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A review by soph_sol
The Iron Children by Rebecca Fraimow
adventurous
emotional
funny
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
This is the first time in my life that I have gotten to hold in my hands a real actual published book written by a friend of mine, and let me tell you, it is a GREAT experience and also this book lived up to absolutely everything I hoped for from it. Five stars, would collapse into a puddle of emotions again. And I say this without bias! I would have loved this book even if I didn't know Becca!
So The Iron Children is a scifi novella about cyborgs warriors and a robot nun and one squishy human traversing a treacherous landscape together in the midst of war, and also is about questions of identity and religious ethics and duty and kindness and freedom. I loved EVERYTHING about this, I adored all the characters, I loved the worldbuilding, I loved its careful pacing and the way it built on its ideas, I loved that it managed to pack so much into such a short book without ever feeling like it was overcrowded.
The book is told through three different POVs: the squishy human, Asher, who's a young nun-in-training getting thrown in over her head; Barghest, the leader of the cyborg warriors, whose dedication to duty is above and beyond the call of duty; and a character whose identity is a mystery until partway into the book but is definitely one of the other cyborg warriors. The first two characters get their POV sections in third person, but the mystery character's sections are in first person.
I have gone on record in the past as stating that I find it irritating when there's multiple povs and some of them are, for no reason, in a different person than the others.
BUT the key here is that there IS a reason in The Iron Children, and when there's a reason it works! It's got a destabilizing effect, to have one of the three in a different person than the other two; it shows that character as other, as separate. It works thematically! (Okay and incidentally it lets the name be hidden to allow a reveal later on as to which character this one is, which is convenient!)
And now let me go into the realm of spoilers because I have to to talk about everything else I love.
One of the things this book handles really well is the slow complexifying of the reader's understanding of the whole....situation. You start the book totally on the side of the Cesteli because those are the viewpoints you start in, and then you just keep learning more things. About the Cesteli, and about the Levasta, and about the experiences of all of our beloved characters with the social environments they've been immersed in. And the book ends with some significant disagreement between the characters on how best to respond and what's the right thing to do, and like.....I don't exactly disagree with any of them! Things suck and they're all just trying their best!
ALSO it's one of those books that manages to cram in all sorts of different fun tropes and things in order to further the serious philosophical points it's making, and I am always super here for this. Huddling for warmth in a cave! Mind-bonding and body-sharing! Life-changing field trip with your enemy!
But also I just. I really love the characters. Asher, desperately trying to be A Leader when she has no experience, getting her mind blown with ethical perspectives she's never considered, wanting to do right by the people she's responsible for, unable to ever sound like she's sure of herself. Barghest, BARGHEST, ilu Barghest, trying their very best to be perfect because anything less is unthinkable for them. Ester, an angry outsider who hates that she is actually having a good experience having her body experienced as normal instead of scary, in this context where for the first time ever she's not the only looming faceless cyborg, in amongst her enemies. Cascabela, inexperienced and desperately angrily grieving the loss of the one person they know and care for. And all the others too!
There were also just some really satisfying various small details, like:
The four arms of the cyborgs, how it alters their fighting style, how Ester isn't used to it despite having a cyborg body because she grew up without anyone experienced to teach her how to take advantage of what you can do with those extra arms.
How good barghest is at training through fighting! not having to say anything, but teaching through doing, with the body and the dynamics of a fight
referring to the clockwork bodies of the robot nuns as their habits!
the offhand referring to parables in ways that make it clear that everyone knows what's being talked about and that it's not a thing anyone would need to explain! ("the one about the woman and the rabbit, the first selfless act")
the space jews!
the moment when the party is split and Ester attacks Asher apologetically :(
"I could just become a horrible hermit on the world's worst mountain" Ester says at one point, and my immediate reaction was omg hi Frankenstein's monster
ANYWAY read this book!!!
So The Iron Children is a scifi novella about cyborgs warriors and a robot nun and one squishy human traversing a treacherous landscape together in the midst of war, and also is about questions of identity and religious ethics and duty and kindness and freedom. I loved EVERYTHING about this, I adored all the characters, I loved the worldbuilding, I loved its careful pacing and the way it built on its ideas, I loved that it managed to pack so much into such a short book without ever feeling like it was overcrowded.
The book is told through three different POVs: the squishy human, Asher, who's a young nun-in-training getting thrown in over her head; Barghest, the leader of the cyborg warriors, whose dedication to duty is above and beyond the call of duty; and a character whose identity is a mystery until partway into the book but is definitely one of the other cyborg warriors. The first two characters get their POV sections in third person, but the mystery character's sections are in first person.
I have gone on record in the past as stating that I find it irritating when there's multiple povs and some of them are, for no reason, in a different person than the others.
BUT the key here is that there IS a reason in The Iron Children, and when there's a reason it works! It's got a destabilizing effect, to have one of the three in a different person than the other two; it shows that character as other, as separate. It works thematically! (Okay and incidentally it lets the name be hidden to allow a reveal later on as to which character this one is, which is convenient!)
And now let me go into the realm of spoilers because I have to to talk about everything else I love.
ALSO it's one of those books that manages to cram in all sorts of different fun tropes and things in order to further the serious philosophical points it's making, and I am always super here for this. Huddling for warmth in a cave! Mind-bonding and body-sharing! Life-changing field trip with your enemy!
But also I just. I really love the characters. Asher, desperately trying to be A Leader when she has no experience, getting her mind blown with ethical perspectives she's never considered, wanting to do right by the people she's responsible for, unable to ever sound like she's sure of herself. Barghest, BARGHEST, ilu Barghest, trying their very best to be perfect because anything less is unthinkable for them. Ester, an angry outsider who hates that she is actually having a good experience having her body experienced as normal instead of scary, in this context where for the first time ever she's not the only looming faceless cyborg, in amongst her enemies. Cascabela, inexperienced and desperately angrily grieving the loss of the one person they know and care for. And all the others too!
There were also just some really satisfying various small details, like:
The four arms of the cyborgs, how it alters their fighting style, how Ester isn't used to it despite having a cyborg body because she grew up without anyone experienced to teach her how to take advantage of what you can do with those extra arms.
How good barghest is at training through fighting! not having to say anything, but teaching through doing, with the body and the dynamics of a fight
referring to the clockwork bodies of the robot nuns as their habits!
the offhand referring to parables in ways that make it clear that everyone knows what's being talked about and that it's not a thing anyone would need to explain! ("the one about the woman and the rabbit, the first selfless act")
the space jews!
the moment when the party is split and Ester attacks Asher apologetically :(
"I could just become a horrible hermit on the world's worst mountain" Ester says at one point, and my immediate reaction was omg hi Frankenstein's monster
ANYWAY read this book!!!