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The Malorum Gates #1
Cold Iron
Fraternal twins Nels and Suvi move beyond their royal heritage and into military and magical dominion in this flintlock epic fantasy debut from a two-time Campbell Award finalist.
Prince Nels is the scholarly runt of the ancient Kainen royal family of Eledore, disregarded as flawed by the king and many others. Only Suvi, his fraternal twin sister, supports him. When Nels is ambushed by an Acrasian scouting party, he does the forbidden for a member of the ruling family: He picks up a fallen sword and defends himself.
Disowned and dismissed to the military, Nels establishes himself as a leader as Eledore begins to shatter under the attack of the Acrasians, who the Kainen had previously dismissed as barbarians. But Nels knows differently, and with the aid of Suvi, who has allied with pirates, he mounts a military offensive with sword, canon, and what little magic is left in the world.
Prince Nels is the scholarly runt of the ancient Kainen royal family of Eledore, disregarded as flawed by the king and many others. Only Suvi, his fraternal twin sister, supports him. When Nels is ambushed by an Acrasian scouting party, he does the forbidden for a member of the ruling family: He picks up a fallen sword and defends himself.
Disowned and dismissed to the military, Nels establishes himself as a leader as Eledore begins to shatter under the attack of the Acrasians, who the Kainen had previously dismissed as barbarians. But Nels knows differently, and with the aid of Suvi, who has allied with pirates, he mounts a military offensive with sword, canon, and what little magic is left in the world.
688 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 14, 2015
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews
August 18, 2020
What a wonderful book! Not my usual genre pick, but this first in the trilogy THE MALORUM GATES by Stina Liecht was a great read.
I found the characters to be likeable and full of personality. The situations presented were well thought out and very adventurous.
Honestly, I was impressed that a free ebook would be so well-written and entertaining.
COLD IRON is recommended to any reader who enjoys a quick read with substance. 🐎👑🦑❄️
I found the characters to be likeable and full of personality. The situations presented were well thought out and very adventurous.
Honestly, I was impressed that a free ebook would be so well-written and entertaining.
COLD IRON is recommended to any reader who enjoys a quick read with substance. 🐎👑🦑❄️
June 9, 2015
4.5
The writing is solid, and the multiple points-of-view for the most part kept me engaged. When I did begin to feel a little bored with some slower parts, something new was introduced like PLAGUE or SEA MONSTERS, and I was immediately reeled back in.
The magic system is fairly straightforward, yet interesting, especially where it trends towards ritual magic. The kainen command magic was a really neat and terrifying concept, especially in combat, and in regard to the use of cannons and pistols.
I love love love the setting. It's a fresh blend of 18th-19th century Finland and Sweden, with some other locales that may be fleshed out later in the series? I nerded out a few times about Finnish vocabulary. For example, the royal healer and seer is called the Silmaillia and "silma" means "eye" in Finnish.
All in all, a very strong foray into epic fantasy for Leicht.
(may flesh this out more as more tidbits come to me)
The writing is solid, and the multiple points-of-view for the most part kept me engaged. When I did begin to feel a little bored with some slower parts, something new was introduced like PLAGUE or SEA MONSTERS, and I was immediately reeled back in.
The magic system is fairly straightforward, yet interesting, especially where it trends towards ritual magic. The kainen command magic was a really neat and terrifying concept, especially in combat, and in regard to the use of cannons and pistols.
I love love love the setting. It's a fresh blend of 18th-19th century Finland and Sweden, with some other locales that may be fleshed out later in the series? I nerded out a few times about Finnish vocabulary. For example, the royal healer and seer is called the Silmaillia and "silma" means "eye" in Finnish.
All in all, a very strong foray into epic fantasy for Leicht.
