Scan barcode
soursock's review against another edition
3.0
This is a good book, and i could see a lot of people liking it. For me though, it just seemed to be written for someone younger than I. Still really enjoyed it though
llmacrae's review against another edition
5.0
(Copying reviews from my previous GR profile)
Bloody amazing read. Jen Williams has fast become one of my favourite authors!
I'm on mobile so shan't be writing a full review, but let's just say it has so much more of what made The Copper Promise brilliant, and I am IMMEDIATELY starting the third book in the trilogy: The Silver Tide
Read this if you love great characters, epic magic, demons, gods, and dragons!!!
Bloody amazing read. Jen Williams has fast become one of my favourite authors!
I'm on mobile so shan't be writing a full review, but let's just say it has so much more of what made The Copper Promise brilliant, and I am IMMEDIATELY starting the third book in the trilogy: The Silver Tide
Read this if you love great characters, epic magic, demons, gods, and dragons!!!
taisie22's review
adventurous
slow-paced
3.0
The further adventures of Wydrin, Seb, and Frith take them to the cold north, where they meet enemies new and old. It's an okay read, not nearly as good as the Winnowing Flame trilogy, and perhaps it's not fair for me to compare them. Some of the same themes and character types are repeated here and it's clear they were the 'practice run' for the later series which is amazing. So this is still good, but not great.
quiraang's review against another edition
4.0
The Black Feather Three return for their second adventure and it's as every bit as good as the first. Classic fantasy of sword and sorcery, with dragons, demons, and with a twist of dark humour, and some frustrated love, both gay and straight.
Excellent stuff - keep it up Jen - can't wait for the next outing!
Excellent stuff - keep it up Jen - can't wait for the next outing!
lanko's review against another edition
5.0
Really good, with surprising twists along the way. If the first book was pretty straightforward, this one has many careful layers and foreshadowing built in.
Wydrin, Sebastian and Frith got a lot more depth here. If in the first book Sebastian was the one who took the brunt of the hard and moral decisions, here this is more evenly spread between them, although Frith has the lead on this one.
Also, there are many more secondary characters, and they also always have at very least their fifteen lines of fame, a lot growing in importance and doing memorable deeds as the story progresses. Unfortunately, Ephemeral, my favorite character since the first book, wasn't one of them and she didn't appear much either. But the other new characters made up for it. The villains are pretty good too.
Another change from the previous book is the tone and atmosphere. The first had a more adventurous feeling, and here, while having heart touching moments between some characters, also have a very grim tone in others.
There are lots of deaths, injuries and sacrifices, as there are two nations at war, a demon, a mad mage and an assassin on the loose, and the heroes also don't shy away from giving the enemy the sharp ends.
In the first book probably there were many more deaths than in here, as Y'ruen wiped out entire cities and orders, but this was told through reports, something that felt too distant and impersonal. Here the characters are always at the center of events, raging and mourning their losses, now all characters we got to know, even if briefly, and the deaths always happens in front of at least one character, shown to us, a much more powerful and welcome change.
This is balanced by Sebastian's doubts and feelings towards his daughters and someone special, Frith remains insufferable and since they tend to be serious, Wydrin's humor really shines.
I also liked that events of the first book are used to remind us of those events. They don't appear just in the beginning as some failed attempt to disguise a summary of the previous book like I've seen some trying to do, but appear throughout the story in small dosages. This is good for those who remember them and for those who don't it will bring the memory back.
Two things that I found strange, though:
Also, O'rin, who is supposed to a powerful god with knowledge of the Edeian, dies really, really easily, without managing to throw a single attack.
Great read, and there are hints of even greater things to come in the next volume.
Wydrin, Sebastian and Frith got a lot more depth here. If in the first book Sebastian was the one who took the brunt of the hard and moral decisions, here this is more evenly spread between them, although Frith has the lead on this one.
