This series is just okay for me. I can’t put my finger on what it is but there is some quirk to the writing style that does not work for me.

Interesting in premise, I found the writing to be hard to follow and I was not a fan of the main character. there were one or two supporting characters that stood out to me but all in all, one that I will not revisit.

This was a fun and very interesting. Follow up to what was already a great start to a series. While it is not gonna remain in the top of all of my red for the year by any means, it was a solid and easy read. I really like the characters and the depth that was given to them by the author and I really hope to see more of them in a subsequent novel.

Absolutely fantastic sequel. I loved it so very much. I am very much looking forward to book three. This was a great reading experience and I highly recommend the whole series and author. I am very much looking forward to book three upon reread of the first two books.

I thought this was very good and I will have to add this to the shop shelves. Thank you for the chance for us to review.

My thanks to Orbit Books, Matthew Ward and Netgalley.
This will be a very short review.
I read this book at a fairly stressful time in my life. I have had some health issues and my Doc. put me on heart meds that truly made my life feel a bit funky. Also, my daughter had a cancer related issue at the same time. What's more scary than heart stuff? Yeah, that would be thinking your daughter is going to die. Terrifying.
She's fine. Sometimes a lump is just a lump. "Picture me wiping sweat off my brow." I've never been so afraid in my life.
So...this book really got lost along the way. I should have reviewed this a month or so ago.
Its actually a good book! Matthew Ward has never steered me wrong, and I love his other books.
In all honesty, I really can't recall much of this book. And I know that I'll eventually end up reading it again.

Matthew Ward (https://thetowerofstars.com) is the author of more than a dozen novels. The Fire Within Them was published last month and is the second of his Soulfire Saga series. It is the 58th book I completed reading in 2024.

Opinions expressed here are unbiased and entirely my own! Due to scenes of violence, I categorize this novel as R.

This novel picks up shortly after the first one ends, and most of the characters carry forward. Tanith Floranz has been reborn and is sustaining herself by feeding on the souls of others. She has become a follower of Ardoc. He has been sharing his view of wisdom with the people in his Obsidium Cult.

The Kingdom of Khalad is torn between the establishment and the rebellion being led by Bashar Vallant. The city of Tyzanta supports the rebels, and other cities are following suit. The rebel cause has grown to the point where they can challenge Khalad’s immortal king Caradan Diar.

Kat has contracted the deadly omen rot after channeling the Deadwinds to save Athenoch. She tries to keep her affliction a secret while she seeks cure. Her search uncovers many secrets. Some of her own family, others about the kingdom itself.

The ancient swordstress Rîma’s father wants her to come home and ascend to the throne. She and Ihsan Damant must repulse attacks by a Hadîm. He has been sent to bring Rîma home. Rîma and Damant venture deep into the Earth to find her home.

Ardoc leads his cult into the caverns, to the Stars Below. They desire to release Tzal. The cult believes Tzal is a new god that will save them. In reality, Tzal is an ancient enemy of the Issnaîm. It was they who had imprisoned him many years ago. This all leads to a massive confrontation in the caverns.

I enjoyed the 18.5+ hours I spent reading this 584-page fantasy. I had the opportunity to read the prior novel in this series, The Darkness Before Them. These have both been enjoyable reads. Both books are lengthy, action-packed adventures. The plot follows different groups as they traverse their independent paths, only for all to be brought together in a final confrontation. I like the chosen cover art. I give this novel a rating of 4 out of 5.

You can access more of my book reviews on my Blog ( https://johnpurvis.wordpress.com/blog/).

My book reviews are also published on Goodreads (https://www.goodreads.com/user/show/31181778-john-purvis).

Is "Omen Rot" covered by my insurance plan? It definitely isn't for Kat in the second book of the Soulfire Saga "The Fire Within Them" by Matthew Ward.

So Kat saved the day, the rebellion against the immortal king and the society built on the backs of the people can continue. Sadly she is falling apart. With a few familiar faces she is investigating her past and looking for potential cures in her father's notes. Meanwhile her sort of sister is being treated as a herald of the imprisoned goddess who is going to return. And also is conflicted about killing or not killing Kat. Family right?

Reasons to read:
-Wtf do you do with your sometimes murderous ex?
-Hangry to another level
-Oh that's what's really going on
-Once again, don't trust the cults
-Proper dashing entrances
-Still enjoy the different kind of magic/mechanic workings

Cons:
-Can one god just be chill?

I really enjoyed this read. The world building and character development in these novels are exceptional. This book is the second installment of this saga. It definitely requires to read the first book before moving on to this read, which I had no problem with. Both books were phenomenal. I am now a fan of Matthew Ward.

