The Iron Angel

The Book of Lowmoor #3

by Richard Poole

Jewel and Thorn's adventures conclude in this thrilling climax to the Lowmoor trilogy. Desperate to stop the wicked Querne Rasp from collecting the final crystal to complete her collection, they find themselves drawn deep into the inner workings of an old and sinister church, fighting ice spiders and malevolent characters along the way. As always, Racky Jagger is as determined to thwart their plans but when he shares a revelation with Thorn, life changes irrevocably for both of them.

Genres: Fantasy, Romance

384 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Richard Poole was born and grew up in Bradford, Yorkshire. He studied at the University of North Wales, and was Tutor in English Literature at Coleg Harlech for many years. He has been a freelance writer for several years, and is a published poet and biographer, but the Lowmoor books are his first for children. He is married with one son and lives near Harlech.

Reviews

[Becky · Rating 3 out of 5]

The final part of the trilogy, pretty much kicks off where book 2 finished. Jewel and Thorn are trying to track down Racky and Querne, venturing into a strange underground system of tunnels that lead to Quernes lair and the rest of the Crystals. Some familiar faces show up along the away and as always there are many troubles and dangers.
This book is only 372 pages but it felt more like 500 - it was really slow in places and felt like it dragged quite a bit. I wanted to see it through and find out how it all ended and I wasn't that blown away in that respect either - it was very lose and slightly open.
I liked Jewel's inner conflict and the temptation of evil - it made her seem more realistic and humane.
Not a bad series overall but I wasn't blown away.

[Doris · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a decent book but not fully "Americanized" in the language / spelling. For example, labour vs labor.

But my main lack of good feelings for this book is, it just seemed to drag, plus there was too much death.

I did find myself comparing this to Harry Potter and some other coming-of-age books.

[Stephen Taylor · Rating 3 out of 5]

Iron Angel is an easy book to rate - it's good enough for one reading, but lacking enough not to merit much more.

This is a good example of British fantasy. It has a decently unique setting and cultural system, with lighter writing than you'd find in most American epic fantasy. The reading was mostly easy, plotting passable(it drags in some spots, though), and a few decent characters and exciting scenes top things off. Unfortunately, that's about all the food there is to say...

Cons: The main characters are the weakest characters in the book. The climax is also the weakest portion of the book, with several descriptive 'spectacles' that lack any special juice. Character interactions, though good between Thorn, Briar and Racky, are very weak between Thorn and Jewel. In short, Iron Angel has the emotional and character width of its own dust jacket.

Despite the flaws, I did enjoy reading Iron Angel. It's good, though, that I approached it with no expectations, because it's no extraordinary read.

[Miss Clark · Rating 2 out of 5]

Weird blend of technology and scifi with magic and paranormal. Never really felt connected to Jewel or Thorne as characters and I never felt the Iron Angel/cult storyline had much to offer. Cool spin on the alternate universes and the people of Lowmoor getting sucked into the human world and that killing off the humans or sending them elsewhere because of the quantum/crystals. Would have liked a stronger ending.

On the whole, I cannot say I recommend the series. There was nothing really special or funny or touching about it.