Ice Mage

Ice Mage #1

by Julia Gray

Ice Mage is a stunning epic fantasy adventure full of thrills and magic. The remote and wild land of Tiguafaya is on the edge of chaos. The menacing volcanoes that dominate the landscape grumble and threaten destruction. The repulsive fireworms, the marauding pirates, and the ancient dragons grow bolder by the minute. The corrupt and ineffectual government is paralyzed and helpless in the face of all the dangers. The country's only hope for survival lies with a group of young rebels known as the Firebrands. Led by the lovers, Andrin and Ico, and the half-mad musician, Vargo, the Firebrands are desperately fighting back. Using the once-revered but now lost arts of magic against the overwhelming odds, they are all that stand between Tiguafaya and total devastation.

Genres: Fantasy, High Fantasy, Dragons, Epic Fantasy

535 pages, Paperback

First published December 1, 1998

About the author

Julia Gray is the pseudonym of Mark and Julia Smith, a married couple who live and work in Norfolk. Having met while they were both working for a major London publishing house, they sparked each other into creative life, and began writing as a team a few months after setting up home together. They have been writing full time since 1991. They also publish under the pseudonym Jonathan Wylie.

Reviews

[AilsaOD · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oh boy, I bought this book a few years ago purely because it mentioned dragons and volcanoes in the blurb (and look at that cover!) and ignored the rest in my eagerness. Admittedly the best thing about this book was the worldbuilding, which is themed around Timanfaya national park in Lanzarote. I think that having such a volcanic setting and considering why and how a society would develop there is very interesting - although we are told ALL of this worldbuilding in the first few chapters in massive chunks of pure exposition.

The problem is the rest of the book exists. I know this sounds harsh but the characters in this book were a major let down. Gray seems to have been going for a 'Star wars' rebel alliance feel for the firebrands and tries to emphasise how they originate from all walks of life but they are more reminiscent of middle-class hipster university students which is a rather different vibe. One of the main characters - Andrin - is from a working class background and is the only breadwinner for his family and yet there are multiple occasions he considers if he should go to work or not before deciding he has more important things to do. I'm not entirely sure what his job was (I think he might have been a Stevedore but it might also have never been explicitly stated) which I bet isn't a job you can turn up for once a week-ish and expect to keep for long!

The three main characters are the aforementioned Andrin (the hotheaded Leader), Ico (Andrin's lover from an upper-class background so we can have some forbidden class-divide romance - admittedly Ico was a lot more active a participant in the plot than she could have been but I'll get back to that) and Vargo (an Artist). From the very beginning of the book it is told to us repeatedly that Ico and Andrin are lovers to the point it got annoying. I was not at all invested in their relationship and Vargo also loving Ico was just really boring? Also in like the first chapter - when the reader barely knows what is going on Andrin's teenaged younger brother dies horribly offscreen (this isn't a spoiler as it is pretty obvious from the way he behaves something bad is going to happen to him). Starting on such a note would have been risky for a much more skilled author but here it falls especially flat. His brother's death is mentioned sporadically throughout the book but generally in passing or tacked on to other topics so I would forget it happened and then wonder why Andrin was being so hot-headed and generally insufferable.

For the first part of the book Vargo was the most bearable of out protagonists but then he became 'mad' and that kind of put me off. This book repeatedly introduced 'mad' characters that were treated in a really weird way that I found uncomfortable. It wasn't bad in the way mental illness or learning disabilities are often written - often 'madness' was used as a reason for a character to be magically gifted but there were also neurotypical people who were good just as good at magic? I'm not quite sure why I found it uncomfortable - but it is some weeks since I read the book and my memory of it is fading a little (thank goodness).

To continue the Star Wars comparison, this book also went for the "So this is how liberty dies, with thunderous applause" angle (admittedly this book was written before the prequel films came out). The villains of this book are primarily a group of Senators trying to gain power (and wipe out a significant proportion of the population). Initially I thought they were supposed to just be greedy and somewhat selfish (and you know, halfway realistic) but oh wow I was wrong! Over the course of the book Kantrowe and his cronies' crimes are slowly revealed and they turn into caricatures. One of Kantrowe's (many) motivations is to get revenge on Ico's family because her mother didn't want to marry him years and years ago so he goes about this by attempting to burn Ico at the stake what is his deal? That is overkill to such a degree it's concerning! You can't just ram every type of villainy into three people and expect the resulting toxic soup to work! Also, Andrin and another firebrand straight up murder one of the villains - which is all well and good from and overall narrative point of view but they didn't know he was one of their enemies - he was just some guy in a brothel. Which is a bit yikes!

Speaking of other things Andrin does that made me want to yeet this book away from me: Ico is assaulted towards the end of the first act (and despite it only being a forced kiss the scene was pretty upsetting so maybe avoid that if it's a problem for you - I have read rape scenes that were less graphic). In the aftermath of this Ico (quite understandably) does not want to be intimate with Andrin in any way and he takes it out on her and makes it all about how he's so deprived. It made me so MAD (and not in the way this book talks about) but it is written as if Ico is in the wrong and this somehow isn't supposed to be a horrible stain my opinion of Andrin? Was 1998 really like this or was this just the author being weird??

The last thing I'll mention is that while I liked the world building overall some of the details were s t r a n g e. The magic vs no magic conflict between the firebrands and the senate feels like listening to people argue about which brand of essential oils is better for treating cancer. The deal with the dragons was definitely odd (and was drawn out so long it made me convinced for most the book that the cover is read-bait despite actually showing a scene from the book). Another weird thing of note was the Island of Elva - Elva being a spirit that had sex with a bunch of dragons and God (called Sky) got to annoyed they slutshamed Elva into turning into a rock. I am paraphrasing but when I read that I felt bewildered and had to reread it all over again to make sure I'd gotten it right. Basically this book is a trip and it made me sigh disapprovingly far too many times (I apologise to anyone in the same train carriage as me)!

[Dark-Draco · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked this up at a local library sale and was very pleased that I did. It's set in the land of Tiguafaya, remote and plagued by volcanoes, earthquakes and the dreaded fireworms, flying creatures that devour their pray from the indside out! The government, more concerned with power and greed, do nothing to protect the people, and it is left to a few individuals, the Firebrands, to fight the monsters. Only, the government doesn't want the Firebrands to interfere with their plans and turn the whole country against them. Andrin and Ico, along with their friend Vargo, lead the Firebrands to exile in the wild lands, but find that their fight is only just beginning - and the ancient Dragons start to fly the land once more. Political intrigue, magic, dragons, telepathic birds and pirates - what more could you want in a novel? I loved it and can't wait to track down the sequel.

[Kathi · Rating 3 out of 5]

7/10
People often say that good writers show rather than tell. Author Julia Gray sometimes falls into telling rather than showing, yet many of her passages are vivid and evocative.

The main characters, Ico and Andrin, lovers and leaders of the Firebrands, were less fully developed and nuanced than I would have liked, but many of the secondary characters (Vargo, Allegra, Maciot, the Barber, and of course, Kantrowe) were more complex and interesting and played vital roles int the plot.

I'm looking forward to reading the sequel at some point.

[Annika · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh is probably the best word I can come up with to describe my experience with this book. Not that it's a bad story, it just didn't capture me. I love books that get under your skin - that make you think about what is going to happen next when you aren't reading them. This book didn't do that for me. It took me ages to get through and just didn't capture me.