Firesky by Mark de Jager – Review

Published: December 7, 2021

Publisher: Solaris

Series: The Chronicles of Stratus #2

Genre: Fantasy

Pages: 536 (Paperback)

My Rating: 4.0/5.0

Synopsis:
Relentless. Unstoppable. Dragon.

Desire burns in Stratus’ soul, powerful like an inferno. With his memory returning, he finally knows who—and what—he is. His is a dragon, brought low by the hand of a dark magician known as the Worm King, separated from his true love, tortured for centuries and now trapped inside the body of a human.

But with the memories of his old life comes a return of his true magic, and with it, his true form is slowly returning.

And Stratus wants revenge. Bloody and relentless, he slaughters his way through hordes of the undead to reach his archenemy, fighting not only for his own justice but for the whole of humanity… 

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Everyone needs more books about dragons in their life. Firesky manages to be even more interesting than your usual dragon book by featuring a dragon who is trapped in a man’s body. He transformed himself to escape a terrible captivity where he was brutalized by magical and physical means at the hands of a wizard who calls himself the Worm Lord. Sounds pretty cool, right?

The story picks up directly after the events of Infernal, meaning Stratus is still a wanted man and his friend Tatiana has now disappeared on a mission of her own. Stratus makes a promise to the court mage to help him bring down the Worm Lord basically so he can get out of the city to find Tatiana by using their magical bond.  Thus begins the harrowing journey to find and kill the Worm Lord. It reminded me of a series of dungeons (probably because there were literal dungeons) that must be completed to get to the final boss and it was pretty interesting. 

The plot is fairly straightforward – Stratus needs to rescue Tatiana, kill the Worm Lord, and find his lady love since he’s beginning to suspect she never died all those centuries ago. It’s an adventure story but definitely on the darker side of things. Lots of necromancy, mind controlling brain worms (*barf*), and bloody vengeance. The plot actually carried on much further than I initially thought it would, what with the bad guy not being the ultimate bad guy and all that. 

I enjoyed it and thought it was a solid, satisfying conclusion to the duology. I’m also a big fan of the narrator – Obioma Ugoala did a fantastic job bringing Stratus’s draconic voice to life! While I’m a little sad to be leaving this world behind, I’m equally looking forward to what Mark de Jager writes next!