The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming (honors book report)

Divakaruni, Chitra Banerjee. The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming. Roaring Brookes Press. New Milford, Connecticut: 2005.

I found The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming on my book shelf and realized that I hadn't read it yet, even though it was a 16th birthday present. It is a fantasy story set in modern day India, though most of the events take place in magical settings that most people cannot enter.

Firstly, this is a sequel to The Conch Bearer, which I have not read. However, the important events that occurred in that book are explained in the sequel. That in mind, the book starts with the boy Anand, the main character, starting his training and classes at the Silver Valley, the magical place in India where children with magical talents are taught by Masters and Healer. Anand found out in the previous book that he was the conch bearer, a very special job, for the conch is a very powerful magical object.

As Anand begins his classes, he finds that he is unable to do the tasks given to the students. On a couple of occasions, however, he sees and hears things way beyond his level and he ends up bringing to the attention of the Masters the plea for help from a village healer miles away. Anand's friend from The Conch Bearer, Master Abhaydatta is sent to help the village, but Anand is not allowed to go. When Anand sees a vision of Abhaydatta in danger, he does not bother with telling the Masters, but goes straight to his young friend Nisha, a girl who joined his adventures in the previous book. He persuades her to go with him and together they steal the conch away from its guarded stand. The conch attempts to transport them to the village, but Anand lets go of Nisha and the conch in the process. When he lands, Anand is alone.

In the village, Anand finds out that a stranger, Kasim, has come to the village and is enlisting the help of the village men to find an elusive treasure in the forest. Although the men do get paid, they all come back insane. Each time Kasim returns with the latest workers, he chooses a new group, and Anand manages to slip in. He discovers that underneath the ruined palace that is the digging site, Kasim has been feeding the souls of the men to a jinn, an extremely powerful and evil spirit. Anand also finds the object that Kasim was looking for, a mirror into the past, hundreds of years into the past, when the palace was still in use. When Anand steps through the mirror, he discovers that Abhaydatta, Nisha and the conch are there as well, though Nisha has taken on the persona of the niece of the Nazib's advisor. (The Nazib is essentially a king.) The problem is that the jinn, with Kasim's help, is attempting to enter that world too and take over the land, and on top of that, all of their powers, including the conch's, are much less effective than in their own world.

With an exciting search for the conch, which is hidden, and making a new friend, Anand with Abhaydatta's and Nisha's help finds himself the only one who can defy the jinn, with the conch in his hand, of course. They all survive in the end, and Anand, Abhaydatta, Nisha and the conch all return to modern day India. There, Anand is highly honored for his courage, and he finally is able to continue his lessons.

The conch is an interesting character in the story. It is a shell, of course, but it possesses many powers. For one thing, it is an object of power, and therefore it tends to attract people to it. Anand, as its bearer, is particularly tied to it. Also because he is its bearer, the conch speaks to Anand in his mind. It is vertually all knowing, though it doesn't regard any knowledge unless it is relevent at the moment. It also cannot give humans the answers because they have to have a chance to grow. It may only help if there is no other way. Although the conch is not present for most of Anand's adventures in The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming, it plays a very important roll in the climax by disolving the jinn into oblivion.

I really enjoyed this book. It was the first book I've read in a while that I wanted to be reading in class and everywhere that I got a chance. Again, I wish I had read The Conch Bearer first, but maybe I'll read it in the future. I would recommend that people read the first book first, but this one was very good! It is essentially a fantasy book about helping others with the gifts that you are given.

I think it would be extremely exciting to travel back in time hundreds of years to a kingdom in India! I would probably be mostly like Nisha, who is straight forward, clear and sometimes demanding. I actually think the book ends well, and leaves room for a third book.

Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni is an award-winning, Indian-American author and poet who has written a wide selection of books, most of them either fiction or poetry. She has been published in over 50 magazines, and her writing has been included in over 50 anthologies. Her books have been translated into 16 languages, including Dutch, Hebrew, Russian and Japanese, and two of them have been made into movies. I am very glad I read The Mirror of Fire and Dreaming because it sparked my interest in fantasy again!