"The sound of the horn pierces the apeiron, shattering the stillness of that realm. Its clarion call creates ripples, substance, something more. It is a summons, a command. There is will. There is need.

And so, in reply, there is a woman.

At the beginning―no―at the end―she appears, full of fury and bound by chains of prophecy.

Setting off on an unexplained quest from which she is compelled to complete, and facing unnatural challenges in a land that doesn’t seem to exist, she will discover the secrets of herself, or die trying. But along the way, the obstacles will grow to a seemingly insurmountable point, and the final choice will be the biggest sacrifice yet.

This is the story of a woman’s struggle against her very existence, an epic tale of the adventure and emotional upheaval on the way to face an ancient enigmatic foe. This could only spun from the imagination of Marie Brennan, award-winning author and beloved fantasist, beginning a new series about the consequences of war―and of fate.

Cold-Forged Flame is the first in a new series by Marie Brennan."

I met Marie Brennan when she was doing a signing tour with Mary Robinette Kowal. She is totally fascinating and I CAN NOT wait to read this new book. Also, that cover!

My Thoughts:

I've heard great things about Marie Brennan's books. My husband has read her The Memoirs of Lady Trent series, and loved it. It was one of his favorite fantasy series that he read in 2016. He has talked so positively about her books that I've really wanted to read them. I was looking through her backlog, and decided to try Cold-Forged Flame. It's a Tor.com novella, which I've read a lot of recently. It's short, so I figured it would be a quick read to get a taste of her writing style. Unfortunately, I didn't like it at all.

I had so many problems with Cold-Forged Flame. I think the main problem I had with the book was that it was so boring. Nothing happened. There was no plot advancement at all. Every time I felt like something exciting was going to happen, the book went down a different path, and nothing happened. It left me feeling frustrated, and very disappointed. It just felt like a waste of time reading one hundred and four pages. I understand that a lot of that was because of world building, and that it's very hard to build a complex world in a little over one hundred pages. If the book was longer, it might have held my interest more because it probably would have had some action. It was starting to have some at the end of the book, but at that point, I just didn't care and wanted to be done reading it.

Cold-Forged Flame was incredibly disappointing to me, especially after my husband had hyped up how good Marie Brennan's books are. It was so incredibly boring. Even though I didn't like this book, I probably will give at least the first book in her The Memoirs of Lady Trent series a try. Cold-Forged Flame is the first book in a series, but I don't foresee myself ever picking up the rest of the series with as much as I disliked this book. I've learned over the last year that with Tor.com novellas, I have a love/hate relationship. Some of them, I become obsessed with and want to read multiple times. Others, I hate. There is no in between. Unfortunately, this was one of the ones I hated. I do still plan to make my way through all of the Tor.com novellas though. There are a lot of hidden gems in there. This just wasn't one of them.

I give Cold-Forged Flame: 2/5.

I'm unable to provide a review at this time. Unfortunately, I DNFed this book in the first 18%. It just didn't grab my attention. I apologize for any inconvenience.

I've enjoyed Brennan's Memoirs of Lady Trent series so I jumped at the chance to read Cold-Forged Flame. This one's only a novella so it was interesting to see how the author condensed a world into such a short span as I'm used to the longer-winded stories of her other series. 

It felt like the set-up for something bigger. The protagonist awakens with no memory of her identity or purpose, just a gut instinct. I liked that that's where the focus stayed, instead of straying off into the world more, because it kept the pace quick and made it all the more intriguing. This novella is nothing like Brennan's Lady Trent books so if you weren't a fan of those, I think you'll still enjoy this shorter work. 

I wasn't a huge fan of using amnesia to start the story off but I think it was done well (at least in a way that was enjoyable), and the protagonist doesn't remain oblivious the whole time. The story itself is contained to this novella instead of feeling like you're only getting part instead of the whole. But there's a lot of room to grow in a sequel novella or full-length novel. 

This is one of those stories where I was done reading before my brain caught up. The way it's written makes it all too easy to fall down Brennan's rabbit hole as you try to figure out what is going on alongside the main character. It was a fun read and I'm interested to see how the world is expanded on in the future.

Short novella the starts a new series.

Decent short fantasy novella. This was perhaps a little too short for me, I liked it but didn't really care all that much, probably in part due to the main character's lack of memory... It was well told and I was more intrigued by the end so would give part 2 a go.

(ARC provided by publisher via NetGalley)