Wednesday, December 2, 2020

SciFi/Fantasy Book Review: The Blazing Star by Imani Josey

 




The Blazing Star is the first in a YA Fantasy series by author Imani Josey, which came out back in 2017.  Its sequel is coming out in December, although from a small press (or self published?) such that you can only pre-order it from the author's website.  So yeah, it's not the type of book I would usually find out about or be able to obtain from the library (interlibrary loan had a few copies), but when the author's tweets about her stunning covers hit my twitter feed, well I was interested.  

And well, The Blazing Star is a good start to a series, if one that very much feels like just a start.  This is a book about a trio of black teens from Atlanta who go back in time to ancient Egypt, where they get involved in a conflict of magic and power.  It's an enjoyable setting, with enjoyable characters, particularly our main protagonist, a fraternal twin who always feels overshadowed by her beloved sister, even if the plot is in many ways kind of predictable.  But again, it very much does not stand on its own, and with it being such a short book (under 300 pages paperback), it's not as satisfying as I would have hoped.  


--------------------------------------------------Plot Summary--------------------------------------------------------
16 year old Portia White is the other twin - whereas her sister Alex is an utter genius, the best at everything she set she mind to, Portia doesn't stand out at all.  She loves her sister, don't get her wrong, but she wants something for herself too, if there really is anything.  But then she touches an Ancient Egyptian scarab in history class and something changes within her...and when she touches it again at a museum, she finds herself, Alex, and another classmate (a Freshman no less) waking up not in Atlanta....but in Ancient Egypt.  

For Portia, Egypt may be beautiful - and the soldier who she first encounters may set her heart aflutter - but what she really wants is to reunite with her sister and to get home to their father in the present.  But her body keeps burning up, and her hands ignite with magical fire, making it clear that in some sense, she belongs in this place.  And that same power makes Portia a target for an enemy with its own dark magic that is slowly corrupting Egypt, meaning that for Portia to find her sister and their fellow classmate, she will need to learn to use that power - a power that for once she has instead of her twin - if she wants to help them all survive.... 
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The Blazing Star is predictable in a lot of ways, but generally it's in good ways.  You have the fraternal twins who love each other, but with one clearly standing out causing resentment in the other - our main protagonist, Portia.  You have a meet cute with a soldier boy who is clearly more significant than he seems at first, who will obviously be the main love interest.  You have a magical power burning within the protagonist that she needs to learn to control.  But these are tropes for a reason - they work within a good story told by a solid writer, and that's exactly the case here.  

This is Portia's story - a plot summary of the sequel suggests that Book 2 will be Alex's story, and I suspect that means Book 3 would be Selene's (the Freshman I mentioned above) - and Portia really carries this story very well.  It's easy to empathize with the teenage girl who always feels overshadowed by a sibling, which is made even worse in this case because that sibling is her twin, even if she does truly love that sibling.  Her voice in telling the story is strong and enjoyable, with her bright mind (even if she compares it unfavorably to her sister's) tempering her own impatience at wanting to move before she really should....a little.  Well she's 16 and she feels that way, which makes it all work: she's a young adult heroine, and I mean that in a good way.  

The rest of the world is done generally pretty well, with Egypt described in excellent fashion that brings it to life on the page, even if this isn't the most description heavy book (not that I particularly like description heavy books).  The other two major characters from our time, Alex and Selene, are done well enough although the book doesn't quite go into their full characters since we're stuck in Portia's point of view.  And the various other side characters - the main villain, some of the priestesses, the love interest, are generally done well, even if most aren't quite the most fleshed out of characters - although not the villain, who is more fully formed than the rest).  We have some serious themes here - issues of colorism are very present in this book (no one's White given the setting, but that doesn't stop there from being more than a little prejudice) - but it never gets too serious, and thankfully the book averts some bad tropes you might expect from a story in which young teenage women get lost in Ancient times with a patriarchal society.  

The biggest problem is that this book is short - under 300 pages in paperback - and doesn't really feel complete: part of Portia's journey into herself may be complete, but even there it doesn't quite feel fully so, and so much of the setting and overarching plot is left hanging for the sequel(s).  I liked what I read, but ended it all unsatisfied and mystified at the point of ending, which just leaves everything still up for grabs, and character dynamics majorly scrambled without resolution.  I really hope my library or inter-library loan gets a hold of the sequel to resolve this problem for me, but I have low hopes.  So be warned.

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