After the destruction of her village, Faia’s powers are realised not only by herself but by every mage in the world. Suddenly, she is wanted by all and feared by them as well, however, as everyone agreed that it was important to train the wild magic before more destruction occurs something had to be done. She is taken to the city, where men occupy half and women occupy the other half. The division is long standing and the reasons behind it are debatable. Upon her arrival, mysterious things start to happen which turn the two halves of the city against each other.

I found the plot to be complex and a little confusing at times, but not enough to distract me from what was happening. I liked Faia and wanted to know what would become of her. Thinking about it now, I can’t say she grew much throughout the story, but that also didn’t put me off. She had a strong personality and I believe that was enough to hold my attention.

I enjoyed the way the story was written. It was done in such a way that made me read on, when I should have put the book aside and done something else. As a result, I got through the book quite fast (although personal circumstances made me put the book aside for more than three weeks when I was about 75% of my way through the book).

Although I know this is the first book of three, I don’t have to read the other books, if I don’t want to. I was satisfied with the ending. Yet I am willing to purchase the next book and continue on with Faia’s story. ( )

Fire in the Mist by Holly Lisle isn’t a particularly original story. In fact, it starts with a theme that is extremely common in fantasy books. A young person, in this case a 19-year-old female shepherd named Faia, experiences a tragedy which triggers a powerful display of magic, at which point mages seek her out to teach her how to handle her magic safely. There was more to the story, of course – that was only the beginning. There’s something evil lurking around the mage school that Faia is taken to and most of the plot revolves around the discovery of that evil, learning what exactly it is and how it came to be, and dealing with the situation.

Even though the story wasn’t terribly unique, it held my interest. There were a couple of things that kept me guessing so that I had trouble putting the book down. I also really liked the characters. Although Faia was the main character and most of the book took place from her perspective, we jumped around quite a bit to other characters for short periods. One of the instructors at the school was particularly interesting and I wanted to learn more about her.

However, there were some threads that never really played out in any way. For example, there’s quite a bit going on with wolves in the beginning of the story and their inexplicable behavior is never explained. I can’t explain why without spoiling the story, but there’s no way their behavior had anything to do with what was going on at the school. Also, even though Faia was brought to the mage school to learn how to use her magic safely, we never really saw her actually being taught how to do that nor was there ever any clear sign that she had been taught how “off-page”. Since this is the first book in a trilogy, perhaps some of that will be dealt with in the later books.

So this book had its flaws, and it wasn’t very original, but my ratings are primarily based on how much I enjoy a book. I definitely got four stars’ worth of enjoyment out of this book and I plan to read the next book in the trilogy. Maybe part of the reason I enjoyed it so much was because it was a huge change of pace from the longer and heavier things I’ve read recently. At just under 300 pages, it was a light, quick read. Although I should caution that, by "light", I just mean that there was no mental effort required to read the book. There were some dark and slightly gory descriptions in the book of things done to both animals and humans. I didn't think they were described in excessive detail, but people who are more sensitive to gore might not like it. I found the events themselves more disturbing than the actual descriptions of them, and there was more than one scene that made me go hug the closest animal I could find -- my cat. Since this usually led to belly rubs and neck scratches, my cat gives this book 5 stars. ( )

I stumbled across [a:Holly Lisle|870|Holly Lisle|https://d.gr-assets.com/authors/1207328196p2/870.jpg]‘s book, Fire in the Mist by complete accident—standing in a Half Price Bookstore looking for fantasy novels involving magic.
The main character, Faia, starts off as a simple shepherd. Tragedy strikes, and she finds herself a magic user with a gift she can’t control. She ends up at a university of study where she’s corrupted by the spirit of a murderer. It’s very much a struggle of good vs. evil, but with unusual twists and character growth. I won’t spoil the ending.
I loved the strong character in this book (and the sequels). In the 70′s and 80′s, strong female characters were still fairly hit or miss in science fiction & fantasy. Holly Lisle did a great job with her world building & characters, and after reading this book, I bought each book she published from then on.
This book shows its age a bit and feels like a fantasy book from the 80's/90's, but is still a great read. I prefer the author's more modern novels to this, but it was a great read for me as a teen.
Read the full review here: www.ravenoak.net ( )

I'm new to Holly Lisle's books and didn't even know Fire in the Mist was the first book in a Trilogy. I lucked into finding this book on the Baen Free Books website, and I'm so glad I did. I'm a novice at reading this type of Fantasy Fiction, and I sure picked a good one to start with.

What I liked about Fire in the Mist:
- Very tightly written and twisty plotline
- Well fleshed-out and interesting characters, even the minor ones
- Conplicated, yet consistent world & language systems
- Thought-provoking gender themes
- Page-turning action
- Believable relationships
- Rich descriptive writing style
- Well-expressed emotional depth

What I didn't like:
NOTHING!!

I will seek out the other titles in this series for sure. And I note this author has written a lot of books, so will be looking out for other books and series as well. Very impressed with Holly Lisle. ( )

Read Online: http://webscriptions.net/10.1125/Baen/0671721321/0671721321.htm