The second book in Matthew Ward's action-packed trilogy, the Soulfire Saga, The Fire Within Them is set in a world ruled by an immortal king, where souls fuel magic and a supernatural mist known as the Veil threatens to engulf the land.

I liked this even better than the first book. I very much look forward to book three in the series!

I’ve come to expect complexity and unexpected twists in Ward’s books and, while The Fire Within Them provided some, none of them were really surprising and I found I could predict the major ones. Sadly, this trilogy isn’t shaping up to be as complicated and layered as his first trilogy, but I still appreciate the smaller scale and fewer layers as it really brings the characters into focus. It’s where the characters are that things are the most interesting, because they’re interesting with deep needs and wants and desperation, and I really like the story between half-sisters Kat and Tanith. While this isn’t and hasn’t been what I keep hoping it’ll be, I’m interested to see where the story goes and what will ultimately happen to the characters.

After the events of the first book, Kat, accompanied by some of Vallant’s followers, has made her way to Zariqaz, where Caradan Diar, Khalad’s eternal king, rules from, using his young descendant Isdihar to serve as his Voice. Here, she thinks she’ll find her sister Tanith, but she also discovers her late father’s associates have all either vanished or died. She does discover, though, a puzzling journal, and a way to see her father’s married lover who has been locked up by her husband. Meanwhile, Tanith has fallen into the middle of a movement to bring Nyssa’s third face back into the world. Desperate to be loved, or at least liked, she has an unexpected romance that keeps her off-balance, and is surrounded by secrets if she’ll only look hard enough. As this movement and the Eternity King hurl towards a confrontation, a deep world is revealed and a frightening being moves to become a major player, revealing secrets that could make a fraught sisterly bond stronger.

It’s the characters that make this trilogy for me. They’re flawed, they have secrets, they have needs and wants, and they have changing allegiances. I was disappointed two of my favorite characters from the first book seemed so diminished in this one, and they had their own journey to make that didn’t always make a ton of sense to me. It felt more like a long aside in order to explore the history of the world and an ancient people than an integral part of the story, so I’m hoping it comes into play in the third book and makes complete sense. I did like how their story tied into the rest of the story, but it somehow managed to feel more tangential than relevant. On the other hand, I love the sisters, and I love them even more when they’re together. Unfortunately, they spend a lot of this book separated. While I enjoyed Tanith’s story, I found Kat’s to be a little lackluster and even meandering. Where I felt Kat and Damant were the heart of the first book, here I felt it was Tanith. She had the more interesting and compelling story line, and I really found myself feeling for her. She has it much tougher, and it would be so easy to give in, but she’s quite the fighter and I found myself absolutely loving her.

The thing I loved best about the first book was that it focused more on family relationships than romance. The close friendships and family the characters formed were heartwarming and I loved watching them continue to play out in this book. The friendship between Kat and Yali is one of my favorites, and I love how everyone works hard to include Yali, who can only communicate through a form of sign language (but she’s amazing and I need one of her in my life). But The Fire Within Them decided to give both sisters a romantic subplot. I wasn’t keen on either of them because one felt too desperate and the other always felt like someone had something up her sleeve and, as much as Kat wanted to trust, it just never felt like a good idea and I found myself exasperated. The friendships, though, and the growing relationship between the sisters, were really lovely, and I can’t wait to see Kat and Tanith in action in the last book. They started so far apart, so I’ve really loved watching them come together, especially since they now seem to have a common enemy.

I do like, though, that, where the first book revolved around a rebellion, this second book is really finally getting into the meat of the story. It did feel a little sudden to be including this goddess and her desire for a corporal form, but I guess there were enough breadcrumbs leading up to it, starting well before the start of this story. The rebellion seems like just a small part in the grand scheme of everything going on, so I find myself mildly curious about what role it’ll play in the last book. Honestly, most of this one felt like little more than setup for the last book. There are no major twists and turns, nothing that will completely turn everything on its head. The whole story is rather straightforward and lacks the complexity I enjoyed in the author’s first trilogy. But I do appreciate the narrowed focus on the characters.

Fortunately, the world, as narrowed as it is, is interesting. I love the idea of traveling the skies, and the dangers that lie there and on the ground. There’s a fascinating mythology woven in in this book, and I feel like I got a lot of strong glimpses. I’m intrigued to see how it’ll develop in the last book. I loved the imagery it conjured in my head, and I want more. The world building is as I would expect from Ward, but it feels a lot less complex, making it easier to slip into the world and understand it. I have so many questions and I like to think that they’re slowly being answered. While I still can’t quite picture these cities where they’re built on top of what came before, I like the idea of it. I just find it really hard to picture towering cities. There’s a whole other world, too, that’s introduced, and I’m just so fascinated and intrigued by it, but I really don’t understand it, how it exists, or what it is.

