Words of Wednesday - Iron King

Iron King


I read this book based on a couple things. The first being a review by Chan(I suggest you read her review also, as her opinion of the book is very different from mine), I then read reviews and the description on Amazon, and lastly, I read the first chapter before purchasing it. Not all books do I do this in-depth of a search on, but e-books that cost more than a couple dollars are researched into because I do not believe in the high cost of a lot of e-books, but that is a discussion for another time.

I enjoyed the first chapter and the author’s style of writing. But once in the world of the Fae, her writing style changes into an author who is obviously in love with the world she has for her character, but I think for me, she describes too much of it and does so too quickly. These otherworldly environment and creatures really take the forefront and the story/plot becomes a distant second. This also occurs when they visit New Orleans, too much information is provided that isn’t necessary to the story, and it’s kind of just filler.

Types: Kindle, paperback, audiobook

Premise: The whole premise of this story seems to be that of the Tinkerbell theory, if you believe then it gives these fantastical things the ability to exist, even bad ones. If you don’t believe, you essentially wipe them out. I understand theories like this, but for me it’s a little egotistical on the human side, that we can give and take the life of another creature just by our belief in them.

Characters: I also have issue, with the main character, she is rather weak. I know she is only just 16 and in a world very different from her own. But supposedly she had enough courage to choose to go into this world to save her brother, yet spends time not looking for him due to her fear of this new world. I understand that it is made clear that this world is dangerous to her because of her heritage, but her character is written like that of a stereo-typical teenager, defiant yet whiney. It’s just not attractive for a main character. She repeatedly says how she has no choice, how she’s helpless, etc. and she pretty much doesn’t have the ability to make a choice for herself and lets everyone around her constantly make the choices, it just really gets old. The author has even a couple characters further point out her weak and whiney character flaws and yet nothing is really done towards character development to make her evolve into something stronger. I suppose this may or may not happen in later books, but I am not interested in the series enough to find out.

Along the same lines, she seems too weak to even withstand existing in the Fairy world, where supposedly she falls in and out of slumber at different points. Which it doesn’t make sense if she is actually falling asleep; on the other hand, it could also be suggesting that she is so weak she cannot even mentally handle the things she runs into.

All in all for the main character, she was not someone I liked. She falls perfectly into the whiney, damsel in distress role, even though, that doesn’t seem to be the goal of the story line.

As an overall for the individual characters, little character development or exploration takes place. The characters are rather flat and not very developed, which is really too bad as I think this book has plenty of potential.

Story Development: Ugh, not very good either. There are plenty of tangents that help introduce different aspects of the world, but none of them really move the story along, explain, or advance the character development. Such as her time spent in the kitchen . . . what was even the purpose of that?

Slight contradiction in that they elder fae seem to think of her as some sort of savior, but they are only a distant concern to her. Her brother is her main concern and I would presume by her behavior that she would bring down the entire fairy realm if it meant she could save her brother instead. That is, when she’s remembering to actually look for him.

A lot of the story line seems to fall into the lap of the main character. She doesn’t work for anything, explore, or push.

Couldn’t put it down/Could walk away at any time: So, I could’ve put this book down at any time and it wouldn’t have been any great loss. I continued to read it hoping it would get better, but honestly, it just didn’t. Personally would not recommend this book.

Overall: It’s kind of like broken pieces of many other stories Alice in Wonderland, The Labyrinth, The Neverending Story II, mind control zombies, etc. I think the author put too much into the world and not enough into the story line or characters. This book all at one time has way too much happen without deeper explanation and the addition of too many other things that add nothing.

I understand that this review may seem harsh, especially to those who enjoyed the book, but it’s just my opinion. As they say, one man’s trash is another man’s treasure. I can’t say for certain, but I may have not disliked the book so much if I didn’t hate books with weak female characters, honestly, they do nothing but peeve me off. I dislike females who love to play up the victim role.

Star Rating : No stars