by Justin Richards
I'm just not into horror, and The Burning has way more to do with supernatural horror than it does science fiction. For that reason, I'm not going to try to rate it. I mostly skimmed; it's a lot of people dying messily while Eight fails to care much.
Nepath's motivation is sketched in broad outlines but the details don't work. Why does his sister die in the house fire, if she was moving away from it and he was much closer? Why does he blame himself, except for narrative convenience? Why does he let himself be convinced that his sister has been resurrected by Fire to the point where she can survive without it, when he has literally no evidence it works that way? Why does Fire even need his help to spread? It's not like the humanoid forms it creates and animates have anything to do with Nepath's actions; it created the faults all by its lonesome.
Also, doesn't everybody know that mines are hotter the deeper you go? It's not cold underground.