(may flesh this out more as more tidbits come to me)
October 4, 2015
... Cold Iron is a fun, fast read but as the opening novel of a new series it is perhaps not as convincing as it might have been. There are a lot of interesting elements to the story but, in this first book at least, they don't link up yet. A little bit of detail in some places would have made it a bit more coherent. Leicht has a lot of work to do to bring this story together. That being said, I am curious about what will happen next and that is always a good sign for a first book in a series. Even if there is some room for improvement, Leicht has convinced me to try the second volume.
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Full Random Comments review
August 13, 2015
I loved this book. I ripped through the 650 pages in a week, and this was with a couple days when I didn't have any time for reading. The prose is tight, clear-voiced, and smooth. The characters are richly complex, and Leicht gives a nice balance between portrayal through actions, revelation through conversation, and allowing glimpses into the inner thoughts of each viewpoint character. The world-building is solid and each society feels like it has a deep history, even though there are no information dumps. I loved the mix of flintlock level technology with ritual magic, even though I have a bias against guns in fantasy settings. In this case it worked so well, that I was won over quickly. Leicht also manages to bring in social commentary around feminism, gay rights, and other progressive concerns without ever being preachy or diverting the story; it's all is a seamless part of the narrative.
I've read one reviewer claiming that the villainous Uncle Sakari was cartoonishly evil, but I'll have to disagree with that. He was just as evil as any number of real life power-hungry royalties or politicians, and his contempt for those beneath him is no different than say many current US presidential hopefuls. Speaking of villain, the duel between Pesola and Nels was fucking awesome. And I'll leave it at that.
I've read one reviewer claiming that the villainous Uncle Sakari was cartoonishly evil, but I'll have to disagree with that. He was just as evil as any number of real life power-hungry royalties or politicians, and his contempt for those beneath him is no different than say many current US presidential hopefuls. Speaking of villain, the duel between Pesola and Nels was fucking awesome. And I'll leave it at that.
July 15, 2015
My review of this just went up over on B&N's Sci-Fi and Fantasy Blog!: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/blog/sc...
December 12, 2015
I liked the characters. I liked the Napoleonic style warfare and tech level. My only real problem was about halfway through I realized I was really confused about the worldbuilding and politics between nations. What exactly is the dispute between Elledore and Acrasia, and what started war? How did the king’s brother begin a palace coup and nobody really noticed? Who is running the kingdom anyway— is there no bureaucracy? Why exactly does the king mistrust his offspring so much? I kept reading to the end, hoping these questions would get answered, but that didn’t happen.
June 14, 2020
Well, I marked the next book as ‘to read’ but I’m not quite sure I want to.
This book started off really well. I was really enjoying it and super excited because ‘Yay! I found an author I like! Where I can read everything they wrote a la Sanderson or Butcher!” Yeah, there was an annoyingly bad sex scene filled with words that were jarringly different than all the other diction in the book...I mean there was never even any sexual humor in the army so it was particularly odd....but anyway, it was just a couple of paragraphs, easily skipped, so I thought it was going to be a great experience. And it was...right up until about page 500. Then it was a rapid descent into a disappointing whimper.
It was like the author had no idea how to end the book. Or no idea what she wanted to do. Or where she wanted to go. It kind of wanders all over the place and things are never explained. For instance, her ship is attacked by an allied nation, why? Never explained. The king, the guy who hated his son for his entire life, called him a defect in public, disowned him, and cut him off from all his accounts the day his mother died, suddenly tells him he’s proud of him and glad he’s visiting just two months later? Um....why? What happened to the prisoners? They are released and just disappear? Why, then, did the author play up how suspicious Nels was of their leader? Is he going to show up in the next book? How on earth does a culture go from being founded by a bad-ass warrior queen who banishes demons to a culture where no one talks about death and women aren’t allowed to inherit in just a couple of centuries? There were just a lot of questions that were never answered, and like I said, the last 200 pages were really disappointing. Which is a shame, because the first 500 were really quite good.
