Product Description

The Legend of the Firefish is a timeless tale of the pursuit of faith and honor.

Packer Throme longs to bring prosperity back to his decaying fishing village by discovering the trade secrets of a notorious pirate who hunts the legendary Firefish and sells the rare meat. Armed with the love of the priest’s daughter and a noble purpose, Packer stows away on the ship Trophy Chase bound for sea. But many tests of his faith and his resolve follow.

Will belief and vision be enough for the young man to survive?

Captivating action, dialogue, and insights into the heroic struggle of faith make this an ideal read for fans of adventure, fantasy, and well–told tales of honor.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #75682 in Books
• Published on: 2007-03-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Swashbuckling is the best way to describe Book One of the Trophy Chase Trilogy. Without wasting time, Polivka's first novel drops readers into a fantasy world filled with action, where chivalry is alive and well, and sword fights are frequent. Packer Throme—a failed seminarian turned master swordsman—sets out on a great quest, but not in search of fame. He hopes to honor God by stowing away on (former) pirate Scatter Wilkins's ship Trophy Chase, convincing its captain and crew to seek the legendary firefish—a feat that could raise Packer's fishing village from poverty and win the heart of his longtime love, the beautiful Panna Seline. Happily, Polivka gives this heroine a backbone, not to mention a mighty right hook and her own part to play in this adventure. "It was wrong to have let her, and thousands of young women just like her, believe they had no power, no strength, and therefore could have no place or position," Panna reflects angrily about the plight of women. Though the Packer-Panna romance finds considerable ink, this is a tale almost entirely of pirates, warriors, stormy seas and battles with monsters. The Christian message is palpable, and Polivka's characters relatively complex. With the nonstop action that cuts between multiple story lines, readers will be flipping pages eagerly. (Mar.)
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Customer Reviews

An adventure with Christ in the action
This unusual new book offers a seafaring tale of lands before the time of Internet technology and modern news media. I like ancient parables of northern Slavs, Vikings, and Native Americans, and this story reminds me of all those at some point.

Polivka combines this flavor with science fiction and a fantasy that recalls C.S. Lewis's Narnia. His story is like a foundation myth handed down through generations, without flashing special effects, but more akin to the oral tradition of folktales or Native American lore. This is especially true in character names of Dog, Talon, Duck, Hand, Monkey and Ox, and in legendary fish with personality.

Fantasy can catch the attention of those who might benefit from seeing the values and grace of Christianity work, so this book is a good mix for introducing the Trophy Chase Trilogy. The Legend of the Firefish is strongly Christian by design, but not "in your face." Packer Throme's faith is tested and he does not always make the faithful decision. This is more believably real than a Crusader in shining armor, brandishing a flaming sword against the devil. This caused me to want to expand my compassion to accept Packer and hope for the best. I would want such mercy.

Nearing Vast is Packer's village and I think the name indicates that daily life is approaching the vastness of all that is and can reach for the divine (truth). The Vast Sea contains monsters, just as our lives contain trials to either challenge or accept in their power over us. This setting is much like J.R.R. Tolkien's universe as well as Narnia. Wishing his impoverished fishing village to be blessed with some kind of good fortune, Throme pursues a pirate that chases the Firefish for its meat bounty, with interesting and fun results.

In Packer's love interest Panna, Firefish supports the strength of women. It is interesting that the word "helpmeet" in the English language before King James did not mean "servant" at all. The original English and the Hebrew word mean "defender and warrior." This is the help that "comes from the Lord."

It is swashbuckling, with Christ in action and people in predicament, and very much fun.

Armchair Interviews says: Good for anyone in middle school through adult ages.

Rocked my socks off!
Let's be honest here, when I found out we were going to feature The Legend of the Firefish during the Christian Science Fiction & Fantasy Tour I wasn't too impressed or excited. I've never heard of him and I'm not too into pirates. I've discussed my author loyalty before - once I've read you and I liked you I'll buy pretty much everything you write. Even if it's not my typical genre (which is why I'll buy Wayne Thomas Batson's new pirate book!). For me it takes some pretty high praise from someone I already know and trust before I spend my hard earned money on an author that is new to me. Especially in a genre I don't normally read. Pirates. High seas. I loved Pirates of the Caribbean but not so much love for pirate books.