The Fire Within Them feels like a fairly standard middle book. It has some surprises and twists and turns, but I found much of it to be predictable and the rest of it to be little more than setup for the last book. There were some sequences that felt more like filler with some world building worked into them. I’m disappointed this isn’t more complex and layered, but I find I’m mostly here for the relationships between the characters. The sisters are fantastic together, and I can’t wait to see what’s in store for them next.

Thank you to NetGalley and Orbit for a review copy. All opinions expressed are my own.

I think this was a better than the last one.

I appreciated that we got a third POV, and it added very much to the story and the worldbuilding.

I think sometime about the magic system and worldbuilding is still a little dense for my liking, but I'm happy that we're getting more of it.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for an e-copy.

Thank you to NetGalley, Orbit, and Matthew Ward for giving me an eARC of The Fire Within Them, in exchange for my honest review.

The Fire Within Them follows the conclusion of the Darkness Before Them. Vallant's quest to free Khalad is becoming increasingly successful and is well on the way to facing the Immortal King. Kat, suffering from omen rot is doing everything in her power to discover her father's secrets, while also hiding her impending death from all her friends. While the crew from the first book does not stay together throughout, Ward weaves a wonderful tale of rebellion, sacrifice, and heartache. The Fire Within Them brings a new point of view to the story, which allows readers to gain a better perspective as to what is going on in the story. Ward brings this new perspective in such a wonderful way, where it does not feel as though you are getting a third point of view for no reason. Each time there is a change in perspective and narrator, it is done purposefully. The information that is given to you from each of the narrators is essential, and the novel would not be complete without it.

One thing that I really appreciated about The Fire Within Them compared to book one is that readers are introduced to so much more of the Kingdom of Khalad, tactfully. Nothing about world building feels forced but rather happens through a slow building process, where readers discover more of the world alongside the characters of the book. Readers also get to learn more about the Immortal King, and why the kingdom is run the way it is. I have to say, the twists throughout this book were not those I was expecting. Out of all of them, there is only one I was not completely shocked by, but even that one, I was unsure if I was correct until the end. I cannot wait to continue to read more of this series as books are published and learn more about Khalad. I cannot fathom how this mess (meaning the well-thought-out ending) will be resolved and there is something wonderful about that.

This is the sequel to The Darkness Before Them which is a book I enjoyed last year and I’ve been really looking forward to it’s sequel for a while and I wasn’t disappointed. I really enjoyed this, I can’t talk about it too much in detail obviously but we do return with our main character Kat and her life is looking very different after the events of book 1. We meet new characters. There’s a rebellion of sorts going on in the background. If you didn’t know the first one takes place in this city that has an evil tyrant king. The magic involves almost like magical glyphs which was really cool. I’m really looking forward to seeing how Mathew Ward wraps up this story, I’m unsure how many books there will be because it is called a Saga, though that can still mean 3 books but we’ll see. I think this author is incredibly underrate, plenty of books to read from him so if you are a fantasy nerd like me, dive into these.

I want to thank NetGalley and Orbit for providing this ARC in exchange for my honest review.

With this being the second novel of the Soulfire Saga, the author continues a wonderful rousing, traditional fantasy set in a middle eastern influenced world. With the foundation set within the first novel that helped to explain the magic that involves souls and spirits, the second novel doesn’t get bogged down in the complexity of the world building and explaining how the magic works. In the second novel, for those that have read the first novel, the reader will find a very enjoyable high adventure with a motley group of interesting characters.

With this being a second novel, it is difficult not to include any spoilers, so be warned.

The novel begins with Tanith, Kat’s sister, falling from the sky like a falling star and crashing through a temple after the events from the first novel. Tanith is lucky to be alive, but she needs to feed the daemon within her to recuperate. The daemon feasts on the souls of the living. It is good fortune, since she is not able to hunt in her present condition as this charred-husk of a human being, that several scavengers enter the temple to investigate to their own demise. The daemon needs nourishment. After feeling more like her herself, she realizes besides these scavengers, there is someone else that has been hiding and watching her. Ardoc is not repulsed or frightened by what he has witness, to her surprise. In fact, he wants to enlist her in his cause and that she is the herald of Nyssa, a god of fire, and destined to change the world.

