In the centuries since earth settled and abandoned the resource-poor colony world of Kalima, its society has changed into Chinese/Korean semi-feudal society. Ruled by houses, where the bonds of family and role dictate a life of service and position.
When her poor skills as a telepath deny her planned future Alere Connor is chosen by Mistress Li of her house as a tool to seek the secrets of the ruling Jun Radan Zah-Hill. His death seemingly by her handset in motion the discovery of a great store of hidden iron for which all the great house will stop at nothing to possess. But Alere is no one's pawn and her skills with swords, viscerally brought to life so you can feel each cut and thrust, helps Alere almost as her resourcefulness and determination.
She discovers hidden motivations of all those around her, a cast of characters worthy to reveal the amazing society of Kalmia: a young healer closer than family, a long-held teacher who is also a better friend and a charming rogue who reveals there are more depths to this world and him than she ever thought.
If you like your stories in a world crafted as rich and well thought out as Frank Herbert's Dune, if you enjoyed Ken Liu's The Grace of Kings and want to read more Silkpunk then Aiki Flinthart's IRON series is the one you want to read.
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Sold by: Amazon Australia Services, Inc.
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Excellent
This is world building on a truly epic scale, combined with a fast paced adventure story. Highly recommended
Top reviews from Australia
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Reviewed in Australia on 27 October 2018
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Reviewed in Australia on 30 March 2019
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Reviewed in Australia on 10 February 2019
This is world building on a truly epic scale, combined with a fast paced adventure story. Highly recommended
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Top reviews from other countries
Damon Trent
Simply brilliant
Reviewed in the United States on 2 November 2018Verified Purchase
L.E. Daniels
Gutsy & Authentic
Reviewed in the United States on 22 November 2020Verified Purchase
Dion Perry
If you are into epic fantasy this one is for you.
Reviewed in the United States on 19 February 2019Verified Purchase
Dion Perry
Reviewed in the United States on 19 February 2019
Iron has its roots in SciFi, but it is quickly abandoned for traditional epic fantasy. The plot is quite complex and I had difficulty initially working out who was who and the hierarchy of rulership. I think a glossary of main characters would have helped. This complexity is heightened by the fact that there are many made-up words and no glossary to explain them. The book also lacks a map, so orientating oneself across the world is challenging. The world building, I thought showed promise, but a lack of uniqueness in description let this aspect down. For the majority of the book, I could not distinguish this world from Asia. I also struggled with the main character Alere. She promises to be a warrior along the lines of Black Widow, but she is watered down and spends a lot of time getting beat up as well as crying.
The idea of telepathy and psychic attack are not new, but I wish authors would do their research better. It is well established in science that telepathic skills are non-local meaning they operate within the quantum and are thus not restricted by time, distance or space. One who has the means to launch a psychic attack can do so anywhere at any time; they do not need to be physically present. Yet we continuously see this skill restricted by distance, which is poor science.
The book, however, rumbles along and I found the prose to be well-polished and descriptive. Aside from a few typos, I found the book to be well edited. There is suspense, drama and quite a number of well-choreographed fight scenes. There is the obligatory romantic tension that of course kept in check to ensure it is never resolved. The concept of the book is interesting, but I struggled to figure out how a former space-faring people ended up in a bronze age without even basic technology. I couldn’t quite figure out whether the book was pitched at YA or adults and came to the conclusion the author was hedging her bets. All the profanity has been removed and replaced with made-up words which I found strange. Why would former Earth citizens substitute existing swear words for new ones? The ending is clever, but the threat was resolved a little too easy. I was waiting for a final fight, but it never came.
I did not read the appendix of the world. I believe this information should be contained within the story and reading about it afterwards just doesn’t cut it.
The book, however, did hold my interest and I will read the next in the series, Fire.
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