Then...then I read her acknowledgements and she likes Moorcock. Now I’ve lost most of my respect. Nels’ hair is from Eric of Melnibone. That had to be one of the worst books I have ever read in my life and it was mentioned alongside of Tolkien and Lynch! She talked about how Tolkien didn’t have any good female characters and never mentions Moorcock’s female characters!?! Who literally wait around in a tower being molested by their brothers and the only token struggle she offers is to be listless? Please.
....it’s a true shame that no one can hear the sheer disdain dripping from my voice in that last word. Seriously, it was horrible. Moorcock was awful. This book is not as bad as that, characters are way more realistic and interesting.
But, yeah, the book was disappointing. I might read the second if it’s at the library, I haven’t decided yet.
This book started off really well. I was really enjoying it and super excited because ‘Yay! I found an author I like! Where I can read everything they wrote a la Sanderson or Butcher!” Yeah, there was an annoyingly bad sex scene filled with words that were jarringly different than all the other diction in the book...I mean there was never even any sexual humor in the army so it was particularly odd....but anyway, it was just a couple of paragraphs, easily skipped, so I thought it was going to be a great experience. And it was...right up until about page 500. Then it was a rapid descent into a disappointing whimper.
It was like the author had no idea how to end the book. Or no idea what she wanted to do. Or where she wanted to go. It kind of wanders all over the place and things are never explained. For instance, her ship is attacked by an allied nation, why? Never explained. The king, the guy who hated his son for his entire life, called him a defect in public, disowned him, and cut him off from all his accounts the day his mother died, suddenly tells him he’s proud of him and glad he’s visiting just two months later? Um....why? What happened to the prisoners? They are released and just disappear? Why, then, did the author play up how suspicious Nels was of their leader? Is he going to show up in the next book? How on earth does a culture go from being founded by a bad-ass warrior queen who banishes demons to a culture where no one talks about death and women aren’t allowed to inherit in just a couple of centuries? There were just a lot of questions that were never answered, and like I said, the last 200 pages were really disappointing. Which is a shame, because the first 500 were really quite good.
Then...then I read her acknowledgements and she likes Moorcock. Now I’ve lost most of my respect. Nels’ hair is from Eric of Melnibone. That had to be one of the worst books I have ever read in my life and it was mentioned alongside of Tolkien and Lynch! She talked about how Tolkien didn’t have any good female characters and never mentions Moorcock’s female characters!?! Who literally wait around in a tower being molested by their brothers and the only token struggle she offers is to be listless? Please.
....it’s a true shame that no one can hear the sheer disdain dripping from my voice in that last word. Seriously, it was horrible. Moorcock was awful. This book is not as bad as that, characters are way more realistic and interesting.
But, yeah, the book was disappointing. I might read the second if it’s at the library, I haven’t decided yet.
July 25, 2025
I really wanted to like this book more, but I gave up about halfway through. While the book covers some really interesting aspects - soldiers are considered lowly members of society, and dealing with new diseases during war - a lot of them are not discussed in depth, which ultimately killed my interest. I can't tell you why some things happened or how we got here, and at first, I thought I was just missing parts of the text, but based on some other reviews I've seen, that doesn't seem to be the case.
July 16, 2016
OMG OMG you guys, it's like Stina Leicht took all of her favorite fantasy things and stuffed them into a single narrative and it's AWESOME. READ THIS BOOK NAO. So you know how Brian McClellan got all those mad props for that crazy awesome flintlock fantasy a couple of years ago? This is that, except that along with the war and the scheming for the throne, you’ve also got a son who was disinherited for the throne in favor of a daughter, the rise of demons, sea monsters, a plague, and SO much more, all wrapped into one tidy narrative with some fantastic writing. THIS IS SO WORTH THE READ.
July 6, 2018
An entertaining Fantasy novel set in a world with a 1700's level of technology, and primarily concerned with a declining kingdom of Scandinavian-style elves at war with their petty, venal, neighbors, the humans.
The plot wraps up well enough to be pretty satisfying, but there are so many unsatisfyingly incomplete elements that I classify this as first-in-an-incomplete-series rather than standalone-with-sequel-potential.