Also, there are many more secondary characters, and they also always have at very least their fifteen lines of fame, a lot growing in importance and doing memorable deeds as the story progresses. Unfortunately, Ephemeral, my favorite character since the first book, wasn't one of them and she didn't appear much either. But the other new characters made up for it. The villains are pretty good too.
Another change from the previous book is the tone and atmosphere. The first had a more adventurous feeling, and here, while having heart touching moments between some characters, also have a very grim tone in others.
There are lots of deaths, injuries and sacrifices, as there are two nations at war, a demon, a mad mage and an assassin on the loose, and the heroes also don't shy away from giving the enemy the sharp ends.
In the first book probably there were many more deaths than in here, as Y'ruen wiped out entire cities and orders, but this was told through reports, something that felt too distant and impersonal. Here the characters are always at the center of events, raging and mourning their losses, now all characters we got to know, even if briefly, and the deaths always happens in front of at least one character, shown to us, a much more powerful and welcome change.
This is balanced by Sebastian's doubts and feelings towards his daughters and someone special, Frith remains insufferable and since they tend to be serious, Wydrin's humor really shines.
I also liked that events of the first book are used to remind us of those events. They don't appear just in the beginning as some failed attempt to disguise a summary of the previous book like I've seen some trying to do, but appear throughout the story in small dosages. This is good for those who remember them and for those who don't it will bring the memory back.
Two things that I found strange, though:
Spoiler
In the first book's ending, 200 Brood sisters remain alive after the battle and decide to follow Sebastian. Here, there is only about 48 or 50, and unless I missed something, it's never explained what happened to the other 150.Also, O'rin, who is supposed to a powerful god with knowledge of the Edeian, dies really, really easily, without managing to throw a single attack.
Great read, and there are hints of even greater things to come in the next volume.
woolfardis's review against another edition
2.0
[Thanks to Hodder & Stoughton for my copy.]
Lord Frith, Wydrin and Sebastian, after their dragon-slayer escapades in The Copper Promise are now known as The Blackfeather Three and are roaming the land, sorting out people's other-worldly problems and loving all the attention and coin they're receiving as a result. However, an age-old mage is re-awakened and it seems Lord Frith is not the only mage with an ego problem any longer...
This is the second book in The Copper Promise series, but it can actually be read as a stand-alone in retrospect. The Copper Promise had a plot ending and whilst this one contains the same characters, world and general overview, it's less of a trilogy and more of a follow-on. Having said that, there are references to The Copper Promise that are unexplained, so having the background knowledge would be useful.
I have to say I am deeply disappointed with this novel. I thought The Copper Promise was promising, 'scuse the pun and, whilst it had it's flaws, I thought Jen Williams was an author to watch out for. However, I don't think she learnt anything from her first novel and any criticism (positive and negative) she may have been giving was certainly not taken on board.
The Copper Promise started out life as four short novellas and that was evident in the book, as it was split in to four segments with no attempt at meshing them. The Iron Ghost did not start out life as four novellas, but it was still written like it: four sections that were completely unnecessary: there was no point in having four parts at all. Whilst I understand the author may like the idea, if you're having a book split in to parts there needs to be a reason for it, either time-elapse or a different perspective in narration. Neither of these were present and the four-part partition was just an annoyance and stopped the flow of the piece.
The characters were much in the same without any kind of difference from The Copper Promise. Whilst consistency is grand, some kind of character-growth would have been nice, and not just a proclamation of love. There was little to fault the characters except for this, but sometimes secondary characters felt a little flat and just there to be there, especially the resurgence of the Brood Army. It's obvious that they will play an integral part in the third novel, but here, especially with the choppy way these flashbacks were written and inserted at completely random places made the whole piece feel staggered. The chapters as a whole were far too short and often left me feeling like every single one was going to end in a terrible cliff-hanger that would be resolved five chapters hence.
