Duel of Fire

Steel and Fire Series, Book 1

By: Jordan Rivet

Narrated by: Caitlin Kelly

Length: 9 hrs and 22 mins

Publisher's summary

Dara Ruminor is a serious young duelist in the mountaintop kingdom of Vertigon, a land of dramatic cliffs and misty peaks where mysterious Fire magic runs through the stones like blood. The secluded kingdom has been peaceful for 100 years. Swords are used for sport, and successful athletes live like kings as long as the crowds love them.

Eighteen-year-old Dara needs to find a wealthy patron in order to duel professionally and avoid a lifetime working in her parents' Fire Lantern shop. Her efforts are disrupted when her coach asks her to train with Prince Siv, an infuriating - if handsome - young man who refuses to take the sport as seriously as she does. But the prince's life may be in danger, and soon Dara will discover that Vertigon isn't as peaceful as she thought.

As threats emerge from the shadows, Dara will have to raise her sword to protect Siv - if he doesn't irritate her so much that she decides to run him through herself.

©2016 Jordan Rivet (P)2016 Tantor

Excellent piece of supernatural epic fantasy for all ages.

Duel of Fire is an excellent piece of supernatural epic fantasy, suitable for all ages. The narrator does a lot to bring out the color and feel of the people who are involved with the daily life and the family members of the two main characters. Set in a land ruled by a king in a time reminiscent of the middle ages but with a small amount of magic mixed in Dora, a daughter of a fire magè (that is not what they are called in the book but it is the best way to describe it) wants to be a swords woman instead of working in the family business

Fantastic book with fantastic narration

Any additional comments?

This book is pretty much perfect in my opinion. Rivet's style isn't too flowery or wordy. The pace is great. The snowy, fiery mountain creates a great atmosphere. Rivet's depiction of a feudal society feels more convincing than in most mideaval-esque fantasies.

I think that Dara's relationship with her parents is very unique and interesting. The plot gets a bit predictable, but I enjoyed it anyway. Best book I've read in a while.

Great story and characters

Wonderful series with many unexpected twists and turns. Well developed characters that grow from teens to adults through the year that the five books cover. Excellent performance as well. Well worth the read!

Not what I thought it would be.

So, this story is slow to the excitement, but I am so happy with the character build and the story. The narrator is also lovely with the different accents.

That Ending

The novel was mediocre at best, the story full of cliches. The main character is a head strong young woman who wants to make her own way in the world. She's naive yet has strong principles. She falls in love with the prince who is a jerk with a heart of gold. It all feels cookie cutter.

Until the moment the book goes full Game of Thrones in the last 20%. People are betrayed, lots of people die. Someone get their hand cut off. It was like reading a different, much better book with high stakes.

I might pick up the second book just bc the ending was so strong.

Exciting Book with an Excellent Narrator

Caitlin Kelly is on my list of go-to narrators. She brings to life any book she reads, and this book make it especially easy on her. It is action packed and full of intrigue. If you like interesting fantasy settings with lots of rapier fighting, then this is the book for you!

absolutely amazing

just became one of my favorite books if not the and also preformed by none other than Caitlin Kelly who's also one of my favorite reader!!

Very solid YA Fantasy

As the title says. Duel of Fire was a fun and action packed ride. My biggest complaint is that there isn't enough world building. The plot moves very fast and sometimes that lead to a lot of similar scenes. otherwise this was a very fun book.

The narrator did a pretty good job as well. I only noticed her make a couple mistakes.

Just not for me.

I did not finish this book. After about three hours I decided the cookie-cutter YA fantasy displayed here is written specifically for younger audiences.

Legit great story!!!

This is legit a great story! it's small right now but there's an actual world here. The mystery was intriguing enough but overshadowed by Dara's story which is fine. loved that she had the mentality of an athlete. I wish she had The chance to get the king's favor too, though. That way she would have felt more grief in the end. And when did they find people training in the caverns? when was that foreshadowed? Also, the prince was acting like a naive boy with Dara than the loverboy the book said he was. I loved the princesses too I can't wait for more of them in the next book. This was a great opening to a great series. Great story. Will read more.

No Spark

That was awesome, Jordan Rivet has built us a fantastic world to get lost in, Dara is a Champion Dualist, A Rapier Specialist, she would love to be part of the family business, but Dara can't produce the spark required to the job, lots of cracking sword fights, lurking assassins and great worldbuilding, narrator Caitlin Kelly gives an amazing preformence with her arrange of voices, brings the whole book to life, highly recommend....😁

If only the Writer knew what was good

The Narrator is lively and full of energy which puts her above many who read for Audible. Unfortunately she has a habit of reading certain characters the way a teenager would relay the words of a dumb boy. This gets pretty annoying when you have to hear a a character talk at length like that.

The story has lots of interesting elements which are pushed into the background for a really dull romance, which isn’t even as sophisticated as Ross and Rachel from Friends.

Dara is hot. Siv is hot. They’re the only people in the whole kingdom who have physical traits which are positive (other people have good physical traits which are revealing of character traits the author doesn’t like such as confidence in your own sexuality)

So Dara and Siv’s will they won’t they is the crux of the book which literally everything is in service of. An interesting political plot appears, out of nowhere, near the end but it’s only there to keep two hot people apart.

It’s still enjoyable in some ways. There’s clear energy to the prose and lots of interesting ideas thrown in. However they all serve this incredibly banal romance. It’s tough to even call it a romance as there’s not much romantic character development to speak of either. Just the question of will two hot suitors hook up against the back drop of incredibly contrived resistance.