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The Chronicles of Nuala #3
Fire Sanctuary
Struggling for survival on a highly radioactive world, the inhabitants of Nuala hope to avoid involvement in the war developing between the neighboring Axis worlds and the Fewha Empire.
370 pages, Mass Market Paperback
First published October 1, 1986
9 people are currently reading
76 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 - 11 of 11 reviews
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November 14, 2021Did you like Dune, Pern or Darkover? Then you should try Nuala!
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"much upheaval, much intrigue, and much romance. . .a particularly fine mix."
---LOCUS Magazine
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"Both the world and its inhabitants held me absolutely spellbound through two successive readings. Kimbriel was nominated for the John Campbell Award on the strength of this, her first novel. She didn’t win it, but...the prize would have been richly deserved."
---Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum
********
"much upheaval, much intrigue, and much romance. . .a particularly fine mix."
---LOCUS Magazine
********
"Both the world and its inhabitants held me absolutely spellbound through two successive readings. Kimbriel was nominated for the John Campbell Award on the strength of this, her first novel. She didn’t win it, but...the prize would have been richly deserved."
---Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum
April 7, 2011
Darn, this time GoodReads ate my long review, too. And interestingly only the main text, everything else was saved...
To hit the important points again, I totally enjoyed this earlier entry set a few thousand years after the events in the first two books on Nuala - I just wished for a stronger distinction between main characters and supporting characters. Particular favourites are Braan, Ronüviel and Moran and of course Tay, for the outsider perspective.
Lyte was annoying for a long time, but I think that was planned as a necessary sceptic view at Nuala. The internal villain in this book was not as menacing , but I think that simply shows the growth in skill KEK experienced in the course of this trilogy.
I loved seeing more of the planet - the bit with the huge trees, the exploration of the desert and its animals, the waterfall outside the caves - and I would eagerly read a whole novel about the Sini City, its problematic relations with the rest of Nuala and its current ruling triumvirate/successful marriage - we only had a few pages set there and they were incredibly striking in the few scenes we had with them.
More please!
To hit the important points again, I totally enjoyed this earlier entry set a few thousand years after the events in the first two books on Nuala - I just wished for a stronger distinction between main characters and supporting characters. Particular favourites are Braan, Ronüviel and Moran and of course Tay, for the outsider perspective.
Lyte was annoying for a long time, but I think that was planned as a necessary sceptic view at Nuala. The internal villain in this book was not as menacing , but I think that simply shows the growth in skill KEK experienced in the course of this trilogy.
I loved seeing more of the planet - the bit with the huge trees, the exploration of the desert and its animals, the waterfall outside the caves - and I would eagerly read a whole novel about the Sini City, its problematic relations with the rest of Nuala and its current ruling triumvirate/successful marriage - we only had a few pages set there and they were incredibly striking in the few scenes we had with them.
More please!
January 29, 2011
The mid-1980s were a time of change and exploration for women science fiction writers. Marketing kept trying to shoehorn these new voices into established molds, and the writers kept introducing new concerns, new ways of looking at story, world-building, relationships, and characters.
By chance, I happened to read this "Nuala" novel at about the same time as Charles Ingrid's Solar Kill (Sand Wars #1). Ingrid was the masculine pseudonym of a woman writer; the book was tightly plotted, action-focused, and replete with military technology and battle scenes, so that culture and character became secondary to the single, driving plot line.
In contrast, Fire Sanctuary almost immediately drew me into a richly complex story. Despite the external military/political threat (the planet lies between two warring empires and gets caught in the cross-fire, imperiling the already fragile colony), this is no military shoot'em up. The focus is diverse and layered. We have a colony of scientists, abandoned on a marginally-habitable but gorgeous planet and one of the first things they do is to declare Nuala a political sanctuary. High natural radiation leads to widespread impairment of fertility, so rather than imprisoning those fertile individuals, multiple marriages and loving relationships become accepted and encouraged, with the exception of the ruling family, who must go off-planet to seek the mates with whom to produce children. The openness of communication about sexual and emotional relationships sets Nuala apart. The relationships and principles are portrayed with sensitivity and intelligence, rather than the glorification of "free love" so prevalent in male-oriented science fiction of that time.