The plot wraps up well enough to be pretty satisfying, but there are so many unsatisfyingly incomplete elements that I classify this as first-in-an-incomplete-series rather than standalone-with-sequel-potential.
Want to read
November 30, 201530 November 2015: $1.99 on Kindle
May 3, 2016
A solid 4.5 stars. This was a great read & I can't wait to read the next book in the series!
August 16, 2015
One way or another, modern epic fantasy is a reaction to Tolkien. The hacks turn the map upside down and copy the master. The skillful writers set off at right angles and look for something new to say. In Cold Iron, Stina Leicht does the latter, building a cohesive Northern European fantasy world that looks nothing like Middle-Earth or Westeros.
Leicht writes that she wanted to come at fantasy from a more American perspective, and you can see these elements in her use of flintlock technology and the role disease plays in the plot. However, the landscape and the cultures borrow heavily from the Finns. If you want a place to feel old and lived-in, you can't do much better than that.
On many levels, this book reads a lot like Dune. There is a rich, carefully worked-out culture here, full of familiar elements but alien in structure. Unlike Dune, however, there are no helpful infodump quotes at the top of each chapter. Leicht is almost aggressive in forcing you to figure out the history and politics of the world -- her characters swim in their own cultural water and there's not an "As you know, Frank" to be seen. This is a book that requires slow, attentive reading.
Fortunately, the characters and story justify the effort. The action centers on a disgraced prince (Nels), a cunning princess (Suvi), and a healer (Ilta) struggling to come to terms with her powers and potential. Leicht shifts seamlessly between the characters, piling up problems, entertaining sidekicks, and the occasional Triumph Before Things Get Even Worse.
The plot doesn't move forward so much as build up pressure. The story isn't a quest, or a battle against ultimate evil (at least, not yet). It's history reaching a turning point. By the end, the safeties are off, the status quo is dead, and the characters have no choice to try something new.
You can call that part of the American comment on Tolkien if you like. I think of it as also akin to the Greenland Saga and other early exploration tales. However you classify it, though, Cold Iron is a strong start to what could become a very satisfying fantasy series.
Leicht writes that she wanted to come at fantasy from a more American perspective, and you can see these elements in her use of flintlock technology and the role disease plays in the plot. However, the landscape and the cultures borrow heavily from the Finns. If you want a place to feel old and lived-in, you can't do much better than that.
On many levels, this book reads a lot like Dune. There is a rich, carefully worked-out culture here, full of familiar elements but alien in structure. Unlike Dune, however, there are no helpful infodump quotes at the top of each chapter. Leicht is almost aggressive in forcing you to figure out the history and politics of the world -- her characters swim in their own cultural water and there's not an "As you know, Frank" to be seen. This is a book that requires slow, attentive reading.
Fortunately, the characters and story justify the effort. The action centers on a disgraced prince (Nels), a cunning princess (Suvi), and a healer (Ilta) struggling to come to terms with her powers and potential. Leicht shifts seamlessly between the characters, piling up problems, entertaining sidekicks, and the occasional Triumph Before Things Get Even Worse.
The plot doesn't move forward so much as build up pressure. The story isn't a quest, or a battle against ultimate evil (at least, not yet). It's history reaching a turning point. By the end, the safeties are off, the status quo is dead, and the characters have no choice to try something new.
You can call that part of the American comment on Tolkien if you like. I think of it as also akin to the Greenland Saga and other early exploration tales. However you classify it, though, Cold Iron is a strong start to what could become a very satisfying fantasy series.
July 27, 2015
I am really looking forward to reading more of this author. She is one to watch. While the writing is flawed in areas, the story telling shows a lot of promise.
Some of the things that I didn't like? I wanted more details about the world in general. HOW DID THE WAR BEGIN?! What the heck is going on with the magic (and it seems, the related ethics of magic) in this novel? Those areas are vague and never fully developed. Also, the dialogue at times is cliche and even just simple revelations about the characters are a little confusing.
