Aparna Verma’s ‘The Boy with Fire’: An Epic High Fantasy with Beautiful South Asian Rep!

Many thanks to NetGalley, New Degree Press and the author for providing me with an advanced copy of The Boy with Fire in exchange for my honest review.

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• Title: The Boy with Fire
• Author: Aparna Verma
• Publisher: New Degree Press
• Pub. date: 31 August 2021
• Series: The Ravence Trilogy #1
• Page count: 376
• Source: NetGalley
• Genres: adult fiction, fantasy, romance, #ownvoices, science fiction

Dune meets The Poppy War in Aparna Verma’s The Boy with Fire, a glorious yet brutal tour-de-force debut that grapples with the power and manipulation of myth in an Indian-inspired epic fantasy.

Yassen Knight was the Arohassin’s most notorious assassin until a horrible accident. Now, he’s on the run from both the authorities and his former employer. But when Yassen seeks refuge with an old friend, he’s offered an irresistible deal: defend the heir of Ravence from the Arohassin, and earn his freedom.

Elena Ravence prepares to ascend the throne. Trained since birth in statecraft, warfare, and the desert ways, Elena knows she is ready. She only lacks one thing: the ability to hold Fire. With the coronation only weeks away, she must learn quickly or lose her kingdom.

Leo Ravence is not yet ready to give up the crown. There’s still too much work to be done, too many battles to be won. But when an ancient prophecy threatens to undo his lifetime of work, Leo wages war on the heavens themselves to protect his legacy.

The first of The Ravence Trilogy, The Boy with Fire is the tale of a world teetering on the edge of war and prophecy, of fate and betrayal, of man’s irrevocable greed for power — and the sacrifices that must come with it.

Content warning: described blood, fade-to-black sex scene, genocide, loss of a loved one, on-page death, terrorism, violence (burns, gunshots, physical assault), death of a child

How can I resist a book that is pitched as “Dune meets The Poppy War“? Then the author described this book as “a magical conglomeration of Dune, The Poppy War, Game of Thrones, and ATLA“! How do I not pick up this gold mine of a book that just landed in front of me? Of course, I grabbed it! I would have probably pushed someone to grab this off the shelf if I had seen this in a bookstore! I honestly get chills thinking about the slight chance I would have had of not having read this book!

The Boy with Fire is a political fantasy at heart. The story opens with Yassen Knight, who was an assassin of the terrorist group that is known as the Arohassin. After suffering a disabling blow, Yassen is useless to the Arohassin now and has flown the coop to his old friend, Samson Kyuut, a fellow ex-assassin who is now leading a military force known as the Black Scales. Samson offers Yassen the ultimatum to help him defend the kingdom of Ravence and its royal family from the Arohassin in exchange for Yassen’s freedom.

Elena Ravence is the heir of the desert kingdom known as Ravence, a kingdom torn between religious fanatics who believe in their god Phoenix and her destructive Prophet, and a people who are loyal to the royal family. Elena is fierce, strong and just days away from her coronation, but she is lacking the one thing she needs to become the undisputed ruler of her people: the ability to wield fire.

Meanwhile, Leo, Elena’s father, is on a mission to prepare the kingdom for a peaceful rule under his daughter’s hand. However, in the midst of clashes between loyalists and religious fanatics, Leo begins to suspect that there are traitors in their midst and that these traitors are working to protect the one person who could end Ravence and her people: the Prophet of their god, the Phoenix.

There was something almost magical about a whole cast of characters with South Asian influence in an epic fantasy like The Boy with Fire. In a kingdom like Ravence in the middle of an unforgiving desert, characters like Yassen with their pale features stood out while brown skin, kohl-lined eyes and dark hair were the norm.

From among these characters, Elena stood out to me the most because I could not help admiring her tenacity, her willpower and her raw passion for her people and kingdom. Though Elena lacked the ability to wield fire, she was a brilliant display of all the strengths of a queen otherwise. Then you place her with characters like Ferma, a badass warrior/bodyguard with hair that transforms into knife-like points, and Leo, the tormented and ruthless king that the fandom has unanimously agreed is DILF material. What an amazing trio to reign over a kingdom!

Samson and Yassen came into the story as somewhat of mystery men. They both have sketchy pasts together but then they separated, so the two of them are tentative allies at best, basing their relationship on their childhood brotherhood rather than any real trust in each other. They made an interesting duo because literally, everything felt uncertain about them till the very last chapter of this book, and even now I have so many questions about these two!