At the same time, Fire Sanctuary is about individuals, both Nualan natives and off-worlders, some caught up in internal political conflicts, some seeking refuge and healing, some wrestling with the restrictions once necessary for genetic purity. The space-wars military attack up catapults the Nualans and their precariously balanced society into crisis, and the solutions, like the planet itself, are anything but formulaic. Throughout the struggle, characters draw upon insight, compassion, and intelligence, rather than brute force.
Handling all these elements is a high-wire act, and at times I felt it was more successful than others. I often wanted to see more of a character or situation, yet the constraints of putting it all together in one novel necessitated a certain amount of abbreviation. I suspect that the book is far more satisfying when read thoughtfully, "between the lines," with attention to what is implied rather than explicitly stated. I look forward to reading the next "Nuala" book to see how Kimbriel develops this tantalizing world and its people.
By chance, I happened to read this "Nuala" novel at about the same time as Charles Ingrid's Solar Kill (Sand Wars #1). Ingrid was the masculine pseudonym of a woman writer; the book was tightly plotted, action-focused, and replete with military technology and battle scenes, so that culture and character became secondary to the single, driving plot line.
In contrast, Fire Sanctuary almost immediately drew me into a richly complex story. Despite the external military/political threat (the planet lies between two warring empires and gets caught in the cross-fire, imperiling the already fragile colony), this is no military shoot'em up. The focus is diverse and layered. We have a colony of scientists, abandoned on a marginally-habitable but gorgeous planet and one of the first things they do is to declare Nuala a political sanctuary. High natural radiation leads to widespread impairment of fertility, so rather than imprisoning those fertile individuals, multiple marriages and loving relationships become accepted and encouraged, with the exception of the ruling family, who must go off-planet to seek the mates with whom to produce children. The openness of communication about sexual and emotional relationships sets Nuala apart. The relationships and principles are portrayed with sensitivity and intelligence, rather than the glorification of "free love" so prevalent in male-oriented science fiction of that time.
At the same time, Fire Sanctuary is about individuals, both Nualan natives and off-worlders, some caught up in internal political conflicts, some seeking refuge and healing, some wrestling with the restrictions once necessary for genetic purity. The space-wars military attack up catapults the Nualans and their precariously balanced society into crisis, and the solutions, like the planet itself, are anything but formulaic. Throughout the struggle, characters draw upon insight, compassion, and intelligence, rather than brute force.
Handling all these elements is a high-wire act, and at times I felt it was more successful than others. I often wanted to see more of a character or situation, yet the constraints of putting it all together in one novel necessitated a certain amount of abbreviation. I suspect that the book is far more satisfying when read thoughtfully, "between the lines," with attention to what is implied rather than explicitly stated. I look forward to reading the next "Nuala" book to see how Kimbriel develops this tantalizing world and its people.
February 7, 2013
What a great and complex story. It has political intrigue, alien cultures, exotic animals, planetary war, sword fights, deaths, births and even romances (all in plural!). You would think with so much in one book, you would feel cheated because some threads were not be filled out enough. But amazingly to my delight that did not happen much.
Actually, what happened was me getting frustrated with wanting more of the characters and the background of this fascinating planet. I want to know more. This book introduces the planet but does not give too much exposition that might just bore the hell out of the readers. It gives just enough so that the main story is told and the readers are left curious or frustrated like me, demanding more. I made a mistake of reading this out of order but it seems the other two books will satisfy my burning curiosity! So it worked out really well in the end.
What I loved most about the book is that ultimately it was about healing oneself and achieving something so that one can start anew. With all the "big" story line, the actual people in it were never forgotten. A very satisfying and fun read.
Although I don't think it is a good book for a scifi beginner, but I heartly recommend this to anybody who loved Dragon Rider series, the first Dune and other Scifi novels with good alien planets with people.
Actually, what happened was me getting frustrated with wanting more of the characters and the background of this fascinating planet. I want to know more. This book introduces the planet but does not give too much exposition that might just bore the hell out of the readers. It gives just enough so that the main story is told and the readers are left curious or frustrated like me, demanding more. I made a mistake of reading this out of order but it seems the other two books will satisfy my burning curiosity! So it worked out really well in the end.
What I loved most about the book is that ultimately it was about healing oneself and achieving something so that one can start anew. With all the "big" story line, the actual people in it were never forgotten. A very satisfying and fun read.
Although I don't think it is a good book for a scifi beginner, but I heartly recommend this to anybody who loved Dragon Rider series, the first Dune and other Scifi novels with good alien planets with people.