However, the story that is told is compelling. Extremely compelling. I couldn't stop reading. I didn't know what the end game was and I appreciate that SO much in a book. I loved both Nels and Suvi. (Not so much Ilta, but her chapters are few and far between.) I will definitely be waiting for the second book in this series. I have no idea where the story is going to go. If a novel can have this many flaws and I still love it, I can't wait to see what happens when this author matures a little in her writing.
Some of the things that I didn't like? I wanted more details about the world in general. HOW DID THE WAR BEGIN?! What the heck is going on with the magic (and it seems, the related ethics of magic) in this novel? Those areas are vague and never fully developed. Also, the dialogue at times is cliche and even just simple revelations about the characters are a little confusing.
However, the story that is told is compelling. Extremely compelling. I couldn't stop reading. I didn't know what the end game was and I appreciate that SO much in a book. I loved both Nels and Suvi. (Not so much Ilta, but her chapters are few and far between.) I will definitely be waiting for the second book in this series. I have no idea where the story is going to go. If a novel can have this many flaws and I still love it, I can't wait to see what happens when this author matures a little in her writing.
December 30, 2018
The book is rich in plot, and storyline. I personally love the character Viktor Reini, who makes the book for me. Overall, I definitely recommend reading this book. My husband loved it, and is reading the next in the series. I read it per his recommendation, and can honestly say I enjoy it. This is the first time in a long time I have gotten through a book with so many pages. The reading goes quickly, and the book remains entertaining. There were times I felt it difficult to connect with Suvi's chapters, but her storyline grows less cumbersome in the end. The other chapters were fantastic.
March 6, 2018
Started out mildly interesting, but it's clearly one of those books that's intended to be a doorstop, because everything needs to take forever and there needs to be loads of travel and intrigue intrigue intrigue even though you're just kind of following along on it because it's not REAL intrigue, it's just the characters being behind on what to do next. I don't think I'll be keeping up on this series.
November 2, 2015
I really enjoyed this one - different but not. Good mains and engrossing plot. And the ending was very much not anticipated but good.
I will definitely be reading further in this series as they come out.
I will definitely be reading further in this series as they come out.
started_finish_later
July 21, 2015another one I looked at recently and put it down immediately as there is nothing there to attract my interest with very confused writing (which can be seen in the free Amazon preview too)
July 17, 2022
I picked this up after reading and loving Persephone Station, and was extremely disappointed.
There were parts of this that I enjoyed. The Waterborne, some of the early encounters with Nels, that was interesting. I liked both Suvi and Nels even though the argument could be made that they basically have the same personality, just with different hobbies. However, the plot seemed to lose momentum as it went along, becoming slower and slower until the last 250 pages were a slog. I honestly think that this series could have been one long book if Leicht had cut out all the dead weight.
The politics could have been interesting if we'd been given a more compelling reason to care. As it is, we don't really have a stake in the Acrasia vs. Eledore fight aside from the fact that Nels and Suvi are likeable. We aren't given a reason to be afraid of or hate the enemy. It's just two governments killing off the poor because that's what governments do. By the time the stakes are raised in the war, there is no reason to care who wins. I understand the desire to show how pointless war is and avoid a 'this race bad, this race good' binary, but we still need someone to root for. When there's clear villains on both sides (actually, more on the side we're meant to care about) and the reader knows you're not going to kill off all your main characters because at least one has to survive for there to be a second book, there's no tension, no stakes, no victory either way. There was so much unnecessary political b.s. in the middle that it just made me want both sides to lose out of spite for wasting my time with their nonsense.
Also, can we please stop fetishizing children having sex? Please? Thanks. I don't see any good plot reason that Nels and Ilta are together romantically, and though I assume Ilta takes a larger role in the later books, there are so few chapters here from her POV that it's pointless to have her there at all. There could have been so many other ways we could have learned about her role, if it's really even necessary.