As in The Copper Promise, there was no map so, although world-building is primarily done through the text, fantasy novels rely very heavily on their worlds so a map in fantasy novels is pretty much expected. I thought the world-building in the text was much better done in this novel than in The Copper Promise, but occasionally it fell short. I did enjoy the varying lands and people in The Iron Ghost and this was explored to good effect, much better than in the first novel.
The writing style was the same as in The Copper Promise and was still pretty amateurish. There were the same trills of "suddenly several things happened at once" or "all of a sudden" and "then something funny happened" (paraphrasing but fairly accurate) which is terrible story-telling. There was also far too much dialogue: the whole story was carried via the dialogue. Whilst at times it was real and amusing, very rarely did a paragraph go by that did not contain dialogue. I know dialogue is important, but it needs to be used sparingly and with good effect. Most of the time it was gibberish, and when the plot is carried by the dialogue, you can often miss important information if the dialogue skips from serious plot points to inane drivel that you wish would end.
My rating of this book is very harsh, but that's just because I was sincerely disappointed in the author for not really learning anything from her first novel experience. The story itself, whilst slightly recycled from the first of the series and every fantasy novel out there, was more of a 4 / 5 because it was a good fantasy journey, but altogether the elements produced something which felt amateur at best. I will be reading the rest of the series (I assume it will be a trilogy) but I will certainly lower my expectations for it.
Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Shop | Etsy
Lord Frith, Wydrin and Sebastian, after their dragon-slayer escapades in The Copper Promise are now known as The Blackfeather Three and are roaming the land, sorting out people's other-worldly problems and loving all the attention and coin they're receiving as a result. However, an age-old mage is re-awakened and it seems Lord Frith is not the only mage with an ego problem any longer...
This is the second book in The Copper Promise series, but it can actually be read as a stand-alone in retrospect. The Copper Promise had a plot ending and whilst this one contains the same characters, world and general overview, it's less of a trilogy and more of a follow-on. Having said that, there are references to The Copper Promise that are unexplained, so having the background knowledge would be useful.
I have to say I am deeply disappointed with this novel. I thought The Copper Promise was promising, 'scuse the pun and, whilst it had it's flaws, I thought Jen Williams was an author to watch out for. However, I don't think she learnt anything from her first novel and any criticism (positive and negative) she may have been giving was certainly not taken on board.
The Copper Promise started out life as four short novellas and that was evident in the book, as it was split in to four segments with no attempt at meshing them. The Iron Ghost did not start out life as four novellas, but it was still written like it: four sections that were completely unnecessary: there was no point in having four parts at all. Whilst I understand the author may like the idea, if you're having a book split in to parts there needs to be a reason for it, either time-elapse or a different perspective in narration. Neither of these were present and the four-part partition was just an annoyance and stopped the flow of the piece.
The characters were much in the same without any kind of difference from The Copper Promise. Whilst consistency is grand, some kind of character-growth would have been nice, and not just a proclamation of love. There was little to fault the characters except for this, but sometimes secondary characters felt a little flat and just there to be there, especially the resurgence of the Brood Army. It's obvious that they will play an integral part in the third novel, but here, especially with the choppy way these flashbacks were written and inserted at completely random places made the whole piece feel staggered. The chapters as a whole were far too short and often left me feeling like every single one was going to end in a terrible cliff-hanger that would be resolved five chapters hence.
As in The Copper Promise, there was no map so, although world-building is primarily done through the text, fantasy novels rely very heavily on their worlds so a map in fantasy novels is pretty much expected. I thought the world-building in the text was much better done in this novel than in The Copper Promise, but occasionally it fell short. I did enjoy the varying lands and people in The Iron Ghost and this was explored to good effect, much better than in the first novel.
The writing style was the same as in The Copper Promise and was still pretty amateurish. There were the same trills of "suddenly several things happened at once" or "all of a sudden" and "then something funny happened" (paraphrasing but fairly accurate) which is terrible story-telling. There was also far too much dialogue: the whole story was carried via the dialogue. Whilst at times it was real and amusing, very rarely did a paragraph go by that did not contain dialogue. I know dialogue is important, but it needs to be used sparingly and with good effect. Most of the time it was gibberish, and when the plot is carried by the dialogue, you can often miss important information if the dialogue skips from serious plot points to inane drivel that you wish would end.
