Sweet & Salty Reviews - Into the Fire by Dan Trudeau
Beware of the spoilers!
You know how, sometimes, you’ve read 2 or 3 traditionally published novels, including one that was a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg, and you didn’t finish any of them because they were all, let’s be honest here, a bit crap, so you jump on Twitter and someone has, very helpfully, started an #IndieApril thread where you find a book that has genuine promise, and you buy it for less than three dollars and you read it in about three days and it turns out to be brilliant and it makes you wonder why some people get published and not others?
No? Just me then.
Gina Beale: Into the Fire is a self-published magical realism novel by Dan Trudeau. It’s 469 double-spaced pages long (according to my Kindle), but it’s a very quick read. Hard to say if it was the tagline or the stunning cover that drew me in, but who doesn’t love a book about a woman beaning monsters with a table leg?
The Sauce
Gina Beale works in HR, but dreams of a different kind of conflict resolution. When a fire demon attacks her in her home, she discovers that she’s a demi-goddess, one of a dwindling number who are bound to protect the world from monsters. And she’s surfaced just in time for the worst magical catastrophe in centuries. Lucky Gina.
The Sweet
Trudeau’s book is a prime example of what a determined person can achieve with self-publishing. It’s simply-written, well-edited and attractively-packaged. The novel boasts a range of multi-cultural characters, all of whom have their own part to play in the story. Chief among them is Gina.
Gina is a heroine for the twenty-first century. A warrior woman who’d find her place in the world if only the bloody Vikings would start pillaging again. Strong and fierce and maybe just a little stubborn, but that’s okay because the world needs saving. It’s a character archetype I have a soft spot for because my favourite person in the whole world happens to fit it.
The best thing about Gina is that, while her bloodline is important to the story, it doesn’t define who she is. Her upbringing and relationship with her adoptive parents is more vital to her and she never stops feeling like her own person. She has agency. She drives the story. She takes responsibility and makes the right choice throughout. She also has an abundance of sass that makes each of her interactions a pleasure to read.
Trudeau’s world combines a healthy mix of Western and non-Western mythologies. I liked his decision to use Athena as the chief goddess of the Collegium particularly, because she’s a personal favourite. More to the point, she behaves the way I’d imagine a goddess would. Proud, aloof but with a genuine soft-spot for humans generally and heroes specifically. Her interactions with Gina are probably my favourite.
The good thing about a project as ambitious as Trudeau’s is that literally anything is possible. Chinese hopping zombies fighting wendigos? It could happen. Atlantean merpeople riding sea monsters into Pearl Harbour? It could happen. Aztec gods stealing nuclear weapons for maladjusted lunatics? It could, and did, happen.
So the magic’s pretty solid. What about the realism? Trudeau is a writer who cares about getting his facts straight. Gina isn’t just instantly good at everything she tries her hand at, even with the powers of a demi-goddess. When she makes mistakes, she is chastised for it. She doesn’t make friends with everyone by novel’s end. This is the most important aspect of magical realism. Gods and monsters can exist, but people still have to act like people.
In particular, I enjoyed the decision to do away with Gina’s double life and bring her family into the secret. Not only that, but to have them actively assist Gina’s organisation. A lot of novels in this genre seem to love the over-romantic notion of a double life, with characters delighting in lying to their loved ones over multiple books. Trudeau does away with it, along with other common genre tropes like the love triangle. In fact, surprisingly, Gina’s character arc has no romantic subplot. It’s a ballsy move, but the genre has room for a book where the main character isn’t inundated with male attention.
The Salty
I suppose my only real complaint with Into the Fire is that I wish there was more. In general, but also with specific scenes. I’d have liked to see a longer final showdown especially. By the time I’d made it to the 50% mark, I was surprised by how much had already happened. At 90% I was amazed there was only 10% left to wrap the story up. Now, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having no more books to read.
I’d like to think that this is the first book of a series. Certainly, the world is large enough to accommodate more than one story. I’d love nothing more than to see Gina, Athena, Austin, Hector and the others continuing to work through their issues and beaning more monsters with blunt instruments.
If I’m being pedantic, the writing could be prettier. Trudeau writes in a very utilitarian style. The story is more important than the prose, but this can be an area of weakness. A little poetry in the language could have made what is an excellent book even better.
The Aftertaste
Into the Fire was the breath of fresh air that I’d been looking for and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good story with interesting characters. The pacing is solid, the dialogue is clever and the plot beats have been double-checked to keep them credible and sensible. Check it out.