Kat has become less powerful and is the victim of Omen Rot, a disease that is sucking her life away, which was the same disease that was fatal to her birth mother. She still has some power to manipulate spirits and souls through her tattoos that were gifted by her father, but the usage of her magic is accelerating the Omen Rot within her body. She doesn’t have long to live unless she can find a cure to this disease. With the help of her companions, who are unaware of what ails her and that she is dying, she tries to find any information she can from her father’s acquaintances. But this is becoming difficult, because those that knew her father best are being assassinated one by one before they can assist her with finding a cure.

Besides the main adventure that concerns the two sisters Kat and Tanith, there is a side adventure with my favorite character of the series, Rima, an ancient, corpse like, swordstress. For those that read the first book, it was great to see we were provided Rima’s backstory and the reason why she left her family and people.

The author accomplishes like many good adventure novels of old of having a large diverse group of characters with their own desires and motives. The romance though between Kat and Azra wasn’t well developed to where I was truly invested in it. I found it quite annoying the pet name of “Darling” that was used many times in the novel as a term of endearment was a little too saccharine at times.

Now, on the plus side, the relationship between Tanith and Esram was intriguing, complex and was more developed than the relationship between Kat and Azra. Here we had Tanith, part soul sucker, trying to work through the challenges of having a relationship with Esram whom she has strong desire for on an emotional and physical level when she is also combatting against this urge to devour his soul when she is near him.

Overall, while not perfect, the novel was a highly entertaining adventure story with an interesting cast of characters and situations they were placed in. And by the end of the novel, with any good long adventure, there is an eagerness to revisit these characters and world again that can only be sated by the next novel in the series.

Katija feels her soul is deteriorating from the inside out. Omen rot is creeping through her body one inch at a time, starting from her ruined tattoo. Now that she has friends and family, she has little interest in dying, even if she refuses to tell them of her illness. During her search for a cure, life as she knows it crumbles around her. Answers only lead to more questions. Old lovers reappear…and the past catches up with more characters than only Kat. Tanith, Rîma, Vallant, Ihsan Damant—their pasts chase them into the present and the future. Though it might sound exaggerated, it’s the truth: Their decisions could impact the fate of the kingdom. The Fire Within Them by Matthew Ward is an imaginative, exhilarating, and beautifully complicated tale that fantasy readers will relish.

I had trouble with The Darkness Before Them, but I had few of the same issues with its sequel. My big struggle with The Fire Within Them: Each time I put it down, it took me fifty pages before I felt engrossed in Ward’s world again…then I would have an errand to run, or a pet would want to go outside. I had to go back to move forward. But isn’t that the same with life sometimes? We must retrace our steps so we can better understand where to go next. Study the past so we do not make the same mistakes. The Fire Within Them’s main characters must delve into their personal histories, even if they do not want to. Elements of their backgrounds influence the them. And, unfortunately, their accepted “truths” turn out to be false.

Like all of Ward’s other books, The Fire Within Them is superbly multi-layered. What appears simple on the surface ends up being deeper than the blackest point in the ocean. Ward builds on his already detailed world in a slow-burn story with battles, stellar character development, moments of humor, and political strategy. It also features a group that Ward describes in the Dramatis Personae as the “heralds of a new world.” The group works in the dark, a juxtaposition to Bashar Vallant’s rebellion. But there is so much more the characters do not—and cannot—understand until Ward provides all the pieces as the novel travels toward its conclusion…

…which then sets up for a third book. If you end a novel with “But first, we should talk,” you’re going to send my imagination reeling. I enjoyed The Fire Within Them by Matthew Ward much more than its predecessor. Could I have the next book already? I may age twenty years by its publication date.

2.5 Stars
There is always the excitement that comes with the start of a new series by a new-to-me author. I hoped this epic fantasy series could be a new favourite, but that doesn't appear to be on the cards.

This one had decent writing and characters, but I found it incredible generic with nothing to make it unique or memorable. My biggest struggle with this novel is that it was awful slow and uneventful. I just found the narrative presented to be dry. The story did pick up at the end so I am hopeful this first book was just prologue to a more interesting story.

Disclaimer I received a copy of this book from the publisher.

I don’t know what it is about this that I’m just not enjoying. The imagery is there, the writing is good. I just don’t care.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC!
I continue to enjoy this series in the second installment. The author has a real way with worldbuilding and the magic system is super interesting so any other faults I’d normally find with some of the writing or pacing fade to the background honestly.

Thank you to Netgalley and Orbit for the ARC for an unbiased and Honest review
So I got lucky and received the first book from netgalley also and I wasn't too impressed I think I gave it around 3 stars but the magic system and world was interesting enough where I was willing to give book 2 a chance. Well needless to say I was not disappointed this book picks up where the first book left off and it hits the ground running and is way better than the first,pretty awesome actually where this book is headed. I will be purchasing it when it comes out and now I can't wait for book 3