“Nerdection Worth to Read”
Fog & Fireflies is a debut fantasy novel by author T. H. Lehnen that weaves rich lore with adventure and whimsy.
Spoiler Free Plot
In the wake of a war between powerful wizards, a dense fog covered the land and changed how the villages lived. The fog is dangerous for adults, so children are forced to work in shifts to watch over it as it rolls through the land, changing the landscape as it does.
Ogma is one of the children watching the fog. One night, during her watch, she hears someone yelling in the fog. Shortly after, she spots a boy crushed under a large creature, impaled through his abdomen. Despite others wanting to ignore him, Ogma valiantly leaves the safety of the village walls to rescue him.
Not long after rescuing the strange boy speaking a foreign tongue, the fog clears, and a group of caravanners finds the village to trade. It had been seasons since the village met anyone to trade with, so they invited them in and held a small festival to celebrate.
Amidst the revelry, what seems to be another group of caravanners attacks the village to steal children. Ogma, hoping to rescue some of the other children in the village, manages to get lost in the fog, leading her far away from home.
She embarks on a dangerous journey where she learns the unusual ways of the Shepherds and encounters deadly creatures while she tries to save her friends and find her way home.
My Thoughts on Fog & Fireflies
Fog & Fireflies is adventurous, dark at times, and filled with lore that I found myself wanting to delve more into. Throughout the story, small bits of information are given so there aren’t huge info dumps, which helps to stay engaged with the story. We learned information at the same time as our main character, Ogma, which made it all seem so much more immersive.
One element of this book that I loved was the focus on storytelling. Before we wrote novels or screenplays, stories were orated for hundreds of years and carried through different generations. The lore from this story comes through similarly. The Shepherds, the caravanners who visited the village to trade, have carried stories with them and used them to help navigate the mystical fog.
The creatures in the story are all very unique and the author paints a vivid picture of them throughout the book. On top of looking different, the author does an incredible job highlighting the cultural differences between characters and I enjoyed seeing Ogma navigate her time with the caravanners.
The only issues I had with this story were related to the chapter length and some of the characters. There are only ten chapters but each chapter is roughly 30-60 pages long. It just makes it somewhat difficult to put the book down when you need to because there are fewer convenient stopping points.
There are a lot of characters in the story aside from Ogma and at times it can be difficult to keep track of them.
Overall, I enjoyed reading the book! Lehnen’s prose is evocative and the world the story is set in is dangerous, engaging, and filled with wonder!
Age:
13+
Content Warnings:
Child abduction, death, child labor exploitation, some violence
About The Author Of Fog & Fireflies
T.H. Lehnen is an author who believes that young adult and children’s literature is simply more honest about the magic in the world. Under Aspen & Thorn Press, he writes young adult fantasy for children who are old souls, and old souls who are children at heart.
He lives with his family in Portland, OR, and studied creative writing, philosophy, and English literature at Reed College. When he is not writing, he is tinkering with machines mechanical and digital (though he has yet to figure out how to transport a sports car through a wardrobe).
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