There were parts of this that I enjoyed. The Waterborne, some of the early encounters with Nels, that was interesting. I liked both Suvi and Nels even though the argument could be made that they basically have the same personality, just with different hobbies. However, the plot seemed to lose momentum as it went along, becoming slower and slower until the last 250 pages were a slog. I honestly think that this series could have been one long book if Leicht had cut out all the dead weight.
The politics could have been interesting if we'd been given a more compelling reason to care. As it is, we don't really have a stake in the Acrasia vs. Eledore fight aside from the fact that Nels and Suvi are likeable. We aren't given a reason to be afraid of or hate the enemy. It's just two governments killing off the poor because that's what governments do. By the time the stakes are raised in the war, there is no reason to care who wins. I understand the desire to show how pointless war is and avoid a 'this race bad, this race good' binary, but we still need someone to root for. When there's clear villains on both sides (actually, more on the side we're meant to care about) and the reader knows you're not going to kill off all your main characters because at least one has to survive for there to be a second book, there's no tension, no stakes, no victory either way. There was so much unnecessary political b.s. in the middle that it just made me want both sides to lose out of spite for wasting my time with their nonsense.
Also, can we please stop fetishizing children having sex? Please? Thanks. I don't see any good plot reason that Nels and Ilta are together romantically, and though I assume Ilta takes a larger role in the later books, there are so few chapters here from her POV that it's pointless to have her there at all. There could have been so many other ways we could have learned about her role, if it's really even necessary.
September 8, 2018
DNF (at p469 of p652) - at 70% I couldn't take any more. Which is a shame, because I quite liked the setup and world (brother/sister, separated by circumstance, a mixture of light magic and a bit of technology, and a blend of politics and war). But the poor writing let me down, and with every successive chapter I found the characters less believable and the plot more contrived.
Key issues for me:
Signficant world events mostly happen both out of sight and between chapters, while within each chapter the characters play out roles with little obvious relevance to the major events happening elsewhere. The events that do happen (and the author really wants every group of chapters for a character to have its own dramatic beat) have minimal prior setup in the story, and so the payoffs feel unearned.
Transitions between POV characters have no clear indication of how their timelines related, which leave the various plot threads feel entirely disconnected from each other.
And the writing just feels clunky. This may be a personal opinion, but I winced at least once per chapter at turns of phrase that felt stilted, out of place, or simply not right for the setting and characters involved.
I wanted to like this; I really did. But all it has done is make me appreciate how hard it is to build a believable fantasy world and to construct a coherent story within it, and it's done so by failing to manage either. A shame.
Key issues for me:
Signficant world events mostly happen both out of sight and between chapters, while within each chapter the characters play out roles with little obvious relevance to the major events happening elsewhere. The events that do happen (and the author really wants every group of chapters for a character to have its own dramatic beat) have minimal prior setup in the story, and so the payoffs feel unearned.
Transitions between POV characters have no clear indication of how their timelines related, which leave the various plot threads feel entirely disconnected from each other.
And the writing just feels clunky. This may be a personal opinion, but I winced at least once per chapter at turns of phrase that felt stilted, out of place, or simply not right for the setting and characters involved.
I wanted to like this; I really did. But all it has done is make me appreciate how hard it is to build a believable fantasy world and to construct a coherent story within it, and it's done so by failing to manage either. A shame.
October 30, 2016
Every once and a while I read a book that I enjoy even though it makes frequent use of literary elements and styles I don't typically enjoy. A handful from Cold Iron are:
naming every single character no matter how brief their appearance
significant developments happen in between chapters
needlessly creating unresolved problems by adhering to a tight 3rd person point of view (seriously is Vicktor's family ok?)
and I never felt I had a solid understanding of the plot
And that's just what I can remember off the top of my head. So I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it! At the moment, I can't put my finger on it as to how it won me over, but I'm incredibly impressed that it did.
