DIVIDED FIRE

In a world where the elements are controlled by magical Songs, one young woman struggles to rescue her sister.

Miren had always hoped to be a Fire Singer, but it was Kesia, her frail younger sister, who manifested the Voice. When their country forces every Singer into the military, Miren convinces Kesia to hide her gift…only for Kesia to be kidnapped by pirates. Miren will do anything to save her, even join forces with her sister’s naïve noble boyfriend and a family of runaway indentured servants. The narrative alternates between each sister’s perspective but feels more like two different books: one, Kesia’s harrowing life as a slave, relieved at first by her wonder at the airship she helps fly but even more by her discovery of her own capabilities; the other, Miren’s tedious accounts of arguments about logistics, topography, and political structures among a large group, all of whom she regards with coldness and contempt. The world is exceptionally well defined, although details of the magical system are mostly hand-waved away. Once the separate storylines finally intersect and immediate crises are averted, so much is left unresolved that a sequel seems inevitable. Singers lose their speaking voices and communicate using universally understood phonetic signs that appear to be transcriptions of spoken speech rather than a separate language. Characters seem to be White by default.

Half fantastical coming-of-age; half notes for a geography report.