And um, yeah, I was pretty sure it was going to be lame because well, the whole Firefish thing threw me. And the character and location names kind of threw me as well. But then I read the opening scene and man! WOW! I couldn't put it down and much to my husband's chagrin I totally ignored both the need to clean our house and do our laundry. I fell in love with Packer from the moment he drew is beautiful sword.

Each character is richly developed. The world is a living and breathing creation. Dialog moves smoothly and the action is very well paced. While there were times that I was frustrated by Packer's frequent self-flagellation I was able to stay within the story and continue to feel sympathy for him. Even continue to love and root for him. There is a change in Panna's personality that also threw me, took me a bit out of the story because it seemed so very unlikely and if there was any foreshadowing I totally missed it. But again, I was able to care for her, feel sympathy for her and cheer her on during her trials.

One of the things that really struck me about The Legend of the Firefish is that its one of the most Christian Christian novels I've read in awhile. God is God in this book. And it took me aback and at times I did feel a bit preached at. But for most Christian audiences it's going to be okay! Most of us like outright Christian themes and story lines. I just happen to be one of those who like things a bit more subtle.

In non-writer/story stuff the cover is a real attention grabber. It's beautifully done and the pages of the book itself are nicely detailed. A small ship's wheel on the lower outside corners, next to the page number. And then on the upper outside corners some nice scroll work.

The second in the series, The Hand that Bears the Sword, is already sitting on my desk just waiting for me to dive in. But I wanted to get this post finished first so I kept everything straight in my mind. I'm expecting to enjoy the second book as much as I enjoyed the first.

Pirates, sea-monsters and a struggle of faith
I've often felt that the British have the wrong temperament to really appreciate Christian fiction and certainly the examples that I have read have never seemed as good or satisfying as their secular counterparts. Perhaps it's because most Christian fiction comes from America and the American way of expressing faith seems over-pushy or embarrassingly earnest to us. Consequently I approached "The Legend of the Firefish" not expecting too much.

In most ways I was very pleasantly surprised. This is a fantasy book and its writing is on a level with the better secular fantasy novels out there. The pace is excellent, the worldbuilding works (and is internally congruent and consistent which isn't always the case) and the underlying plot concept, a young man's search for a semi-mythical sea-snake which involves joining a pirate ship and facing dozens of dangers and the side-plot of his young woman breaking out of the constraints of her upbringing and finding new inner strength as well as dangers, are excellent. Both Packer Throme, the young man, and Panna Seline are appealing characters, particularly in the way that we watch them growing and discovering new things about themselves and about the world around them and moulding their understanding of their faiths accordingly.

The setting is a kingdom rather akin to life in the 1800s where people fish, ride horses, are involved in swordplay but also have pistols and where life is rough, tough and often short. Most of the action takes place either in local villages or on the pirate ship and some of the descriptions of sailing in a fast vessel are fascinating and seem well-researched and accurate to our own history.

This was an excellent book, the only minor downside being the Christian element. Firstly because in this different world (the world of Nearing Vast) where people have different names, are living in a different era and seek for semi-magical sea creatures, their religion was our Christianity. Jesus and God are transferred to this world unchanged and it just didn't sit quite right, especially as various characters talked in rather 21st century terms about their faith. The challenges to the faiths of Packer and Panna were well written and it was fascinating watching them work their theology round events that happened to them but it just felt too strange to have 'normal' Christianity in this abnormal world. CS Lewis and JRR Tolkien gave an allegorical version of Christianity in their fantasies and I felt that that would have worked much better in this story too because every time something overtly Christian was said/thought I found myself dropping briefly out of the world of the story and back to reality.

This is the first of a trilogy of books but this novel reached a satisfactory conclusion and wasn't one of those books that doesn't finish but requires you to buy the next in the series. It was always a great read and the story was fascinating despite my reservations about the Christian aspect and I look forward to the next two books in the trilogy.