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A review by lundos
Cold Iron by Miles Cameron
4.0
Coldplay Iron is different. The writing shifts so fast that you really have to pay attention all the time. Is it annoying? Yes. Just add an extra paragraph every time the scene completely shifts.
The main character, Aranthur (or Arthur with an extra an) is sort of great, but it's not like he's perfect or even close to perfect. He has the extreme work discipline that way, WAY, too many fantasy stories do. I mean a teenager that delves so hard into it that he forgets his gf that is also his first for weeks? Nope. However, he is likeable, a great friend, and pretty smart without it being too much. Though, there seem to be just too many chance encounters and he is too lucky in his choice of friends. And he's not curious enough about anything.
The supporting cast is fleshed out enough, likeable enough, and their actions make sense from their perspective throughout the story so far.
The world is interesting. But there are just way too many countries, languages, different human races, and use of real language substitutes for English, which I always dislike. This has to be more slowly and seemlessly written into a story. Maybe there are refences from other series?
The political and spy levels makes the twists ... twists, but part of that is also because our MC doesn't ask questions or try to really understand what is going on. For sure nothing is what it seems.
The magic system is weird and under explained. The pacing is decent.
So why 4 stars? Well, it's interesting enough to keep going even if the reading pace is half of a normal book and I want to know what the author had in mind with the main character.
The main character, Aranthur (or Arthur with an extra an) is sort of great, but it's not like he's perfect or even close to perfect. He has the extreme work discipline that way, WAY, too many fantasy stories do. I mean a teenager that delves so hard into it that he forgets his gf that is also his first for weeks? Nope. However, he is likeable, a great friend, and pretty smart without it being too much. Though, there seem to be just too many chance encounters and he is too lucky in his choice of friends. And he's not curious enough about anything.
The supporting cast is fleshed out enough, likeable enough, and their actions make sense from their perspective throughout the story so far.
The world is interesting. But there are just way too many countries, languages, different human races, and use of real language substitutes for English, which I always dislike. This has to be more slowly and seemlessly written into a story. Maybe there are refences from other series?
The political and spy levels makes the twists ... twists, but part of that is also because our MC doesn't ask questions or try to really understand what is going on. For sure nothing is what it seems.
The magic system is weird and under explained. The pacing is decent.
So why 4 stars? Well, it's interesting enough to keep going even if the reading pace is half of a normal book and I want to know what the author had in mind with the main character.