Books: The Rise of the Iron Moon by Stephen Hunt

I picked up The Rise of the Iron Moon fully expecting to not enjoy it very much. I mean, it’s the third book in Stephen Hunt’s Jackelian series and I hadn’t read the first two (The Kingdom Beyond the Waves and The Court of the Air). I was wrong.

I’m generally not a fan of fantasy novels, and if it wasn’t for the promotional flyer that Tor/Forge sent along with Iron Moon, I probably wouldn’t have even bothered.

“Friendless orphan Purity Drake finds herself on the run with a foreign vagrant…” Why would I bother with a book that is obviously not meant for me, what with my manly manliness and masculine masculinity and all?

But there was that cool turn-of-the-last-century looking illustration of an H. G. Wells-y looking spaceship on the cover, and right there in the Tor/Forge promotional material was mention of a ragtag group that includes “…sentient machine steammen, magical warriors, and a race of gentle, blue-skinned people who cannot defeat the bloodthirsty villains on their own.”

Sounds like a bunch of Avatar refugees getting their asses handed to them by Cybermen.

Awesome.

Points For:

• An entire race of soul-posessing robots that don’t even come close to resembling Battlestar Galactica’s Skin Jobs.
• The writer seems to side with the little guy – the political elite are a bunch of anti-intellectual, self-interested assholes who only show signs of courage when it’s their absolute last option. You know, just like in the real world.
• Plausible space-travel given that this world doesn’t seem to have technology much advanced from our Industrial Revolution.

Points Against:

• If you’re going to set your story in a fantastick universe, don’t hold back. While there were some things I hadn’t seen before, I felt that things could’ve been pushed a little further. Or maybe I’ve just been spoiled by China Mieville.
• Speaking of China Mieville – It seems to me that the “Maths Blade” that Purity uses had a bit too much in common with the “Possible Blade.” from The Scar. Or maybe poke-y things with scientific functions are just a common element in modern Steampunk.

Highly recommended.

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