The Dish
You know how, sometimes, you’ve read 2 or 3 traditionally published novels, including one that was a major motion picture directed by Steven Spielberg, and you didn’t finish any of them because they were all, let’s be honest here, a bit crap, so you jump on Twitter and someone has, very helpfully, started an #IndieApril thread where you find a book that has genuine promise, and you buy it for less than three dollars and you read it in about three days and it turns out to be brilliant and it makes you wonder why some people get published and not others?
No? Just me then.
Gina Beale: Into the Fire is a self-published magical realism novel by Dan Trudeau. It’s 469 double-spaced pages long (according to my Kindle), but it’s a very quick read. Hard to say if it was the tagline or the stunning cover that drew me in, but who doesn’t love a book about a woman beaning monsters with a table leg?
The Sauce
Gina Beale works in HR, but dreams of a different kind of conflict resolution. When a fire demon attacks her in her home, she discovers that she’s a demi-goddess, one of a dwindling number who are bound to protect the world from monsters. And she’s surfaced just in time for the worst magical catastrophe in centuries. Lucky Gina.
The Sweet
Trudeau’s book is a prime example of what a determined person can achieve with self-publishing. It’s simply-written, well-edited and attractively-packaged. The novel boasts a range of multi-cultural characters, all of whom have their own part to play in the story. Chief among them is Gina.
Gina is a heroine for the twenty-first century. A warrior woman who’d find her place in the world if only the bloody Vikings would start pillaging again. Strong and fierce and maybe just a little stubborn, but that’s okay because the world needs saving. It’s a character archetype I have a soft spot for because my favourite person in the whole world happens to fit it.
The best thing about Gina is that, while her bloodline is important to the story, it doesn’t define who she is. Her upbringing and relationship with her adoptive parents is more vital to her and she never stops feeling like her own person. She has agency. She drives the story. She takes responsibility and makes the right choice throughout. She also has an abundance of sass that makes each of her interactions a pleasure to read.
Trudeau’s world combines a healthy mix of Western and non-Western mythologies. I liked his decision to use Athena as the chief goddess of the Collegium particularly, because she’s a personal favourite. More to the point, she behaves the way I’d imagine a goddess would. Proud, aloof but with a genuine soft-spot for humans generally and heroes specifically. Her interactions with Gina are probably my favourite.
The good thing about a project as ambitious as Trudeau’s is that literally anything is possible. Chinese hopping zombies fighting wendigos? It could happen. Atlantean merpeople riding sea monsters into Pearl Harbour? It could happen. Aztec gods stealing nuclear weapons for maladjusted lunatics? It could, and did, happen.
So the magic’s pretty solid. What about the realism? Trudeau is a writer who cares about getting his facts straight. Gina isn’t just instantly good at everything she tries her hand at, even with the powers of a demi-goddess. When she makes mistakes, she is chastised for it. She doesn’t make friends with everyone by novel’s end. This is the most important aspect of magical realism. Gods and monsters can exist, but people still have to act like people.
In particular, I enjoyed the decision to do away with Gina’s double life and bring her family into the secret. Not only that, but to have them actively assist Gina’s organisation. A lot of novels in this genre seem to love the over-romantic notion of a double life, with characters delighting in lying to their loved ones over multiple books. Trudeau does away with it, along with other common genre tropes like the love triangle. In fact, surprisingly, Gina’s character arc has no romantic subplot. It’s a ballsy move, but the genre has room for a book where the main character isn’t inundated with male attention.
The Salty
I suppose my only real complaint with Into the Fire is that I wish there was more. In general, but also with specific scenes. I’d have liked to see a longer final showdown especially. By the time I’d made it to the 50% mark, I was surprised by how much had already happened. At 90% I was amazed there was only 10% left to wrap the story up. Now, I find myself in the uncomfortable position of having no more books to read.
I’d like to think that this is the first book of a series. Certainly, the world is large enough to accommodate more than one story. I’d love nothing more than to see Gina, Athena, Austin, Hector and the others continuing to work through their issues and beaning more monsters with blunt instruments.
If I’m being pedantic, the writing could be prettier. Trudeau writes in a very utilitarian style. The story is more important than the prose, but this can be an area of weakness. A little poetry in the language could have made what is an excellent book even better.
The Aftertaste
Into the Fire was the breath of fresh air that I’d been looking for and I highly recommend it to anyone looking for a good story with interesting characters. The pacing is solid, the dialogue is clever and the plot beats have been double-checked to keep them credible and sensible. Check it out.
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