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(See Sookie Stackhouse and her inscrutable vampire lover in “True Blood.”) Curiously, the uncommunicative male is here held up as the erotic ideal, while in ordinary life women seek out the inaccessible man’s enlightened, expressive brothers. This struck me as an example of a thriving pop culture trend: the female telepath who knows she has found the One when he’s the guy who prevents mental intimacy. But perhaps the real charm of the novel is Fire’s love for Prince Brigan, a young man whose mind she cannot read, at least at first.

In its pages, young women get pregnant and regret it.Ĭashore can also write action scenes - lords plan coups d’état against the king war breaks out Fire nearly freezes to death and wins the incredible loyalty of a mare, who saves her life more than once.

In her first novel, the well-received “Grace­ling” - a companion to “Fire” - the heroine, Katsa, had a gift for murder.Īs a fantasy writer, Cashore sets herself apart with a passionate descriptive style in “Fire,” a pet mouse has “glimmering gold fur” a raptor hunting Fire is “the violet of sunrise.” When Fire encounters a murderous boy, we sense her telepathic talent from the inside: “The feeling of his mind bumped against hers, simmering with strangeness, taunting her with its unreachability.” The book is also commendably realistic - almost cynical - about romance. This is not the first time Cashore has alighted upon the theme of difficult gifts. In the book’s parlance, her beauty and her coloring - “hair the color of flame” - make her a “monster.” In Fire’s home, the kingdom of the Dells, monsters are ridiculously attractive variations of humans and animals.

She even provides silent comfort to wounded and dying soldiers: her thoughts alone are mental morphine. It is also the theme of Kristin Cashore’s “Fire,” a novel whose heroine is endowed with special skills that both distinguish her and threaten her happiness, and sometimes her life.įire can read minds.

We learn this from Greek myths, the television show “Heroes,” the “X-Men” comics and the diaries of middle school students. We may all want to be exceptional, but having superpowers isn’t easy.