A Dream of Fire by J.R. Rasmussen

A Dream of Fire by J.R. Rasmussen

This was the first in my batch of books for the SPFBO 6 contest, and it sets the bar high for the rest. I was initially thinking to pick a book from my pile at random, but the opening lines of the blurb caught my eye:

Nothing is more dear to Griffin than his magic school, but for a man with no magic, life there has its challenges. They laugh at him. They exclude him. And that’s just his fellow teachers.

I’m a sucker for stories set in magic schools, and I don’t think I’ve ever read one from the point of view of a teacher. Combine that with the main character being the only non-magical person in the story and I had to pick this one up.

Plus, you know… dragons!

We’re first introduced to Griffin as he attempts to deal with a particularly obnoxious student. Unfortunately, that student also happens to be related to both the king and the head of the magistery.

From there, things only get more difficult. The nine remaining dragons in the world pretty much disappeared after a huge war ended 12 years earlier, so when one shows up to warn Griffin of a fiery destruction heading the magistery’s way, it’s just a bit unexpected.

Rasmussen does an excellent job of laying the groundwork for what seems to be a simple story, then slowly pulling back the curtain to reveal all the scheming players behind the scenes. The world feels like it has a rich history, with the events of the past war feeling like they’d make a compelling epic fantasy trilogy in their own right. Which is hardly surprising, since Rasmussen did write that trilogy! I wouldn’t have known A Dream of Fire wasn’t the first book in the world without looking it up, so I’d say it serves as an effective entry point.

One of the most impressive things about this book is how little “fat” there is that could be trimmed. This is no bloated, sprawling epic. Every little detail fits meticulously into the bigger picture, with seemingly irrelevant plot points becoming important later on.

It’s also refreshing to see a truly non-magical character have agency in an environment where nearly everyone is a mage. Griffin doesn’t have some super secret magical ability that comes into play just in time for the climax. He’s just a regular guy who teaches mundane subjects like math and navigation, but he’s surprisingly adept at thinking through challenges in ways his colleague’s can’t imagine. We don’t actually get to see Griffin do all that much teaching throughout the story… but then again, how many magic school stories center around the students actually going to class?

The mundane/magical contrast is present on a meta level throughout the book as well, and I suspect this may be a sticking point for some readers. There’s very little “action” in the traditional hacky-slashy-magic-go-boom sense. My favorite scenes were conversations and character interactions that take on new meaning later.

That’s not to say it’s all mundane. There’s a magic curse, a mad scientist, and forgotten parts of history passed down through children’s rhymes.

Overall, this was compellingly written and hard to put down. When I find myself staying up late for just one more chapter, I know I’ve found a great book.

It’s too early to say whether this will be my semifinalist choice, but I’ll definitely be keeping it under consideration.