The Element of Fire
core novel 1993 Ile-Rien
Record
| First published | 1993 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 3.86 (4,057 ratings, collected 2026-09-07) |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780312853747 |
| Internal chronology | 1 |
Synopsis
The Element of Fire opens the Ile-Rien sequence in a kingdom modeled on seventeenth-century France, where the weak-willed King Roland shares an uneasy court with his formidable mother, the Dowager Queen Ravenna, and his new queen consort, Falaise. Thomas Boniface, Captain of the Queen's Guard and a skilled duelist fiercely loyal to Ravenna, must navigate a court riddled with conspiracy as enemies work to manipulate the impressionable king. Into this tension arrives Kade Carrion, the illegitimate daughter of the old king and a fae Queen of Air and Darkness, whose true loyalties are impossible to read: she may be allied with the sorcerer Urbain Grandier, who threatens the realm with dark magic, or she may be pursuing a claim of her own.
Where it sits
- Universe: Ile-Rien
- Series: not part of a registered series (standalone work within its universe)
- Author: Martha Wells
Notes
- Standalone novel; the earliest-set Ile-Rien story.
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings, but they resolve to the exact same sequence for this book, so one combined line is shown instead of two identical ones.
- Reading order, within Ile-Rien (standalone work): position 1 of 5: next The Death of the Necromancer (1998)
Sources
- Ile-Rien (English Wikipedia)
- Martha Wells: the Ile-Rien Books (author's own site)
- https://www.marthawells.com/element.htm
- Wikipedia (Swedish; Martha Wells bibliography)
- Martha Wells (official bibliography)
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