and Darame use their personal charisma and the trust of various factions to form a trade council that deals with the offworlders' trade in concert. This sets up the major conflict in Hidden Fires: the tribes profit from the increased profits but are not as independent from each other as they used to be and the Atare are starting to stand out as the leaders of the council: this does not sit well with every other ruler.
We get lovely peeks into the council room and first hints that someone is trying to sabotage the harmony reached so far. Which is where the antagonist comes in.
Garth Kristinsson lost his free-trading father in some deal gone bad. Money was paid into the family account after the parental death, but before anything could be done with it, his mother had killed herself and the money had been taken out again and only a cryptic message left. Garth has researched the situation since this happened (because he is using space travel that amounts to roughly 100 years real time) and has found two names connected with the original deal, one of them a pseudonym of Darame's.
He follows her trail to Nuala and connects with her very soon, because he looks like his mother and Darame grew up with her. Now - this is supposed to be a grown, if young, man. What Garth comes across to me is an emo teenager: Darame gives him every opportunity to connect with her, even though a former free-trader friend of her mentor has warned her that Garth's interest in her may not be completely harmless. She invites him, she talks to him - but he can only think of the weregild she possibly (!) owes him (he doesn't dare ask her or would not likely trust any answer of hers) and how he can get that without getting himself killed.
Of course that means he gets drafted to the "dark side" of the separatist movement - centred in the person of the current Dielaan heir, Rex - and because he's clever but naive, he comes up with an idea which might lead to the desired result of dissolving the council without any major damage. This is where my disgust starts: on the say-so of strangers and a night of love with one of the conspirators, he trusts their honour to do only what he advised. Of course this isn't the case, the whole deal of stealing antimatter and holding it hostage becomes a theft with murder and a blackmail scheme to destroy Atare and the trinium mines.
The Dielaan royal cousin that actually develops feelings for Garth is not taken seriously. I do understand that as meanwhile her cousin Rex has threatened Garth to keep his mouth shut. But even later, when she tries to help Garth repeatedly, he only goes along because doing otherwise might be more dangerous. She herself is remarkably naive about the result various orders of Rex will have, even when she and Garth already think he has gone too far: they kidnap Darame into the trinium mine.
I missed the competence and viewpoints of the guards in this book. Mailaan does show up as one of the few guaard personalities and seems to have attached herself to Darame mostly, but she gets shunted aside (which does lead to some very high octane derring-do by Darame, nifty to read). I loved the visits to other tribes, in the desert and Dielaan, which Darame makes to solve various problems (she's trying to help Garth, for example).
The climax has Sheel trying to keep the council together and forging closer alliances in answer to Rex's gambit, Darame trying to escape the trillium mine on the one hand and defuse the problem with the volatile anti-matter container on the other hand (the author thanked some mine engineers in the dedication of this edition and it really shows in the mine descriptions which make for fascinating and scary reading). I probably would have forgiven Garth his stupidity and bone-headedness if a certain development of Darame's in that crisis situation couldn't have been directly traced to his help with the plot and his further help of abducting her later on. Since this particular development was irreversible and the loss was permanent, I feel he got off far too lightly.
Read this book for subtle Sheel and powerhouse manipulator Darame, for the tribes and the development of Nuala, for the new insights into the landscape and trade - and bear with the idiot emo immature Rex and Garth. It's still a fun read ^^. And an interesting experiment, having an antagonist as one of three viewpoint characters.
For me this was "The Further Adventures of Darame and Sheel on Nuala", because - as I will explain - I could not like Garth Kristinsson, the third major viewpoint character.
Darame and Sheel were in fine form. Ten years later there has been a general rise in prosperity for Nuala due to Sheel's nurturing instincts as a healer combined with his position as Atare (feudal overlord of his tribe). Darame has presented him with three children (!) - of whom we do not see much in this book, which is a pity because I liked the little I got quite a lot.
Avis, Sheel's younger sister, has married the outworlder she was in love with in the last book and both have forgiven the older sister Leah for her incitement to fratricide and general murder of the other relatives standing between her and the Atare power (which I accepted, considering Sheel and Avis view on family in the last book, but did think rather too tolerant). Sheel was even able to restore her ability to have children and she is happily pregnant now and quite willing to help out the family in general.
The Atares have decided to try and make Nuala stronger as a planet and Sheel and Darame use their personal charisma and the trust of various factions to form a trade council that deals with the offworlders' trade in concert. This sets up the major conflict in Hidden Fires: the tribes profit from the increased profits but are not as independent from each other as they used to be and the Atare are starting to stand out as the leaders of the council: this does not sit well with every other ruler.
We get lovely peeks into the council room and first hints that someone is trying to sabotage the harmony reached so far. Which is where the antagonist comes in.
