Title: |
The Fire Opal Mechanism |
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Author: |
Fran Wilde |
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Category: |
Fantasy / Science Fiction |
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Rating: |
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Date Reviewed: |
February 27, 2024 |
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really liked The Book of Gems, which was the third book in Wilde's Gem Universe series. I picked up the The Fire Opal Mechanism next, which is the second book in the series. (Our library system does not have a copy of the first book, The Jewel and Her Lapidary, so I will have to find a copy somewhere.) Unfortunately, I was not as impressed with this second book, I did not feel the same atmospheric sense of dread threatening the plucky heroine. The heroine in The Fire Opal Mechanism is Ania, a career librarian at Far Reaches University. Although Ania is indeed threatened by the evil Pressmen, I never felt the same concern for Ania as I did for Devina (the heroine of The Book of Gems). |
The evil Pressman are sweeping through the Six Kingdoms. They own a monstrous, magical press, which demands that all existing books be fed into it. The press steals all the ink off of the pages of the existing books, and then spits out volume after volume of the Universal Compendiums of Knowledge. All facts that anyone would ever need to know will be in found in the Compendiums, there is no need for any other book to exist. When the Pressman reach the Far Reaches University, they demand that all books be brought out and given to their machine. Naturally Ania, a librarian, does not agree with this scheme, and so she plots how to save as many of the most important books as she can. It seems that there is a secret room behind this old clock...
There is a student named Xachar at Far Reaches University. He wishes to be useful. Will he help the professors and fellow students? No, Xachar believes in the Pressman's cause. He even volunteers to work on the mighty press, he has engineering training which might serve him well in keep the press running. One thing I did not understand is that press is powered by a malignant false gem. If the gem is false, how is it able to drive the press and work its magic?
Jorit is a young woman who has been branded a thief. In an earlier altercation that is not fully described, Jorit and her brother Morton had a run-in with the Pressman. But we are not told what occured, merely that Morton has been dragged off and not seen again, while the sign of the thief was carved onto the back of Jorit's hand. The irony is that the brand on her hand forces Jorit to become a thief, she cannot get honest work. Jorit comes to Far Reaches University, hoping to pilfer books that she can sell. Books have become scarce now that the hungry maw of the Pressman's machine has consumed so many. Jorit hopes to make enough money selling stolen books to purchase passage on a ship that will take her far from here, so she ventures into the library where Xanchar and Ania are already carrying out schemes of their own agendas.
The Fire Opal Mechanism has some time travel plot points, but they were not that well thought out.
I got the impression that while The Book of Gems could be read as a stand alone novella, The Fire Opal Mechanism assumes that the reader has some familiarity with events from the first book in the series. Perhaps that is why I did not find this installment as interesting as The Book of Gems.