December 16, 2015
Nuala is a radioactive planet, whose inhabitants are descended from a scientific expedition who were unable to leave after the radioactivity damaged their ships beyond repair and have struggled with their species' fertility ever since. They are ruled by a hereditary monarchy, with a brother and sister of the Atare family ruling in each generation and the titles of Atare and Ragaree passing down the female line. Nominally part of the Axis (a federation of planets currently at war with two other groups), and close to the front line, they are abandoned to their fate when the front line shifts. After the bombs have rained down on Nuala, the Atares have to re-build their city and make a deal with the desert tribes to help them become self-sufficient in food, whilst also dealing with a rival aristocrat's treachery.
I have never heard of this author before, but I really enjoyed this book. Apparently there are a couple of sequels, but looking at Amazon it seems that her books might not be published in the UK (this copy came from America). "Fire Sanctuary" reminded me of the Darkover novels and is the sort of thing I used to read when I was a teenager, so even though I hadn't read it before, reading it made me feel somewhat nostalgic.
I have never heard of this author before, but I really enjoyed this book. Apparently there are a couple of sequels, but looking at Amazon it seems that her books might not be published in the UK (this copy came from America). "Fire Sanctuary" reminded me of the Darkover novels and is the sort of thing I used to read when I was a teenager, so even though I hadn't read it before, reading it made me feel somewhat nostalgic.
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April 18, 2012Reading this (again) on the Kindle. I read all these books when they came out. Rereading them again all these years later is interesting. Kimbriel's worldbuilding is so rich, it's fun to rediscover all the details that blew me away when I first discovered the books.
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October 23, 2025Rising like a phoenix from the embers of an abandoned scientific expedition, the people of Nuala are the definition of survivors. They have fought back against the deadly radiation levels of their beautiful, dangerous world. Nualans have battled frightening mutations, genetic shift, and the highest rate of infertility in the Axis Republic. Their reward is a society based on tolerance, compassion, and cultural diversity, descendants who can sense a lie (and a few who can heal by touch) -- and a bonanza of the rarest platinum group metal in the known galaxy.Balanced on the border between the Axis Republic and the Fewha Empire, ruled by a constitutional monarchy, the small Nualan system counters its low birth rate by sending out its children to search for mates to expand the planetary gene pool. Some Axis citizens choose Nuala. One, a decorated soldier named Moran, is about to marry a Nualan princess.But heirs to power and wealth have enemies, both homegrown and interstellar. There are those who would kill to keep an Axis warrior from marrying a Nualan . . . and those who think it's the perfect smoke screen to keep anyone from noticing where the border is about to shift.Nuala means survival. Survival against all odds, all enemies, all fortune.They're going to have to prove it.
January 24, 2015
I thought the premise was rather interesting, and I greatly appreciated the portrayal of a culture that was very open about non-monogamy, but not in the more often seen form of allowing men to have multiple women as partners, instead, the author's world was one in which the entire society was (largely) open and accepting about people's choices, both men and women, being the driving force behind who they took for partners, and not shying away from the idea that its people were often attracted to multiple others.
The radiation of the world was also interesting, and the characters were pretty well portrayed. However, I don't feel like the author really went to the depth I was looking for with some of the characters, it almost felt like there was not enough time, given the size of the book, to adequately deal with the variety of characters that were introduced.
It was definitely worth reading, don't get me wrong, and I may go back and re-read it someday. The society's handling of relationships was so radically different than the modern society, it makes a very counter-culture to be exposed to, and I always like stories that introduce new concepts and ways of being.
The radiation of the world was also interesting, and the characters were pretty well portrayed. However, I don't feel like the author really went to the depth I was looking for with some of the characters, it almost felt like there was not enough time, given the size of the book, to adequately deal with the variety of characters that were introduced.
It was definitely worth reading, don't get me wrong, and I may go back and re-read it someday. The society's handling of relationships was so radically different than the modern society, it makes a very counter-culture to be exposed to, and I always like stories that introduce new concepts and ways of being.
December 18, 2011
Loved the first book in the series...this one's even better! Kimbriel skillfully balances science fiction and romance, adventure and skiffy detail. Devoured it in one day.
November 4, 2013
Good characterisation makes this story a good'in
October 11, 2015
I read it when it first came out, it along with her other books are all "keepers"!
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews