Ms. Pierce's Firebringer Trilogy is among my all-time favorite books. Her writing stirs something deep within me, inspires my own work like few other things can. A good book will transport you to another place; the characters become your friends. A GREAT book stays with you in your waking life, comes into THIS world. It insinuates itself into your daily routine. You think in terms of that culture; you use it's language. Star Trek and Star Wars are like that; they just have the luck of being well known. Firebringer deserves that kind of recognition.
Firebringer is about self-discovery and personal growth. It's about daring to look at the world with new eyes and challenge the traditions that have become outdated or whose meanings have been lost. It's about not fearing the unknown & embracing difference. It's about unity & harmony VS self-interest & blind conflict. It's about seeking answers rather than jumping to conclusions. It's about beeing curious, changing, rather than staying stagnant within one's own circle. Looking without AND within rather than one or the other. I feel like Jan, the main character, was modeled after my own mind, and I'm sure others who have read the story have felt the same.
Firebringer is also a great fantasy story, full of fresh takes on familiar mythological creatures, unicorns, gryphons, goatlings, wyverns, and dragons. Her descriptions conjure such vivid & beautiful images, even of the horrendous wyverns! You can construct the Mere of the Moon in your mind, see images in its waters. Ms. Pierce's work is where I first started to encounter the concepts of everything being connected, and began to see life as more than a struggle, as a dance. I started to see things with new eyes, started putting myself in other people's postitions, saw other sides to every aspect of life. Her work helped me plant my feet firmly on the path of paganism. (although I should stress that not all fans of FT are pagan -- I am simply remarking on my personal experience) ...
Anyway, I'm sure you would like to now what the series is actually ABOUT, so here are some synopses:
Jan is the son of Korr, the mighty battle-prince of the unicorns. But he is nothing like his father, and everyone wonders if he has it in him to be a leader. It's spring, and finally time for his coming-of-age pilgrimage to the Mere of the Moon, in the Hallow Hills, where the wyverns sleep. He is determined to prove himself to his father, to become a warrior. He swears a silent oath to give up his tricks, to obey the Ring of Law, lest the goddess Alma find him unworthy. But he is plagued by nightmares and monsters that seek to lead him away from his destiny. Faced with gryphons, wyverns, and fire, will he live to see his people return to their ancestral home?
Jan and his shoulder-friends, Tek and Dag, go to the Summer Sea, along with all the other young warriors, to choose mates. But a surprise attack by gryphons sees Jan separated from the herd. Now he is lost in the land of two-foots, former home of Jah-lila, the wytch. With a horn on his brow and cloven hooves, what do these two-foots make of this strange new "horse"? Who knows what wonderous new friends he may make as he struggles to get home -- or what dangers he may yet face when he gets there ...
Life may have seemed peaceful for a while, but Jan is restless. He knows what he must do, but he doesn't know how, and Alma is oddly silent. He's about to turn the world upside down -- but in doing so, he may have to lose those he loves the most. The time for war with the wyverns has come, and with it, unlikely allies ...