Salamander's Fire

Genesys #2

by Brian M. Stableford

1996 Legend

Genres: Fantasy

486 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1996

About the author

Brian Michael Stableford was a British science fiction writer who published more than 70 novels. His earlier books were published under the name Brian M. Stableford, but more recent ones have dropped the middle initial and appeared under the name Brian Stableford. He also used the pseudonym Brian Craig for a couple of very early works, and again for a few more recent works. The pseudonym derives from the first names of himself and of a school friend from the 1960s, Craig A. Mackintosh, with whom he jointly published some very early work.

Reviews

[Elana · Rating 4 out of 5]

Plodding on with my resolution to clear my bookshelves of the eternally " to be read" books, I have now finished the second volume of Stableford's hugely under-appreciated "Genesys" trilogy. My verdict is the same as for the first volume: he is excellent with aliens and terrible with humans. Stableford's depiction of a "chimeric" biosphere is so fascinating that I gladly put up with the lectures his characters deliver to each other at every opportunity. But these characters are so dull and/ or unpleasant that they really interfere with my pleasure in trying to understand their world. Part of the problem is that there are too many of them. Shifting focalization works if various points of view are sufficiently different but otherwise the reader only gets a headache trying to figure out which one of the nearly identical adventurers he is following in each chapter. Stableford is not good at depicting individual humans. But who says that literature should be about human beings at all?

[Kevin Phyland · Rating 3 out of 5]

Second book of Genesys trilogy. After escaping the dragomite nest, the motley crew of adventurers must make their way to the area known as Salamnder’s Fire, inspired by a secret lore held by the witch-queen Ereleth. Dragomites are six-armed giant armoured mantids whose warrior caste are ferocious warriors, and whose queen can lay eggs containing many different chimeras - species blends. Princess Lucrezia is accompanied by Ereleth and a company consisting of dragomites, assorted human breeds (bronzes, goldens and ambers), the giant Dhalla, a dragomite mound-woman, the thief Checuti, a sage and some genemod Serpents. Their journey is perilous and when they must cross the lands of the Nine Towns, which have been at war with dragomites for years, they are threatened with death. The general in charge finally agrees to allow them to skirt the lands, escorted, but secretly plans to destroy them on the bridge across the river. Embittered and depleted by this treachery, the band must separate into two groups, one heads into the Soursweet Marshes where drugged thorns cause soporific effects, the other is recaptured. With the sort of scope (and basic model) of Lord Of The Rings, Brian Stableford continues his epic quest tale of genetic time-bombs left millennia earlier by the humans who arrived in orbit at that time. What will be revealed when they reach Salamander’s Fire? More dangerous chimeras that have been designed to appear only after very long intervals. It took a while to get up to speed from the last book, so you’d do well to read Serpent’s Blood first.

[Eddy · Rating 4 out of 5]

A story set in a world with an interesting ecology. Action interspersed with sometimes quite long discussions about it, making it feel slightly uneven.