Garth Kristinsson lost his free-trading father in some deal gone bad. Money was paid into the family account after the parental death, but before anything could be done with it, his mother had killed herself and the money had been taken out again and only a cryptic message left. Garth has researched the situation since this happened (because he is using space travel that amounts to roughly 100 years real time) and has found two names connected with the original deal, one of them a pseudonym of Darame's.
He follows her trail to Nuala and connects with her very soon, because he looks like his mother and Darame grew up with her. Now - this is supposed to be a grown, if young, man. What Garth comes across to me is an emo teenager: Darame gives him every opportunity to connect with her, even though a former free-trader friend of her mentor has warned her that Garth's interest in her may not be completely harmless. She invites him, she talks to him - but he can only think of the weregild she possibly (!) owes him (he doesn't dare ask her or would not likely trust any answer of hers) and how he can get that without getting himself killed.
Of course that means he gets drafted to the "dark side" of the separatist movement - centred in the person of the current Dielaan heir, Rex - and because he's clever but naive, he comes up with an idea which might lead to the desired result of dissolving the council without any major damage. This is where my disgust starts: on the say-so of strangers and a night of love with one of the conspirators, he trusts their honour to do only what he advised. Of course this isn't the case, the whole deal of stealing antimatter and holding it hostage becomes a theft with murder and a blackmail scheme to destroy Atare and the trinium mines.
The Dielaan royal cousin that actually develops feelings for Garth is not taken seriously. I do understand that as meanwhile her cousin Rex has threatened Garth to keep his mouth shut. But even later, when she tries to help Garth repeatedly, he only goes along because doing otherwise might be more dangerous. She herself is remarkably naive about the result various orders of Rex will have, even when she and Garth already think he has gone too far: they kidnap Darame into the trinium mine.
I missed the competence and viewpoints of the guards in this book. Mailaan does show up as one of the few guaard personalities and seems to have attached herself to Darame mostly, but she gets shunted aside (which does lead to some very high octane derring-do by Darame, nifty to read). I loved the visits to other tribes, in the desert and Dielaan, which Darame makes to solve various problems (she's trying to help Garth, for example).
The climax has Sheel trying to keep the council together and forging closer alliances in answer to Rex's gambit, Darame trying to escape the trillium mine on the one hand and defuse the problem with the volatile anti-matter container on the other hand (the author thanked some mine engineers in the dedication of this edition and it really shows in the mine descriptions which make for fascinating and scary reading). I probably would have forgiven Garth his stupidity and bone-headedness if a certain development of Darame's in that crisis situation couldn't have been directly traced to his help with the plot and his further help of abducting her later on. Since this particular development was irreversible and the loss was permanent, I feel he got off far too lightly.
Read this book for subtle Sheel and powerhouse manipulator Darame, for the tribes and the development of Nuala, for the new insights into the landscape and trade - and bear with the idiot emo immature Rex and Garth. It's still a fun read ^^. And an interesting experiment, having an antagonist as one of three viewpoint characters.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
Read
December 28, 2010I first noticed this series in the late eighties and early nineties because while it had strong romantic elements driving the space opera story setting, the main character did not have a gorgeous psi-feline sidekick. Not that I mind gorgeous psi feline sidekicks, it's just that there seemed to be a lot of them, and the storylines tended to blend as they followed a lot of familiar story signposts. It also had a complex world, highly mannered, which is always a plus for me.
This novel has its dark moments as the first one does, but in a different way. It's ten years later, and Darame (Silver) is happily married and a mother--the latter especially important on radioactive Nuala, where the reproduction rate is very low. It's about time for her past as a con artist to catch up with her--in the form of Garth Kirstensson, a trader in his late teens who, like many traders moving between planets, has spent nearly a century in sleep as he seeks to avenge his dead mother.
Garth's vengeance-drive gives his life purpose (and the reward will not just be revenge, he expects a proper weregild); his dips in and out of time emphasize his emotional disconnect, of which he is of course unaware, but it imbues his ability to gauge people, and to make decisions, with a lethal but believable tendency toward black and white.
Meantime, ten years of Darame's spouse Sheel's healer gift and the benign guidance of his family, the Atare, have brought the planet to a level of success that brings its own believable political stresses as the Atare begin to emerge as a kind of royal family. Not so golden from the point of view of the very independent clans.
The result is a pulse pounding climax in the mines, bringing a bittersweet conclusion.
This novel has its dark moments as the first one does, but in a different way. It's ten years later, and Darame (Silver) is happily married and a mother--the latter especially important on radioactive Nuala, where the reproduction rate is very low. It's about time for her past as a con artist to catch up with her--in the form of Garth Kirstensson, a trader in his late teens who, like many traders moving between planets, has spent nearly a century in sleep as he seeks to avenge his dead mother.
Garth's vengeance-drive gives his life purpose (and the reward will not just be revenge, he expects a proper weregild); his dips in and out of time emphasize his emotional disconnect, of which he is of course unaware, but it imbues his ability to gauge people, and to make decisions, with a lethal but believable tendency toward black and white.
