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A review by revanchist
The Iron King by Julie Kagawa
3.0
In the overall sense, The Iron King is ok to good. Some characters and scenes are just too clichпїЅпїЅd for my taste, so the story got awfully predictable at times. Cold=dangerous beauty, talking animal guide, bestfriend turned second priority, powerful but dormant magical powers, heroine imprisoned by malevolent creatures, This Extremely Powerful Weapon and I'm Going To Give It To You trope, Tragic Guy, etc. You get the point. Nonetheless, I still recommend this for everyone who loves light fantasy/adventuring and stuff. It's not that amazing to keep me at the edge of my seat, but it kept my interest enough to finish it.
I rolles my eyes at the first few chapters. Bitch cheerleader, the jock, the happy-go-lucky bestfriend, the humilation--ugh. All that high school drama shit. Good thing I never had to endure that again.
Meghan.. well, Meghan Chase, our heroine, is a special person. A little like a Mary Sue to be honest. She's powerful, blah blah. Plus, the whole world relies on her. If she failseryone dies. It's true, they literally said that. Also constantly rescued by guys. I know she's no warrior but I still doubt her chances of surviving this tale. Which leads me to the number of coincidences here. If there's no Ash, or Puck, or Grimalkin (who's the best written character in this book hands down), she'd be dead. Whatever. I still found some scenes unbelievable, but if you ignore them you'll be fine.
Then there's Ash, the beautiful ice prince.. guy. I don't know why is there a need for romance. Meghan always fall or stumble so there's him catching/helping her. Honestly, I didn't feel a thing about them. Poor Puck.
The concept of the Summer/Winter Fey plus the Iron Fey on the other side is wonderful. The Iron fey were made from "science-y dreams" of mortals, in contrast to the fantasy ones. Just imagine a fairyland, but instead of fairies there's technology. I'd imagine a cooler, cleaner sci-fi/steampunk setting for the Iron fey but I guess evil must be always dirty and ugly-looking. Oh well. The bad guy is.. well.. the bad guy. The Iron King. Not that remarkable. The whole story focused on Meghan rescuing her brother. The Iron King wanted her to come to him because she can touch iron and so she can be her weapon/queen. That's it, really. We all guessed that already early on, okay.
The writing is ok, but it misses sometimes. Some of the scenes and places were described without the epicness and wonder we all wanted to read about. I never felt tension, or slight nervousness. The heroine's thoughts were also kinda generic. This guy just poured his heart out to her so she said "I'm sorry" and felt a little bad. She never thought about it again. Okay. Hmm. She just wanted to rescue her brother, you guys....
If you think about it, all fantasy stories are all clichпїЅпїЅd. In here though, it's even more obvious. If you want fresh, complex fantasy adventures, this might not be for you. The only thing in here that's quite original is the different fey.
As I said, The Iron King is good, but don't expect too much. The chances of you encountering a story like this before is very high.
I rolles my eyes at the first few chapters. Bitch cheerleader, the jock, the happy-go-lucky bestfriend, the humilation--ugh. All that high school drama shit. Good thing I never had to endure that again.
Meghan.. well, Meghan Chase, our heroine, is a special person. A little like a Mary Sue to be honest. She's powerful, blah blah. Plus, the whole world relies on her. If she failseryone dies. It's true, they literally said that. Also constantly rescued by guys. I know she's no warrior but I still doubt her chances of surviving this tale. Which leads me to the number of coincidences here. If there's no Ash, or Puck, or Grimalkin (who's the best written character in this book hands down), she'd be dead. Whatever. I still found some scenes unbelievable, but if you ignore them you'll be fine.
Then there's Ash, the beautiful ice prince.. guy. I don't know why is there a need for romance. Meghan always fall or stumble so there's him catching/helping her. Honestly, I didn't feel a thing about them. Poor Puck.
The concept of the Summer/Winter Fey plus the Iron Fey on the other side is wonderful. The Iron fey were made from "science-y dreams" of mortals, in contrast to the fantasy ones. Just imagine a fairyland, but instead of fairies there's technology. I'd imagine a cooler, cleaner sci-fi/steampunk setting for the Iron fey but I guess evil must be always dirty and ugly-looking. Oh well. The bad guy is.. well.. the bad guy. The Iron King. Not that remarkable. The whole story focused on Meghan rescuing her brother. The Iron King wanted her to come to him because she can touch iron and so she can be her weapon/queen. That's it, really. We all guessed that already early on, okay.
The writing is ok, but it misses sometimes. Some of the scenes and places were described without the epicness and wonder we all wanted to read about. I never felt tension, or slight nervousness. The heroine's thoughts were also kinda generic. This guy just poured his heart out to her so she said "I'm sorry" and felt a little bad. She never thought about it again. Okay. Hmm. She just wanted to rescue her brother, you guys....
If you think about it, all fantasy stories are all clichпїЅпїЅd. In here though, it's even more obvious. If you want fresh, complex fantasy adventures, this might not be for you. The only thing in here that's quite original is the different fey.
As I said, The Iron King is good, but don't expect too much. The chances of you encountering a story like this before is very high.