My rating of this book is very harsh, but that's just because I was sincerely disappointed in the author for not really learning anything from her first novel experience. The story itself, whilst slightly recycled from the first of the series and every fantasy novel out there, was more of a 4 / 5 because it was a good fantasy journey, but altogether the elements produced something which felt amateur at best. I will be reading the rest of the series (I assume it will be a trilogy) but I will certainly lower my expectations for it.
Blog | Instagram | Twitter | Pinterest | Shop | Etsy
jennieartemis's review
adventurous
fast-paced
3.0
TL;DR: A tidier adventure than book one, but still a hectic one that puts a lot on the surface and nothing much deeper
My overall feelings about The Iron Ghost are mainly disappointment, although I do appreciate it on some stylistic grounds. It is pacey and the dialogue is engaging, it doesn't have the same structural problems as book 1, and the characters come across well and move beyond stereotypes. But the book is still all adventure and no theming, with something of a kitchen sink approach. I just wanted more - there was some interesting potential in the emotionless assassin character and the brood army, but these things get lost in the overall mix. A solid pulpy novel, but that's just not what I look for in modern fantasy.
4/10 in personal rating system
My overall feelings about The Iron Ghost are mainly disappointment, although I do appreciate it on some stylistic grounds. It is pacey and the dialogue is engaging, it doesn't have the same structural problems as book 1, and the characters come across well and move beyond stereotypes. But the book is still all adventure and no theming, with something of a kitchen sink approach. I just wanted more - there was some interesting potential in the emotionless assassin character and the brood army, but these things get lost in the overall mix. A solid pulpy novel, but that's just not what I look for in modern fantasy.
4/10 in personal rating system
marcusnyahoe's review against another edition
3.0
Starts well but serious pacing issues after about 300 pages. I just got bored and thrown out of the world. For me I think it needs a stronger editor.
charonlrdraws's review against another edition
2.0
And The Iron Ghost is by no means an improvement to The Copper Promise and things just got stupid and I just wanted to punch these characters as the story went on, and welp I only have one more book to suffer through and then I'm done with this trilogy! And yes for a sequel it got worse and yeah evidently a 500 plus page book was just an excuse to add more unwanted filler content that once again left rolling my eyes in frustration what could possibly go wrong in The Silver Tide! Lets find out!
A summery for The Iron Ghost:
Beware the dawning of a new mage...
Wydrin of Crosshaven, Sir Sebastian and Lord Aaron Frith are experienced in the perils of stirring up the old gods. They are also familiar with defeating them, and the heroes of Baneswatch are now enjoying the perks of suddenly being very much in demand for their services.
When a job comes up in the distant city of Skaldshollow, it looks like easy coin - retrieve a stolen item, admire the views, get paid. But in a place twisted and haunted by ancient magic, with the most infamous mage of them all, Joah Demonsworn, making a reappearance, our heroes soon find themselves threatened by enemies on all sides, old and new. And in the frozen mountains, the stones are walking...
A summery for The Iron Ghost:
Beware the dawning of a new mage...
Wydrin of Crosshaven, Sir Sebastian and Lord Aaron Frith are experienced in the perils of stirring up the old gods. They are also familiar with defeating them, and the heroes of Baneswatch are now enjoying the perks of suddenly being very much in demand for their services.
When a job comes up in the distant city of Skaldshollow, it looks like easy coin - retrieve a stolen item, admire the views, get paid. But in a place twisted and haunted by ancient magic, with the most infamous mage of them all, Joah Demonsworn, making a reappearance, our heroes soon find themselves threatened by enemies on all sides, old and new. And in the frozen mountains, the stones are walking...
lilyphoenixx's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5