by Christine Schulze
publisher’s synopsis
A desperate mission. Sinister sorcery. Can she find the seven prism shards to stop the world from being destroyed?
Ashlai, a young Fyre mage who can harness powers of flame from the sun, yearns to know about her kin. Her adoptive elven father refuses to let her travel abroad with her brother, and she despairs of ever knowing who she really is. But when the new king’s vicious spell attacks her forest home, she flees toward that unknown past—and an uncertain destiny—guided only by the strange melody in her head and a piece of broken prism.
Determined to save the land from the enchanted drought burning everything in its path, Ashlai searches for six other magical fragments to overthrow the ruthless king. With the help of a shape-shifting thief, two squabbling bards, and a snarky water elf, she races toward a perilous confrontation…and a life-changing truth.
Can Ashlai fight fire with fire to defeat the devastating spell before it consumes the entire land? And can she survive the secrets she discovers without losing her new friends, her family, and even herself?
Prelude of Fire is the thrilling first book in The Gailean Quartet YA epic fantasy series. Featuring a diverse cast, high-stakes quests, and music melded with magic, you’ll love Schulze’s emotional journey.
Prelude of Fire is no small book, so hats off to Schulze for writing and carrying a plot throughout such a long novel. That’s not an easy task.
That being said, I will say that the story did start to feel a little repetitive by the end, following a pattern of Ashlai and company looking for a shard, fighting off enemies, and claiming the next shard.
The writing style is a little less complex than most YA novels, making Prelude of Fire best suited for younger YA readers, which is perfect since the ages of the main characters are on the younger side of typical YA protagonists.
This is probably just a me-issue, but there were a few characters whose ages I initially had wrong and was later confused about. I probably missed their initial age indicators, but it did make me confused later on. The villain also felt a little off to me at times.
In her bio, Schulze mentions the Legend of Zelda game franchise as one of the many places she draws her inspiration from. While reading Prelude of Fire, I could definitely pick up on some Legend of Zelda motifs.
It was clear while reading Prelude of Fire that Schulze put a lot of effort and depth into her worldbuilding and various cultures. I would have loved to get to delve deeper into the various story locations, but that didn’t fit in with the traveling-quest nature of the plot. 🙂
I am a little confused about how Prelude of Fire works in relation to the entire Galiean Quartet. The overarching plot wraps up perfectly by the end of the novel, making it work fine as a standalone, and the little “about the next book” page at the end of Prelude of Fire made the second novel in the series sound more like a prequel to Prelude of Fire. I’m wondering if the series is perhaps viewed best as connected standalone novels? Of course, I’ve only read the first book.
Overall, Prelude of Fire is best for fans of large character ensembles, quest/traveling plots, and classic stories of good vs. evil.
Cautions: moderate/heavy violence; light romance; five instances of a swear word used for its original meaning; brief, false accusations of a side character having an affair in the past
(I received a review copy from the author. All thoughts and opinions are my own.)
Hailey Huntington 
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