Fairfield Porter (1907–1975)

Seventeen-year-old Ruby is a Fireblood. She lives in a world where she must hide her abilities because the Frostbloods are in power and they search out any Firebloods in the kingdom and kill them. Firebloods can create and control fire with their will and their fingertips while Frostbloods can do the same with ice.

But someone betrays Ruby and the soldiers come to her village and they kill her mother and take Ruby prisoner. Eventually, Ruby is freed from prison by a group of rebel Frostbloods who ask her to help them in a plot to overthrow the current Frostblood king. She agrees to help them since she would like nothing more than to revenge her mother’s death.

Ruby trains with the rebels who insist that she is a very powerful Fireblood who needs to learn to control and maximize her powers. But before her training is complete she is captured again and is taken to the king’s castle where she is forced to show her strength or die. And now she has a chance to avenge her mother’s death if only she felt more prepared.

This YA fantasy takes place in a well-designed world that is governed by the power of the elements of wind, fire and ice. This fantasy world of course is affected by the good and evil in each of these elements. The characters in the book embody those traits. Ruby and Arcos are the good in the world and King Rasmus is the evil. Therefore, the plot is an intriguing battle between good and evil. Ruby is a strong bold character that needs bolstering now and then. Arcus is strong and powerful but is also moody and kind. Many other characters even though minor are well defined. As readers advance through the story, they also learn that characters are not always what we perceive them to be.

The book should appeal to both teen girls and boys. There is a slight bit of romance to lure the female teen reader and there are many battle scenes for the male reader’s enjoyment. Even though there are other books on the market that have similar fantastical elements, YA readers always seem to be open to reading another new fantasy series.

Thank you to the publisher and NetGalley for the advanced reader copy of this book.


… (mais)

This a very slim but large, almost square format publication, was published to accompany an exhibition of Porter's work in Boston 1983 and travelling elsewhere to conclude in New York in 1984. It opens with an introduction to the man Fairfield Porter, followed by an essay discussing his devolvement as an artist and what influenced him. This is followed by Jottings from a Diary, comments by John Bernard Myers. The main text concludes with a conversation between the artist and Paul Cummings. The book concludes with a detailed chronology, a comprehensive bibliography, and a list of the works exhibited.

The book is illustrated throughout with full page plates, mostly in full colour but still with several in black and white. The reproductions are good, and convey the sense of light apparent in the artist's work, and the large square format of the book allows most of them to be reproduced at a good size. What comes across very clearly is the subtle simplicity of Porter's painting, and his sensitive and economic drawing of the human figure.

While I have no quibble with the reproduction of the paintings, I do find the presentation of the text leaves much to be desired. Set in an oversized Pica like font with two unjustified columns to the page, massive paragraph spacing and too much white space evenly distributed, it has an amateurish appearance.

In the apparent absence of any other realistically available publications illustrating Porter's work this is a very useful publication.… (mais)