Meantime, ten years of Darame's spouse Sheel's healer gift and the benign guidance of his family, the Atare, have brought the planet to a level of success that brings its own believable political stresses as the Atare begin to emerge as a kind of royal family. Not so golden from the point of view of the very independent clans.
The result is a pulse pounding climax in the mines, bringing a bittersweet conclusion.
December 20, 2010
This one, while highly rated, didn't work for me. I won this through LTER (Library Thing Early Reviewers) and cut short my other queue to accommodate this and read and review it as soon as I could. So I gave it a try and I really wanted to appreciate it as a whole, but it didn't work for me.
First up, I'm not really a sci-fi fan, but I liked the Nualan concepts, how the author created a convincing world of different clans, planets, powers, and other technologically advanced stuff. She even made maps and the Nualan language, which helped a lot in telling time.
Second, Garth was searching for Silver (now known as Darame) for a hundred years and when he found her things got interesting because she recognized his facial features as that of belonging to her deceased friend Lisbeth (Garth's mother). There were a lot of things I didn't understand but I just read on and tried to make sense of things. I sorted out the good and the bad, the story wasn't really centered on Garth, but Darame as well.
I liked their morals, the fight for what the people believes in, but the love scene was over the top. I mean, sure it's ok to insert romance here between characters who don't really know each other, but I could do without it. So, there you have it.
First up, I'm not really a sci-fi fan, but I liked the Nualan concepts, how the author created a convincing world of different clans, planets, powers, and other technologically advanced stuff. She even made maps and the Nualan language, which helped a lot in telling time.
Second, Garth was searching for Silver (now known as Darame) for a hundred years and when he found her things got interesting because she recognized his facial features as that of belonging to her deceased friend Lisbeth (Garth's mother). There were a lot of things I didn't understand but I just read on and tried to make sense of things. I sorted out the good and the bad, the story wasn't really centered on Garth, but Darame as well.
I liked their morals, the fight for what the people believes in, but the love scene was over the top. I mean, sure it's ok to insert romance here between characters who don't really know each other, but I could do without it. So, there you have it.
Read
November 14, 2021Did you like Pern or Darkover? Then you should try Nuala!
********
"There are books you read at one fast gulp, books you savor at a slower pace. For me, Kimbriel’s third action-packed science fiction novel is both: It isn’t necessary to read either of the other books to understand and enjoy Hidden Fires . . . but I’d highly recommend you do."
---Science Fiction Review
********
"There are books you read at one fast gulp, books you savor at a slower pace. For me, Kimbriel’s third action-packed science fiction novel is both: It isn’t necessary to read either of the other books to understand and enjoy Hidden Fires . . . but I’d highly recommend you do."
---Science Fiction Review
March 25, 2016
Was redeemed by the end, but the clunky irrational Silver plot cost a star. The Nuala plot lines were strong and enjoyable.
November 23, 2017
There are books I return to every few years, books that stand out because I experience them differently every time. Hidden Fires is one of those books. I first read it when I was young, just discovering sci-fi, and I rediscovered years later as an adult.
Kimbriel is one of the best I've ever encountered at world-building. Nuala is rich, diverse, and fascinating, populated with fascinating characters with passion, fire, and distinct personality. Sheel and Darame remain my among my favorite characters, and the delightful Mailan, head of the Atare royal bodyguard, is fabulous. Part sci-fi, part romance, part political thriller -- Hidden Fires is an enthralling read and an always awesome reread.
Kimbriel is one of the best I've ever encountered at world-building. Nuala is rich, diverse, and fascinating, populated with fascinating characters with passion, fire, and distinct personality. Sheel and Darame remain my among my favorite characters, and the delightful Mailan, head of the Atare royal bodyguard, is fabulous. Part sci-fi, part romance, part political thriller -- Hidden Fires is an enthralling read and an always awesome reread.
March 19, 2017
This was a wonderful sequel to the first book and I'm looking forward to the next book in the series. My favorite character in this particular book was Nadine, as many of her traits and her overall appearance as described by the narrator reminded me so much of Cadsuane from WoT. Excellent plot and for once in a book I could sympathize with the protagonist, that being Garth, in this instance. The ending was a touch sad or you could say on the melancholy side of things, but overall, an excellent read. Now onto the next in the series.
March 31, 2011
A thoroughly rollicking read. The characters jump from the page and the story moves along at warp speed. You will be fascinated with the inhabitants on Nuala and the in-fighting among the ruling familes. (Think Rome during the Caesars). Highly recommend this book. In the tradition of Asimov and Heinlein.
November 14, 2010
good, a sequel to fires of nuala. more intrigue, more romance, waiting for book three, yes!
October 11, 2015
I read this book when it was first printed, it is on my "keeper" shelf along with almost all of her other
books.
books.
March 8, 2013
Didn't enjoy this as much as the first in the series but it was still an enjoyable read
Displaying 1 - 14 of 14 reviews