Ice like Fire
In Ice like Fire we return to Winter three months after its liberation. Meira is now known as Queen Meira and her people are slowly rebuilding their kingdom and nurturing themselves back to health from years of slavery in the country that invaded them sixteen years ago – Spring. Everything is alright now that they're free again and have a ruler to lead them. But Meira is cautious. The king of Spring, Angra, was supposedly killed in the battle that finally freed Winter, but Meira knows more about magic than any other person in her kingdom. Despite everyone promising her that Angra is gone and Winter is safe, Meira has an uneasy feeling. She has a hard time believing that the king of Spring really is gone, but when her people reopen a mine that turns out to hold the magic chasm – a place that has been searched for since way before Meira was born – a new threat appears.
To save her people, both from Angra three months before and now when they’re rebuilding their kingdom, Meira has had to align herself with Cordell, a Rhythm nation who now expects good payment for all they’ve done for Winter. Theron, prince of Cordell, has always had Meira’s back, but his father, King Noam, has a more sinister agenda. While Meira want to keep the magic chasm closed and turn away from all kinds of magic, even the conduit magic that a king or queen can use, so that everyone can live safe away from magic and its dark side – the Decay – no one else seems to side with her. Noam wants the power from the chasm himself but even Theron wants to open it, to distribute magic and power equally to every person in the world. Meira lacks resources and allegiances to stop it and her only hope is to go out on a journey to find the three keys needed to open the door to the chasm and find allegiance in other kingdoms. She knows it’s the only thing she can do to save Winter and, possibly, the entire world.
Compared to Snow like Ashes, the stakes are a lot higher in Ice like Fire. Meira is queen and she does what she can to adjust to the role, a role she has never been prepared for. She has to see Mather, a boy she grew up with thinking he was the rightful heir to the throne ut which was only a cover to keep Meira safe, fall away from her more and more each day. They loved each other at one time but now that Meira is queen and dating Theron, Mather takes a step back. Their friendship fade away when Meira needs it the most and for a long stretch of the novel she’s alone and afraid. She has a heavy burden to carry and no one to trust it with. Theron is under the belief that he and Meira wants the same thing, to open the chasm and give magic to everyone, and soon they move further from each other as well. On top of that Meira has a hard time adjusting herself from the orphaned soldier-girl she was to the queen she is.
All three main characters goes through a big change in this novel. Meira battles herself – wanting to be one version but knowing she needs to be another. Mather has to accept the fact that he’s not king but a soldier and one that Meira no longer loves. Theron fights hard for equality for every person and kingdom and though he intends to marry Meira everything he does just drives her further away. It was definitely well-handled by Raasch, the character development, how they had to accept and adjust to new situations but also grow to what they are supposed to be. I can see a clear difference in Meira from the first chapter to the last and I think this is a very important thing. Character development is always necessary in any novel and a book can’t feel real unless the reader can understand and even see themselves in the characters. But in this story it’s even more important. Meira and Mather has lived their whole lives believing everything to be a certain way only to have it all turned up-side-down and being expected to know how to handle the change without a problem. Their internal battles are an interesting part of the book.
Many other characters goes through changes as well but it was most noticeable in the three main characters. I found that I had a hard time to connect to anyone besides Meira, Mather and Theron, like the rest weren’t as real as those three. Even characters that plays bigger roles, like the princess of Summer, feels empty, like a shell. I would like to see Raasch giving more personality to her side-characters. Meira manages to hold up the story on her own but without her it would’ve fallen through completely.
Some things that bothered me was how hard it was for older characters to see things from the perspective of the younger ones. They seemed to think that since they were back in Winter nothing bad could happen to them and so much troubles could’ve been avoided if the return of the Winterians had been handled differently from the people in charge. It also bothered me that the novel was nearly 500 pages and more than half of it felt unnecessary. I think Ice like Fire could’ve been cut down at least a hundred pages and still covered everything important. It took me a long time to read it, which I didn’t expected, because during the first half I was more bored than interested in the story. It wasn’t until the end that things really kicked off and then everything happened so fast that I felt like I couldn’t keep up with it all. It ended on a huge cliffhanger, which got me more annoyed, but despite everything else I still very much look forward to the third and final installment of the trilogy.
I think Raasch has a good story going, even though certain parts are a little rough. For a while I was afraid that the novel suffered from Second Book Syndrome, but that changed towards the end and it left me interested in seeing what lies in store for Winter. It might not be the best book I’ve read, but it has potential, as does Raasch, and I’m interested in seeing what else she’ll do in the future. I definitely think you should give this series a chance because despite what I’ve pointed out as annoying and bothersome, deep down the story is a good and entertaining one.