The book Wet Fire by Nikos Kyriazis, from Anubis Publications, is a mature text that captivates you from the first page. The story begins in the Eastern Mediterranean, in the 7th century AD, at a time when Byzantium is trying to hold its own against the unstoppable Arab advance. Constantinople is threatened, people live in fear, and everything seems to hang by a thread. In this setting, Kallinikos appears, a Syrian engineer, inventor, warrior, a man who carries the idea of a miracle, Wet Fire, the fire that does not go out, the fire that will save the empire.
The life of Kallinikos is a wandering, a journey through battles, betrayals and doubts. Nikos Kyriazis writes in a way that makes you see the events before you. His narrative descriptions are so vivid that you can almost hear the whispers of people, the whistling of the wind on the walls, the commotion of the warriors, the roar of the siege engines, the flame that breaks out in the waters and illuminates the fury. "Wet Fire" is not a simple historical novel but a journey through time and into the soul of a man who dared to believe that knowledge can save the world.
The dialogues are excellent. Natural, lively, giving rhythm, revealing the truths of the era. They do not seem at all pretentious or staged. Through the intelligent and original dialogues, the characters acquire their own voice, each with a unique psychological depth. They speak as people of that era would speak, with the seriousness but also the warmth that their souls had. The author knows how to write, but also knows how to be silent where necessary without exaggerating or making the text fat with unnecessary literary ornaments. He does not show off his knowledge, but manages it correctly. He lives it together with the reader and he himself assimilates the behaviors - which he himself has recorded - of his heroes from the beginning. He does not exaggerate and follows the historical events with rich fiction that makes the reading filled with knowledge.
The book is not limited to the representation of an era, it speaks of human destiny, of the burden of responsibility, of how every invention hides within it something sacred and something dangerous. Kallinikos is not just the creator of Liquid Fire, he is fire himself, a man who burns for his work and for his faith.
Wet Fire is a rich, mature work, written with love for History and for humanity. Kyriazis manages to marry the accuracy of the historian with the sensitivity of the writer. You read it and feel the flame, not only the one that burned the enemies of the City, but also the one that illuminates the mind and the soul.
A book that speaks not only about Byzantium, but about man himself, struggling between creation and destruction. Who seeks, through faith in the future and hope, to save the ideals of an unparalleled civilization.
The author skillfully created true heroes as through the narrative he brings to life all their mental qualities, the individuality of their characters, their morals, their habits, their hopes, desires, and aspirations within the traditional rules of social living of their time. They also personally won my attention and I identified with them from their first conversation as if I had them in front of me talking to me like friends, exposing their problems, anxieties and every other experience. If this is not proof of a good pen, then what is?
Kyriazis K. Nikos
Nikos K. Kyriazis received his diploma and his PhD in Economics from the University of Bonn. He was a visiting professor at Harvard and Trier Universities and a professor at the University of Thessaly. He has served as a Monetary Policy Specialist at the Directorate-General for Studies of the European Parliament, an advisor to the National Bank and the Ministry of Finance, and Secretary-General of the National Center for Public Administration. He is an emeritus professor at the University of Thessaly, vice-president of the Committee for the Assessment of the Quality of Legislative Procedure, and president of the Costas & Artemis Kyriazis Foundation. He has published and edited 15 scientific books [Cambridge, Routledge, Springer (4), Nagoya, UP], 60 articles in peer-reviewed scientific journals, 30 in collective volumes, as well as 23 novels (5 in English as Nicholas Snow). In 2005, he was awarded the highest decoration of the French Republic, the Knight of the Legion of Honor, for his contribution to European Integration and Preparation of EMU.
