Cold Fire was honestly a bit hard to reread in the sense that I definitely remembered who the antagonist was and found him really gross. I was especially put off when it literally says in the text that he was in love with Daja and worshiped her. She's 14 and he's 30-something. Nothing actually comes of it, but it's still gross.
I liked Jory and Nia, though they were less fleshed out than Pasco or Evvy. It's interesting to see how varied magic is as are the ways to learn and control it. I also enjoyed getting more about Frostpine. He wasn't really as fleshed out as Lark or Rosethorn in the The Circle of Magic quartet so it was fun getting to know him better.
Daja ended up with the most cerebral of the antagonists in the series so far. It's rather Criminal Minds-esque, though of course not as in-depth or even nuanced. Pretty much a hurt people, hurt people thing going on. Not bad as motivations go, really. Ben was definitely the most fleshed out of the antagonists, too. I kind of wish I weren't so icked-out by him, but that's probably for the best. His mother was definitely a piece of work, that's for sure. She doesn't really have much of a personality and pretty much all people say about her is repeated again and again, which makes sense for such a Scrooge-like character.
So, yeah... Cold Fire had a lot of fleshing-out of characters and not a whole lot else. I really feel like I know less about Namorn culture than any of the others, which is neither here nor there, really. They're vaguely Scandanavian and build things from wood because it's cheap. Cold Fire definitely isn't my favorite of this quartet or the overall series so far, but it's fairly solid.
In Other News
I'm cackling over the big ol' Blue Tsunami that happened/is happening with the US Mid-Term Elections. Can't wait to see what transpires over the next couple of years, hopefully good things. 🤞
