Caul, Shroud and Veil: Book I of the Fire Raisers Trilogy

by: Kim McDougall

Published by: Double Dragon Publishing

Reviewed by Stephanie Boyd

Young Maia has the ability to see “veils,” kind of like an aura, around people’s heads and their emotions reflected there. She also can call fire, talks to it, lights it with her breath and fire doesn’t burn her, it heals her. Her mother had similar gifts and they lead to her untimely death because of fear and superstitions so Maia has been taught to hide her gifts.

Now something is terribly wrong in their world, and Maia and her father travel to the capital to ask the Glory of Gnoss, their King, to help them. Alred, the Glory, is not at all what they imagined and Maia’s life is changed irrevocably after meeting with him. Can Maia find her true self and save her world–or is her world doomed because of blind faith in a dying religion and belief that a man is a god and can save them?

This story is good but very complicated and complex. The main story line is about Maia but there is also a secondary story line about both Canaan, a broken god, and how his changes over the centuries have paralleled the demise of their world, and it’s also about Alred, a man, that people believe is a god, but isn’t.

Maia’s story is not easy and in some places it is uncomfortable. She must suffer great tragedies to find her strength and her soul. I found the story hard to get into but kept reading to get enough of the necessary background to follow the story more easily. There are sparks of pure genius in the story and some parallel messages for our world if you want to think about it deeply. If you just want to be entertained and not have to think, the story is sound and interesting once you are into it.

I don’t care for endings that leave you dangling so my feelings are mixed on this book; by itself it is incomplete but I am willing to hold out for the rest of the series to make a final decision.

Armchair Interviews says: First in a planned series.

Author’s Web site: http://www.KimMcDougall.com