Looking forward to the next installment and hoping it continues on for many more.
naming every single character no matter how brief their appearance
significant developments happen in between chapters
needlessly creating unresolved problems by adhering to a tight 3rd person point of view (seriously is Vicktor's family ok?)
and I never felt I had a solid understanding of the plot
And that's just what I can remember off the top of my head. So I was really surprised at how much I enjoyed it! At the moment, I can't put my finger on it as to how it won me over, but I'm incredibly impressed that it did.
Looking forward to the next installment and hoping it continues on for many more.
October 17, 2023
I like how this book plays with the audience's expectations. . There is a lot the book never explains. That's a feature, I think. Telling too much can be a negative in fantasy (death by info dump). Instead the reader can piece together a lot of what is happening in the background from what is happening in the foreground. There are enough clues to pull it all together. I'm excited to see where book 2 goes.
April 28, 2018
DNFed at page 253 out of 643 after leaving it by my bedside for a couple of months.
Part of it’s me — coming of age (which this starts as) and male lead adventure characters don’t interest me all that much. Plus, I’m well enough read that if it’s not unusual, it can be a bore. There weren’t that many unusual things in the world building.
So it’s fine. It’s pleasantly written. It moves along. There are aristocrats and armies and unpleasant people trying to take over kingdoms with armies and underhanded shenanigans, while our underdog heroes grow up, marshall resources and fight back.
So what? What’s learned? What’s revealed about human nature or political nature or the nature of history? Not much. It’s epically, eipicing along. Sorry, but I was bored.
Part of it’s me — coming of age (which this starts as) and male lead adventure characters don’t interest me all that much. Plus, I’m well enough read that if it’s not unusual, it can be a bore. There weren’t that many unusual things in the world building.
So it’s fine. It’s pleasantly written. It moves along. There are aristocrats and armies and unpleasant people trying to take over kingdoms with armies and underhanded shenanigans, while our underdog heroes grow up, marshall resources and fight back.
So what? What’s learned? What’s revealed about human nature or political nature or the nature of history? Not much. It’s epically, eipicing along. Sorry, but I was bored.
November 9, 2024
Started 11-1-24; finished 11-8-24. Excellent sword and sorcery epic (650 pages) of tribe against tribe; battles galore; throne room intrigue; familial conflict; magic of different types; ship battles; some romance included. I'm just starting the second book of the duology (700 pages)-Blackthorne. Takes place 21 years after the first book--times have changed. Cold Iron was a little slow at the start but that was to introduce the main characters. Sort of like starting a story in the middle of a paragraph, but it didn't take long to take-off.
February 28, 2018
I really like this auth0r. Nels & Suvi, royal twins and heirs to the throne of Eledore struggle to save their kingdom and way of life. Eledore is home to the Kainen race with natural inborn magic . It is the only magic and has let the Kainen maintain promenence in the world. Acrasia a nation of humans is fighting back. Nels & Suvi are in the middle of familial plots, assassination attempts, plots and the humans are winning without magic.
May 1, 2023
I'd probably give this a 3.5. The characters and world was interesting and it was fun to see gunpowder introduced to a fantasy world. My one big gripe is that one of the big villains was so obviously one of the big villains that I kept hoping for a twist by the end. Sadly, he was just what was beaten over the reader's head. I am excited to read the follow-up, though, as some very interesting plot points were setup here.
December 26, 2019
Loved this! What a great world and interesting twists on how magic powers work, guns and so on. Also storm mages. It was clear she did her homework on military field Doctoring and the horrors of poor management in a kingdom's military.
June 22, 2017
Ahhhh I loved this book. This is fantasy at it's finest, and reminded me why I love this genre so much! (Full review: https://orbitingpluto.wordpress.com/2...)
August 19, 2017
I so appreciate this author's sense of humor as well as the storytelling from three points of view. Off to look for other works by Leicht and hoping the sequel exists NOW.
August 31, 2017
Well written solid book.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 76 reviews