Okay, I'm going to start off by saying that I got a little lost at times and wasn't always sure about what was going on. I'll try to describe the story as best I can, but I could be wrong about a few things.

Azar is a city located at the foot of a volcano. The people of Azar used to perform rituals to appease the goddess of the volcano, but that didn't stop the volcano from occasionally erupting and destroying everything. Eventually the Cult of the Goddess left Azar and established a new home for themselves, the Golden Capitol. It's now many, many years later, and there's a rebel group called the Third Wave that's convinced that the Cult of the Goddess is keeping the goddess captive, and they want to free her.

Keegan is the goddess's daughter. She tries to help the rebels, but something goes wrong, her mother ends up dead, and Keegan becomes the new goddess. At that point, she becomes determined to go back to Azar, the home of her ancestors. However, the Cult of the Goddess isn't her only enemy. An emissary from the water goddess is after her, and there's a prophecy that Keegan's return to Azar will mean its destruction.

This was an ARC my mom picked up for me at a conference. As far as I can tell, this volume collects the entire series. It doesn't appear to be a spinoff of anything, although it kind of felt like it was, and I can't find anything about any sort of continuation, even though the ending leaves room for more story.

I didn't like the artwork at all, but Tamra Bonvillain's coloring helped paper over some of its shortcomings and almost make it pretty, at times. There was some really nice use of cool vs. warm colors.

The story was intriguing enough, but confusing and a bit choppy. I had thought the Cult of the Goddess would be important in some way, but after the confined goddess was dealt with, they might as well have been written out of the story. It felt like they had been, after Adria rescued Griffin. Who, by the way, was not worth any amount of Keegan and Adria's time and energy. I don't know what either of them saw in him. He was a quick way for the author to establish a basis for Adria and Keegan's more human rivalry before their goddess rivalry added fuel to the fire.

I don't know that this was necessarily bad, but it definitely could have been better. The story and characters just left me cold.

(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )

Reading this book literally gave me a headache. My temple is throbbing as I write this.

What a mess! I cannot believe I trudged through and read every word when they made so little sense.

I should have known better when I saw the creator was involved in the godawful Angel Catbird, Vol. 1. ( )

The artwork in Firebug is as lovely as the story is confusing.

Like, I'm not sure I have a good enough handle on the plot to offer even the briefest of summaries. There are so many warring factions that it's hard to know who we're supposed to root for most of the time.

At first, it seems clear-cut: the Cult of the Goddess is holding a Goddess captive and crushing the rebels who dare to challenge their (unjustly seized) religious authority. But wait, no: the High Priestess keeps the temperamental Goddess sedated so that her histrionics won't trigger a volcanic eruption, killing us all.

And the forest spirits are bad, a gauntlet for our heroes to cross on the way to Azar. But no really, they're the city's protectors, from none other than Keegan, the new Goddess, and our story's protagonist.

Throw in the Volcano Goddess's sister, the Goddess of Water, and I am positively flummoxed. I really wanted to root for her, if only because her fish body is in the "so ugly it's cute" territory.

Chalk this one up to good idea/poor execution. Three stars for the art, because it truly is stunning. I also loved the "Gospel According to Amina" vignettes, which evoked memories of Octavia Butler's Parables duology.

(Full disclosure: I received a free e-ARC for review through Edelweiss.)

http://www.easyvegan.info/2018/04/10/firebug-by-johnnie-christmas/ ( )