Review of “Theft of Fire”

Reviewed by guest reviewer J.Z. Pitts:

 

Theft of Fire was one of the most entertaining books I’ve read all year and may well end up being my book of the year.

Set in the 22nd century, the story follows Marcus Warnoc, a down-on-his-luck asteroid miner whose ship gets hijacked by Miranda Foxgrove, a brilliant and ruthless corporate heiress. Miranda has discovered signals pointing to a previously unknown alien artifact on Sedna, at the outer reaches of the solar system, and she’s blackmailing Marcus into taking her there. What she doesn’t count on is that Marcus refuses to cooperate, setting off a wild game of cat-and-mouse as these two opposites clash while racing toward a treasure that could change everything—or get them both killed.

I got invested in this book incredibly quickly, pulled in by the main character Marcus Warnoc. Marcus is a wonderfully well-rounded and interesting character—flawed, resourceful, haunted by his past, and stubborn to a fault.

What really surprised me, though, was how much I enjoyed his chemistry with Miranda Foxgrove. Their constant bickering and sniping at each other was both maddening (in an entertaining way) and absolutely hilarious. Eriksen did a masterful job of developing both their characters, getting you invested in their motivations and backstories, and evolving their relationship in ways that felt earned and authentic. I loved how character-focused the book is while balancing plot development and world-building. A lot of my experience with SFF has involved authors focusing so much on their worlds, tech, or magic systems that they almost seem to compete with the characters and their journeys. Not so here.

There were also a lot of fun easter eggs relating to other books, movies, and even memes scattered throughout that had me grinning whenever I ran across one. These little touches added a great extra layer of enjoyment.

Hard sci-fi isn’t a genre I read a ton of, so in the moments where Eriksen delved into the technical details of the world’s technology and physics, a good bit of it went over my head. But he didn’t make me feel like an idiot for not understanding everything, which I appreciated.

So why is this possibly my book of the year? Two big reasons: the sci-fi setting was fascinating and felt grounded while still being imaginative, and more importantly, the relationship between the main characters. I don’t want to say more for fear of spoiling it, but Eriksen employs a well-known relationship trope to great effect here—and from a male perspective no less—which was fantastic and refreshingly different from how I’ve usually seen this trope handled.

The ending was effective at wrapping up the main story threads while leaving enough dangling that has me anxiously awaiting the sequel.

I should also mention that part of what helped my immersion was listening to the multicast audiobook, where the actors voicing each character did an amazing job. The voice acting brought the characters to life in ways that elevated an already excellent story. It was genuinely one of the best audiobook experiences I’ve had.

I highly recommend Theft of Fire and cannot wait for the sequel.

Book Listing

 

J.Z. Pitts Linktree