Fantasy stories have long suggested that wizards can’t have marriages or children, or not at the same period as when they use magic. In order to continue their line, which is not altogether human, a Fertility Festival is held annually in FIRE WIZARD, set in and around modern Seattle.

Morgan is a female water wizard, and she’s not allowed to tell the man she has a child with that they even met. Glamour spells mean that Rowan can’t be sure what she looks like. Rowan is a fire wizard, as the elements resonate with different bloodlines. He has no time for regrets as he investigates serial murders with the Seattle Police Department. Someone is killing male wizards.  

The male – female power struggle occupies a lot of the background of the urban fantasy. Some characters show disdain for the other sex, and some for various other magical races. Women who are wizards are dying young, mid- thirties, and nobody knows why, but Morgan suspects some male wizards are engineering this to keep hold of power. Nobody investigates this, but a death on the San Juan islands where the festival is being held, puts Morgan into leadership, and she decides it’s going to stop right there. Rowan needs her help, but it’s just the male wizards he’s concerned about, on account of men don’t manage women’s affairs.

I was fine this far, but I did lose track when the story shifted back to Seattle, and we’re plunged into many races, powers and abilities. Alongside the humans, who are conveniently bespelled to forget unusual sights, the wizards, trolls, vampires and various shapeshifters slug it out in warehouses and on street corners. We meet a female troll, Cassandra, who looks like a human – the whole point of a troll is that they don’t look human, so it’s harder for the reader. The author has to keep reminding us that the trolls are, in fact, trolls, as well as throwing in new abilities to solve any problem. Like, suddenly someone learns to fly without an aircraft.

I like best the depiction of Seattle, a rainy city with iconic buildings and landscapes, where enchanted islands are just offshore, and coffee can be found everywhere, but it goes cold if you don’t drink quickly. I feel that Pam Binder is throwing too many races, rules and regulations at the reader, instead of building them up gradually through a series. FIRE WIZARD will suit anyone who enjoyed Sookie Stackhouse books and wants a change of location. The romance is mostly about physical attraction, but we see that both protagonists feel it’s time for a change to a better way.