“I was fire, and I would be the scorch that protected my friends.”
Holy smokes, An Inkling of Flame honestly had zero business tearing out my heart and crushing my soul in so few pages, but here we are. Filled with bittersweet reflections, razor-sharp banter, riveting intrigue, and bloody action, this standalone prequel novella to the Song of the Damned series is straight-up fire the entire way through.
Now, I am always a sucker for a good framing narrative, and Z.B. Steele absolutely nails that storytelling structure in An Inkling of Flame. We are sucked into the story of Layne, a soldier conscripted to fight in a vengeance fueled march in service of a fickle deity called the Fox; a march that ended in nothing but blood and loss, and which has now landed him in the hands of the curious inquisitors.
If you hear that premise and think: “No thanks, I don’t care for war-centred military fantasy”, then you better think again; Steele will make you care. I’m not the first and will probably not be the last person to compare Steele’s style to Joe Abercrombie or Anna Smith Spark, but I also found some strong Robin Hobb flavours in An Inkling of Flame that I absolutely loved. It’s not just the shared soul-stirring prose, human storytelling, and complex, emotionally charged interpersonal relationships, but also the fact that both Layne and Fitz are traumatized broken boys who unfortunately ended up being life’s punching bags.
For me, the first 25% of the novella were possibly the ‘weakest’ (and we’re speaking very relatively here) section of the story, yet in hindsight I absolutely loved how that coming-of-age sequence lulled me into a false sense of security and built up the emotional connection that makes the ending hit so hard. And honestly, despite that slightly wobbly start, Layne’s soul-stirring and intimate first person narration just immediately had me in a chokehold, and I loved diving straight back into the trauma with him.
Absolutely zero punches are pulled, and I really appreciated how Steele showcased the absolute horrors and insanity of war in the most painfully realistic ways. Yet for all that An Inkling of Flame is brutally dark and disturbingly gruesome, it also has a surprising amount of heart and hope (foolish as that hope may be). The camaraderie between Layne and his friends/fellow soldiers was the absolute highlight of the story for me, and I got way more invested in them than was probably safe for my emotional wellbeing. I really enjoyed all the dark gallows humour and razor-sharp banter between them all, and especially Spark (who is named after none other than the Queen of Grimdark herself) really stole the show for me.
Moreover, I loved how this little tale played with the concept of ‘everyone is the hero of their own story’, which culminates in a surprisingly bold and refreshingly subversive ending that made this tried-and-true framed narrative stand out from the crowd for me. And even though An Inkling of Flame works perfectly as a satisfying standalone, the ominously enticing epilogue featuring the enigmatic assassin in grey more than sparked my excitement to come back for more in Whispers of the Storm, the first full-length novel in the Song of the Damned series.
Ultimately, An Inkling of Flame is proof that a talented author doesn’t require hundreds of pages to deliver world building, characters, stakes and emotional investment of the highest quality. If you like gritty grimdark fantasy with equal parts heart and hurt, then you have to give this exceptional novella a shot. Just make sure you have nothing else on the schedule when you start, because I guarantee you won’t be able to stop yourself from devouring it in one sitting.
Thank you to the author for providing me with an eARC in exchange for an honest review. All opinions are my own.
