Phoenix Fire

by Elizabeth Forrest

Reviewed by Ruby

A demon of earth and water is buried in China. A phoenix of fire and air lies deep within the tar-pits of Los Angeles. Ancient enemies from a war long forgotten, they are slowly starting to wake up. Earthquakes and fires are raging. Four people stand against the end of the world, only they don't know it. The only way to save it is to wake the phoenix and continue the war.

Although not terrible, this book is not the greatest. The summary above happened literally in the last 60 pages of the book. I'm not joking. When I said the four people didn't know, they didn't know. They only realized what was happening on page 300 (exactly) out of 364. Everything before is about the four characters, Susan, El, Irving and Victor, just going about their daily lives.

Sort of.

Susan has to deal with her business partner, Angelo, who keeps setting her up for failure because ... I'm not sure why. I think he wanted their business to fold so he eventually torched it .... I don't know.

Irving, Susan's grandfather-in-law, a vet from WWII, keeps having dreams of fire. His children want to put him in a home, but Susan won't let them.

El is recovering from heart surgery and has left the family business to volunteer at a museum. Only his brothers want him back in, something he's not ready for.

Victor owns a Chinese restaurant and is trying to smuggle students out of Communist China. It really wasn't explained why. Some kind of rebellion. I'm really not in the mood to look it up to see if it's accurate or not. And that goes for all that Huang of the Ch'in dynasty being the one who united China and started the Great Wall and the Terracotta army stuff. I'm guessing it's accurate. Historical stuff ain't my strong point.

Then there's this guy called Tempo who spends half the book digging a whole. I'm not sure what he's looking for. Riches probably, but instead he finds a demon. Oh well, better luck next time.

So, yeah. The book's okay, if you have nothing else better to read, but it's not a keeper.

Grade: C