Helpful Score: 1
This Sunfire is quite different from many in the series, in that the romance, while present, takes a firm backseat. Instead, we get a great character study of a turn of the century New York society girl who years to find purpose in her life beyond parties and the latest fashions.
Emily Blackburn is 16 years old, and while her mother is more intent on turning her into yet another well-dressed and behaved debutante, Emily has other ideas. A chance meeting with medical student Stephen Reed first fires her interest in him, and then the selfless realm of nursing at large. Stephen's poor and proud, driven to be a doctor, and he thinks Emily is just a bored pest, but she's intent to prove he and her family wrong for thwarting her ambitions.
Emily was the first Sunfire heroine to really affect me, and the longer format was a good fit for Ransom. Her "Nicole" suffered from being too short, and her long Sunfire "Amanda" suffered from a truly obnoxious and unsympathetic heroine. Despite "Emily"'s strengths, the ending seemed to be resolved a bit quickly to be believable. So much opposition is worn away in the last couple pages. But that's a small gripe compared to a great story of two people, one trapped by poverty and the other trapped by wealth, and the theme of the end of the century meaning a chance at new life and purpose.
Emily Blackburn is 16 years old, and while her mother is more intent on turning her into yet another well-dressed and behaved debutante, Emily has other ideas. A chance meeting with medical student Stephen Reed first fires her interest in him, and then the selfless realm of nursing at large. Stephen's poor and proud, driven to be a doctor, and he thinks Emily is just a bored pest, but she's intent to prove he and her family wrong for thwarting her ambitions.
Emily was the first Sunfire heroine to really affect me, and the longer format was a good fit for Ransom. Her "Nicole" suffered from being too short, and her long Sunfire "Amanda" suffered from a truly obnoxious and unsympathetic heroine. Despite "Emily"'s strengths, the ending seemed to be resolved a bit quickly to be believable. So much opposition is worn away in the last couple pages. But that's a small gripe compared to a great story of two people, one trapped by poverty and the other trapped by wealth, and the theme of the end of the century meaning a chance at new life and purpose.
