Author: Mercedes Lackey
Rating: 2/5
When cherries are stolen from the tsar’s garden, Ilya’s life becomes a whole lot complicated.
Spoilers ahead.
Detailed Summary
Ilya Ivanovitch is the middle and least-favourite son of Ivan, a tsar in Rus. His only friends at the palace are Mother Galina, Father Mikhail and Ruslan. Ilya is much smarter than all his brothers but is frequently beat up by them. Two of the brothers team up and trap Ilya in a coffin where he sees his grandfather’s spirit. Ilya is rescued by Father Mikhail and nursed back to help by his three friends. They agree that to be safe, Ilya has to pretend to be a Fool. Ivan’s prized cherries are picked from their trees by a thief so he sets a challenge for his sons: whoever can bring down the thief will inherit everything. The brothers were already fighting a lot amongst themselves so this is a good way to choose one successor. The oldest two brothers fail. Ilya spies on both and during the second time, sees the Firebird who put everyone to sleep. Due to being “touched” by the Firebird, Ilya is able to talk to animals. One of his brothers Pietor fails to find the thief and stands up to his father and leaves, impressing everyone. The Firebird leaves a cherry for Ilya which he eats, thus allowing him to keep communicating with animals.
Ilya is forced to go on a hunt but the talking horse takes him to safety. They’re attacked by a boar. Ilya puts the horse out of its misery when it’s grievously wounded and takes hair from its tail. He frees a nightingale from a trap set by a water spirit and finds a maze that leads to an old man’s house. The man, Yasha, used to work for Ivan’s grandfather and they get along. After recovering from his wounds, Ilya leaves and rescues a vixen from a trap. He goes through a maze and finds the Firebird is trapped in a sorcerer’s (named Katschei) garden for stealing apples. He sets her free and she gives him a feather to call her by. Ilya is captured by the guards and forced to work. He falls for Tatiana, one of the women Katschei kidnapped. He enlists the help of the vixen and Firebird to defeat Katschei (his soul is in a diamond in a duck in a rabbit guarded by a dragon). That fails and Ilya is caught. However, he distracts Katschei in the palace and manages to destroy the diamond. Tatiana agrees to marry him and all the statues of men who had tried to rescue the girls unfreeze including Pietor. Ilya finds that Tatiana is a spoiled brat. He catches Pietor in bed with her and leaves the palace with the vixen and nightingale. He calls the Firebird and professes his love for her. They go away together.
Plot and Pacing
Oh god. This book took me an embarrassingly long time to finish and not just because I got vaccinated and felt woozy for a few days (friendly reminder to please get vaccinated, everyone!). During each chapter, I constantly entertained the notion of DNFing the book. Only two things kept me going: 1) the fact that it would help me knock off another one of the r/fantasy bingo squares and 2) the circumstances Ilya found himself in felt parallel to my present situation.
Firebird is, at its core, a Russian fairytale and it spares no fantastical element. Spirits, talking animals, beautiful love interests, the hero being smarter than everyone else and having to play the Fool–like I said, it spares nothing! With some reworking, I think this would have made for a really good book. I was enamoured by the talking animals. It was devastating to read about Ilya’s gelding dying because he was such a witty horse. Even the vixen and the nightingale and the hounds of the palace were hilarious to read about. What put me off was the insane amount of description about things that had no significant bearing towards the story and the weird pacing. When something happens, the action is quick and the pace gallops forward like a horse set loose from the stables. However, the majority of this book was like a horse collapsing on hay out of sheer exhaustion and choosing to idle around. I enjoy slice of life books but Firebird wasn’t even that during the slow bits! So, overall, I didn’t enjoy this book and I do wish I had selected another one to fill out the “blacklist” square on bingo.
With that being said, there were some important messages scattered in the book. Ilya is proof that brains are just as important as brawn and you should aim for a nice balance between the two. I loved the debate around traditions and why it was important to maintain them. Yasha (the old man Ilya finds) discussed this in great detail:
“It’s this—I know all old men complain that young men pay no attention to tradition, but there’s usually a reason for a tradition. Sometimes it’s a reason that doesn’t hold anymore, but there was always a reason for it. That’s why it’s important to listen to old men—they know the ‘whys’ as well as the customs. And a man without custom and tradition is a man without roots; he’ll blow away in the first hard storm, and no one will ever miss him.”
I’m not sure where I stand on this. I understand that traditions are important and I’ll be the first to admit that some Indian traditions do make me feel better connected and like I’m not as insignificant as I thought. However, so many traditions are SO outdated and I wish I could untether them. It’s also so hard to figure out why said traditions were started in the first place so it’s even harder to “edit” them.
There was some discussion about masculinity too. When Ilya is engaged to Tatiana, he does his best to see to her complaints even going so far as to anticipate them. In doing so, he’s seen as being a pushover whereas Tatiana wanted a man who would beat her and not be a “milksop” which, in and of itself, is a bit sdfjlksdjf and antiquated. But I wish the world would remove this pressure for men to be super macho. As Ilya said,
“Maybe that clout to her head woke her to the fact that just because a man is gentle and treats a woman like a precious object worthy of respect, that doesn’t mean he’s a milksop. And just because a man tells her what a fine piece of masculinity he is, that doesn’t mean he’s admirable.”
I knew Ilya and the Firebird were endgame. I mean, come on, this was a fairytale! Of course they were going to end up together! Yet the last few pages were so abrupt. Ilya agrees to travel to the Firebird’s home and that’s it. I would have liked to see them interact more to show they were compatible. And perhaps more hints about the Firebirds feelings for Ilya.
Characters
Ilya was a heavily flawed character. He’s sexist and has a pretty big ego. I think one of the reasons I was so compelled by Ilya was because he felt so trapped in his life. He knows that life could be so much worse away from the palace but that doesn’t stop him from wishing. Ilya hates how every one of his actions has to be carefully thought through to avoid drawing attention. He hates how there’s no room for making mistakes. And he hates that there’s really nothing he can do about it.
There was no real escape from here, not without more danger than he faced from his brothers.
All that resonated with me a lot. I always feel I have to carefully select every word I say because it will be abused and twisted and used against me. And with the pandemic still raging on and potential career options being obliterated due to my citizenship, it’s hard not to feel trapped here. Things could be a lot worse but it still hurts when I dwell too long on it.
I admired Ilya’s drive and determination to keep going. He kept forging through despite all the setbacks. He tried to make the most of each situation. Yes, he had his low points (he contemplates suicide), Ilya kept going. That takes serious guts.
Ilya’s squad was also the most wholesome group of people ever. I loved how Mother Galina, Father Mikhail and Ruslan took Ilya under their wings and listened to him. Though he didn’t tell them everything (again, relatable), it was nice that there were people who cared for him within the palace no strings attached.
Writing Style
I know for a fact that I won’t be reading any more of Mercedes Lackey’s books. That isn’t to say she’s a terrible writer. Her writing just isn’t for me. I didn’t like the humungous descriptive paragraphs and I would have preferred more fleshing out of the side characters.
Earnestly Eccentric 