Primeval Fire

Scarlet Odyssey, Book 3

De: C. T. Rwizi

Narrado por: Korey Jackson, James Shippy, Susan Dalian, A.J. Beckles, Jordan Cobb

In the final riveting installment of C. T. Rwizi’s Scarlet Odyssey series, Salo’s death leaves his friends reeling—and a magical world in turmoil.

Salo is dead—and the world he left behind is at war.

In the midst of their grief, Salo’s closest clan members begin to experience strange phenomena: visions visit one, while seizures plague another. The clan’s new mystic divines that an arcane signal from the far west is calling, so they set out toward the desert—and encounter a caravan of travelers following the same mysterious call.

Meanwhile, Salo’s loyal allies Ilapara and Tuk embark on a bold mission to raise Salo from the dead. And their sorcery works...or seems to. While the resurrected Salo ignores his friends’ warnings and forms dark alliances, Ilapara and Tuk struggle with their growing unease, even as they follow Salo westward on a quest in which the fate of the world hangs in the balance.

With magic spiraling into mayhem, is this the end of Salo’s saga—or an epic new beginning?

©2022 C. T. Rwizi (P)2022 Brilliance Publishing, Inc., all rights reserved.

Reseñas de la Crítica

“Rwizi weaves multiple plots together as he’s done so well in the prior novels.”—Booklist

Sci-Fi, Fantasy

Saw a review that indicated this book isn’t “family friendly”. And the rest of thw review fell apart after that and had me face palming…

1. This is a sci-fi, fantasy book. Most people going into these types of books, even when they’re YA labelled, knows to ‘expect anything’. That’s the definition of a fantasy: anything can happen; the rules of one’s every day experience and imaginings either fit in or have to make space for someone else’s creation that falls outside the bounds of what most contemporary and conformist people know and are willing to consider, let alone accept as possible.

2. All of the betrayal, treachery, abuse, outright lies told, violence, murder, rape, and sex discussed and alluded to being had (consensually or paid) that took up the first 2 books and part of the start of this third…was more family friendly than two men sitting together actually and in dreams, talking to one another, loving each other with how they think of and care for one another? (And intercourse between them was only ever implied and alluded to, not outright described, until more than halfway through the final book.)

3. Wanting this book to be labelled “LGBTQ” just because it has two definitely gay characters (who spend more time thinking and dreaming of each other together, and aren’t even in each others proximity physically until the last hour of a 21 hour narrative), seems the equivalent of wanting this book to be specifically categoried under “African women’s sci-fi, fantasy literature” as African women feature a heck of a lot more prominently and frequently in central roles many find atypical to African women. Let’s just forget the entire cast of all other characters just because there are two gay ones. It’s like declaring the world is a daffodil and everything in it is daffodils just because daffodils exist. It’s sci-fi, fantasy; everything is possible in the genre.

4. Love and respect, when not in a heteronormative context, is family unfriendly. Apparently. Whereas the manipulative and highly sexual relationship of the hetero prince and his demon affiliated wife who used to prostitute herself to survive (not knocking the survival prostitution, just highlighting the demonic affiliation part) is far more family friendly. Got it. (What kind of family…nevermind.)

While this was not my favourite installation in the series, it ties up loose ends and ends as a set of loose ends. Kind of like life, it goes on and sometimes with no neat resolution to some things and events. Definitely worth a read or listen for the reflection on leadership, trust, interpersonal relationships, love, family, character evolution (not development as that happens throughout the series) and how dramatic change affects personal identity and notions of self, empathy, cruelty, forgiveness, and much more.

The creation of an African lore.

This whole series was fabulous!! It felt a little rushed in the last 2 books but I think that leaves an opening to animate this and add in all the missing pieces.

Worth the wait!

I preordered so that I wouldn’t miss it when it was available and it was worth the wait. Well written, great character development, enjoyable storyline. Wonderful ending but I could really get into a series with each of the characters further adventures.

Satisfying End to a Great Series

I really liked all 3 books and the ending to the series was satisfying. The series overall had a great mix of mystery, world building and character development/interactions. Another reviewer mentioned homosexuality making it not family friendly when there's torture, rape, slavery and brutal descriptions of violence throughout the whole series. The sex alluded to isn't even graphic and more often than not is heterosexual. I really like all the narrators except for the one who voiced Kamali who wasn't terrible, just not quite as good as the others.

It doesn't get better than this!

The whole trilogy is incredible. If you even remotely enjoy sci-fi or fantasy you don't want to miss this trilogy.

Intricate adventure

This is epic scify with magic! Top 10 all- time fav. Well performed. Rwizi will be eternal like Heinlein, Asinimov and Martin.

excellent culmination of a captivating story

I love it when the end of a series doesn't leave me with more questions than I stayed with. I was deeply satisfied with the thoroughly borne out story and characters and I will seek this author out again!

this title should be listed under LGBTQ

The first book started off as a pretty decent story, but the second and 3rd installments focused more on the intricacies of embracing homosexual tendencies and relationships between men. One part of the story even eludes to possibly engaging in sex acts with a minor boy.

I do not recommend these stories as family friendly.

the third book in particular had long pauses in the action and was actually difficult to finish. I wanted to give a fair review but ended up speeding the audio to 1.5x to get through the story faster.

I believe the author started an excellent story line that was an engaging context for a sci-fi/fantasy type environment that could take place on the plains of Africa. I believe the author to be talented as a story maker, but was extremely disappointed this was something I could not add to my personal collection because of the adult content.

if you want to write about sexuality, or even same sex relationships, that's fine, but please mark it as such so that someone won't be under the impression this is a good family oriented story.