I really liked the author’s writing here because of her skill, which honestly stunned me at this debut novel level. She excelled at wowing me with her colourful descriptions, her stunning action scenes, and her expert weaving from character to character using multiple POVs.

I found the writing a bit slow-paced until the last third portion of the book, but this was such a great technique to build the already palpable tension that was present throughout the storytelling. By the time the pace picked up, I had to keep the book down a few times to catch my breath because the way the author used the pacing with her plot twists was just genius!

Another great thing about the writing was that the author unapologetically used words of South Asian origin, like “chhatri”, “dupatta”, without following them up with long-winding explanations of what they are. Of course, there was a glossary at the end, so no one is going to end up lost. It felt unapologetically authentic, and I loved it even as I shifted to the glossary any time a word was unfamiliar to me!

The Boy with Fire had a great deal of political drama in its centre. I loved how the author weaved multiple POVs to explore the various aspects of what was happening in Ravence, because this kingdom was a political mess at the start of the story (sounds familiar, but oh well!).

I thought I might grow bored since I tend to read a majority of romance-themed books and the romance here is a very slow burn, but oh boy was I wrong! From the very beginning of this book, there was a palpable tension and this just grew and grew throughout the story. I was impressed by how the author built the story scene-by-scene with every scene contributing something meaningful to the story.

The majority of the book was conflict-heavy with political parties clashing, leaders clashing, and racial clashes coming into play. Even the characters themselves were distrustful of each other and everyone was suspicious of everyone. I feel like the author took the concept of conflict in the plot to a whole other level with this. In contrast, the climax and the resolution were quick and felt like a slap to the face!

My favourite bits were definitely Elena and Yassen’s scenes, though I really wanted more Samson scenes too!

Aparna Verma’s world-building was just stunning! It’s a wholly new fictional world of her construct with multiple kingdoms, religions, and cultures.

I don’t think I have seen anyone say this yet, but her scenes of Ravence marketplaces and landscapes really gave me Star Wars vibes, with the images of colourful, outdoor markets coexisting with holopods and hovercars! It felt like Star Wars but with desi vibes!

My Star Wars rant aside, I am obsessed with the South Asian elements in the world-building here. This high fantasy felt so much more beautiful to me with the beautiful array of South Asian food, culture, and architecture that the author weaved into the story. Is it because I relate to it more? Probably. Maybe the festive vibes of the impending coronation and such were just much more visually pleasing to me since I have experienced something similar since childhood. And come on! Indian festivals? Who can stop visualising all the colours and food and people?

Also, I am so happy to see kingdoms that are doing their own thing! There was Ravence with its desert and its Prophet. Then Jantar with its metal and brass cities. And there are so many more kingdoms that the story hasn’t explored yet, like Mandur with its navy, Pagua with its stealthy air force, and so on. It gets me so excited about the rest of this trilogy and all the directions this story can go in!

Then the enemies to lovers romance – a trope that drew me to this book. I will admit that it was a very slow burn but I preferred that because the romance did not feel forced when it actually blossomed. And to be honest, all the chaos happening left and right really made me forget about the romance halfway through because I was so intrigued by the mystery of it all!

There was strong South Asian representation in this story. Like I have raved about throughout this review, this is a high fantasy that is unapologetically South Asian and diverse. There is even disability representation since Yassen suffers from terrible burns to his arm that debilitates him significantly in the story.

I also liked how the author explored themes like racism and religious fanaticism through the people that she created. It is an interesting parallel to our own real-life situations that are painfully relatable at times. With the crown of Ravennce passing from one ruler to the next, there is an interesting matter of what leadership entails as well since Leo and Elena share greatly differing views on how to rule a kingdom.

I am still reeling from reading this epic fantasy that is Aparna Verma’s The Boy with Fire. It delivered so much more than I expected on all things from its representation to the world-building and characters. This series is already firmly on the favourites shelf and I am bound to keep shoving this down everyone’s throats till its sequel goes live. Read this for the twisty plot, for the amazing South Asian representation, for the powerful world-building, and the badass cast of characters!

Aparna Verma was born in India and immigrated to the United States when she was two years old. She graduated from Stanford University with Honors in the Arts and a B.A. in English. The Boy with Fire is her first novel.

When she is not writing, Aparna likes to ride horses, dance to Bollywood music, and find old cafes to read myths about forgotten worlds. You can connect with Aparna on Twitter and Instagram at @spirited_gal.

Have you read The Boy with Fire or will you be picking it up?