Book: Firebird trilogy

[Erudite]

This is about 3 books, so I'm going to start with the overall review before giving you the teasers about the books themselves. And here it is...the cliche opening...if you only read one set of SciFi books this year (because I know you all read SO many), it should be THIS set.

The Firebird trilogy has been the most enlightening (fiction) reading I've done in a long time, helping me to understand some things about myself that I hadn't quite been able to put into coherent thoughts. They are filled with spiritual insight on a practical level in addition to being an exciting story. My 11 yo DD read the first two books awhile ago and then found the 3rd. When I looked at them, I thought "here is the light reading I've been wanting." (Mentally, I've been needing to be lost in a good book.) So I checked out all 3 books...and I've read all 3 of them over the past week, despite the fact that we remodeled our office in that time too (I'll be posting pics soon.) I just finished the 3rd book in the carpool lane and was absolutely lost in thought about what I'd learned on a spiritual level from a SCI FI book. They are amazing books and I can recommend them to anyone, but I did suggest that my daughter read them again when she is older as they have a deep spiritual undertone that I'm not sure she can fully understand right now. Firebird is a woman and the story is told from her perspective, so it might be more enjoyed by female readers, just FYI.

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Title: Firebird
Author: Kathy Tyers
Pages: about 300
Genre: Science Fiction

In the first novel, we meet Firebird who is a royal "wastling". This means she was born to make sure that there would be an heir to the crown of the planet Netaia if her 3 sisters died. If her oldest sister has two children, then Firebird is required by law to die so that there aren't heirs that might rise up against the crown. That point is an important point to her story, because it creates all that Firebird is. In the first couple of chapters, her oldest sister does in fact give birth and Firebird is asked to kill herself in battle against a neighboring star system. She goes loyally to do that, but is taken prisoner instead. The defenders of the star system include those who can read minds and Firebird is interrogated by a mind reader and critical defense system information is stolen from her, but without hurting anything other than her pride. Firebird wants to live and decides that she will seek asylum rather than going home to die. And that sets up a reasonably typical Sci Fi story.

Where it takes an interesting turn is that the mind reader who interrogated her is a member of a religion who believes in a God of love and mercy, who is a divine creator and protector, who has a plan for all His children's lives. Firebird eventually begins to question the religion of her youth (which necessitated her dying for the crown) and begins to look at this new religion with interest, as well as the interrogator, Brennan.

What roles out is a story about conversion to the "true" religion inside a daily life that is crazy with Sci Fi stuff and violent events. Firebird begins to come to know God as she accepts and learns and grows from the new experiences she has.

The author ends the book with an "author's note" that says she conceived the story from learning about her own biblical background. That is, she is telling the story as if the Messiah was still to come and that this religion is a religion that believes in a COMING atonement, not a completed atonement. It was a fascinating look at that side of a picture from a fictional perspective. And it was an interesting look at the mind of a convert who had previously been unable to conceive in an all powerful being of love as well as wrath.

I won't say more because I don't want to destroy the story itself, but I really do encourage all to read the books. Despite the fact that Firebird and Brennan are falling in love there is no sex, because that would be a violation of Brennan's moral code, which is also a wonderful part of the book. So you have a really clean story with a intriguing plot and an enlightening understory of faith, hope, and even charity.

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title: Fusion Fire
Author: Kathy Tyers
Pages: about 300
Genre: Science Fiction

The 2nd book in the series has Brennan and Firebird married and Firebird expecting twins. Firebird has found that her geneology makes her part of the same group of people that Brennan is, so she is working on developing her mental abilities in addition to going to college to understand the political situation on her home world of Netaia. During labor Firebird suddenly discovers how to use her mental abilities, but they are very different than they are supposed to be. Through the first part of the book she is learning just to use them and finds that if she uses them in concert with someone else, the someone else dies and she is left nearly dead. This is useful when she is attacked in the days after the twin's birth, and an enemy is discovered and killed.

This opens the book to a wider picture that includes ancient enemies of Brennan's people, those who do not believe in the prophecies surrounding Brennan's (and now Firebird's) family. The ancient enemy is trying to take over the group of planets known as the Federacy, but they want to do it through mind-controlling force and genetic manipulation.

Meanwhile Firebird is learning more and more about her adopted religion and in the process becoming closer to God. She begins to understand the concept of and the depth of need for the atonement when she is formally consecrated into the religion. (This description and explanation of the sacrificing of an animal helped me more fully understand the reason for sacrifice and thus the need for the atonement, so much so that I read it to my DH and we ended up with a good discussion on the reality of the atonement.) But at the same time, Firebird is finding character faults in herself and in her upbringing that continually form stumbling blocks, though each time she stumbles, the clear presence of "the Mighty Singer", her name for God, pulls her up and makes her a better person.

Again, the book is fantastic on a Sci Fi level, but from a practical teaching point of spiritual concepts it is marvelous! There is much to think about personally as Firebird moves forward in her own journey.

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Title: Crown of Fire
Author: Kathy Tyers
Pages: about 300
Genre: Science Fiction

The final book in the trilogy is about Firebird's return to her home planet and her efforts to help that planet's people not only come to God, but also to get itself away from the fuedalism that has kept the "common" people from the wealth of the planet and save the planet from being taken over by the ancient enemy of freedom. In this book, Firebird is severely tempted by pride in her great desire to see herself as a savior of the planet and to finally throw off the "wastling" image that so many have categorized her with. But this desire for recognition and personal achievement do not come from God and she is taught in this book how to follow God's will for her and her family.

Like the others, this book has strong spiritual overtones as Firebird learns to recognize and follow promptings from God and see that the picture she can create for solutions can not include all that God can create. She learns a very concrete lesson about the power of the atonement in her life as well. She learns that her own solutions and efforts to help really are pride and personal ambition, but more than that, she begins to see that God can and does have a much wider view and that if she can follow His Lead, she and her people can be saved.

For me, this story mirrors something that is going on in my life as I have great desires to serve in an area that just does not seem to be opening up to me. Firebird's journey, though fiction, helped me to realize more than ever that I need to be in tune with God's will and that His wider view would take me on the path that I need to be on for the best good of all. And if it is the best good for all that I seek, of what use are my plans and solutions? I need God's plans and solutions. As you can see, reading these books has had a powerful impact on my thinking. Not only are they wonderful heartfelt stories, but they also have a truth to them that has really helped me look at things in a new way. I understand that this is what some say that all fiction should do, but rarely have I seen it more clearly and beautifully and realistically (as in the thinking processes behind the learning experiences) portrayed.

I recommend these books as ones you'll even want for your bookshelves!

[Mamallama]

Thanks! I'm going to check these out. Sounds great!