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Wicked Ways: An Iron Kingdoms Chronicles Anthology
No Rest for the Wicked...or for Those who Investigate Them
Sinister forces lurk in the corners of the Iron Kingdoms restless souls, mischievous and cunning creatures, darker beings that bargain for mortal souls. Most pass unmarked, shunned, or avoided, but there is one group willing to seek out and study what others fear.
In abandoned halls and forgotten ruins, the investigators from the Strangelight Workshop illuminate the darkness, armed with wisdom, curiosity, and specialized tools. The Workshop employs an odd blend of scientists, mercenaries, and occult explorers who seek to understand the unfathomable, to peel back the veil between life and death to commune with spirits haunting places beset by tragedy and madness. But now one team is about to step off the precipice when they learn of a malevolent plot to unravel all they have done and to harvest the souls of all humanity.
Something cruel awaits them. Something vile. Something wicked.
Sinister forces lurk in the corners of the Iron Kingdoms restless souls, mischievous and cunning creatures, darker beings that bargain for mortal souls. Most pass unmarked, shunned, or avoided, but there is one group willing to seek out and study what others fear.
In abandoned halls and forgotten ruins, the investigators from the Strangelight Workshop illuminate the darkness, armed with wisdom, curiosity, and specialized tools. The Workshop employs an odd blend of scientists, mercenaries, and occult explorers who seek to understand the unfathomable, to peel back the veil between life and death to commune with spirits haunting places beset by tragedy and madness. But now one team is about to step off the precipice when they learn of a malevolent plot to unravel all they have done and to harvest the souls of all humanity.
Something cruel awaits them. Something vile. Something wicked.
320 pages, Paperback
Published June 28, 2017
5 people are currently reading
33 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 4, 2020
A legitimately good story in the warmachine/iron kingdoms setting. Unusually for these books, it doesn't rely on shoving a bunch of unnecessary game characters into the story for nonsensical cameos (there's some of that, but not a ton) but actually just tells interesting and self-contained stories using the setting and lore of the world to build off of. Most of it isn't SUPER original, but it's fun to see old ghost story tropes reused in the context of the iron kingdoms (which is a rich and interesting setting, if you get far enough away from the 'main plotline' of the game).
One gripe I have is that there is just...no context for lethality in these stories. In one story, you've got the posse taking down a Soul Stalker with just one redshirt casualty, in another you've got an improbable escape from a horde of grymkin through an extradimensional trapperkin lair, aaaaaand...in another you get a major character getting randomly shot in the head by a random soldier for no real reason or payoff. It's really a tone problem, honestly. The gritty realism does not mesh well with the more 'heroic fantasy' elements, and it can be a bit jarring IMO. Still a good collection of stories, though.
One gripe I have is that there is just...no context for lethality in these stories. In one story, you've got the posse taking down a Soul Stalker with just one redshirt casualty, in another you've got an improbable escape from a horde of grymkin through an extradimensional trapperkin lair, aaaaaand...in another you get a major character getting randomly shot in the head by a random soldier for no real reason or payoff. It's really a tone problem, honestly. The gritty realism does not mesh well with the more 'heroic fantasy' elements, and it can be a bit jarring IMO. Still a good collection of stories, though.
October 2, 2019
This was absolutely AWESOME!!!
This is supposed to be based on a fantasy role playing game, I'm not a big gamer, I've played that many books that you can count on your one hand.
I had no idea what I was getting into but I believed it would be awesome just like every single audio book I listened to so far done by them. I wasn't wrong.
I might even check out the game hahaha
I really have enjoyed every single story. As usual, the Graphic Audio production team has done it, I just love their work.I
Whoever of you hasn't heard of their podcast, it's a must for you to get a taste of what their audio books are like. You won't regret it. And oh, by the way, I couldn't find it at first. I found it in Google podcasts and it's called and written as G.A.S.P. As in Graphic Audio Story Podcast :) I'm already hooked on one story and am listening part 3 of the podcast already, and it's free guys! It's called "Playing gods"...check it out :)
They say to give them 5* but I don't know where? If anyone can comment on that, if be very thankful!
This is supposed to be based on a fantasy role playing game, I'm not a big gamer, I've played that many books that you can count on your one hand.
I had no idea what I was getting into but I believed it would be awesome just like every single audio book I listened to so far done by them. I wasn't wrong.
I might even check out the game hahaha
I really have enjoyed every single story. As usual, the Graphic Audio production team has done it, I just love their work.I
Whoever of you hasn't heard of their podcast, it's a must for you to get a taste of what their audio books are like. You won't regret it. And oh, by the way, I couldn't find it at first. I found it in Google podcasts and it's called and written as G.A.S.P. As in Graphic Audio Story Podcast :) I'm already hooked on one story and am listening part 3 of the podcast already, and it's free guys! It's called "Playing gods"...check it out :)
They say to give them 5* but I don't know where? If anyone can comment on that, if be very thankful!
December 8, 2023
It feels like they took their ttrpg campaign and just put it in a book, the two mediums clash often. Each chapter is long and episodic. Characters are fairly flat. A friend suggested this as a good way to get in the universe but I don’t think it does a good job of making me excited to exist longer in this universe.
There was one good moment about 3/4ths of the way through the book but that one admittedly cliche moment doesn’t make up for the rest. It’s not the worst book, it just doesn’t provide anything to really hold on to.
There was one good moment about 3/4ths of the way through the book but that one admittedly cliche moment doesn’t make up for the rest. It’s not the worst book, it just doesn’t provide anything to really hold on to.
March 20, 2025
In a land called the Iron Kingdoms, there are ghosts and demons wreaking all sorts of havoc, which is where the Strangelight Workshop investigators come in. They travel all over the kingdoms, fighting ghosts and ghouls and spooky monsters of all kinds, slowly discovering that all of the work they’re doing is interconnected, that the world is in danger from more than a few pop up hauntings here or there but may be falling to something far greater and more sinister.
I referred to this in my reading journal as “what if Ghostbusters but make it steampunk?” and that’s essentially what we have here. The era is that murky whenever that fantasy takes place—there are cameras, but they’re not super advanced, and everyone travels by horse and buggy, but we also have heating and indoor plumbing. There are a lot of humans, most of the main team as far as I could tell, but you come across trolls and ogrons and dwarfs and what have you and it’s not odd in the slightest. Wars are happening here and there, and gears are probably quite fashionable, except not for the royals who also exist. It’s fantasy time. We handwave.
The book is set up as a series of short stories, each focusing on one of the characters in this team of investigators. It reminded me delightfully of Star Trek: The Next Generation the way they’d kind of pair up for an episode or you’d have the whole team sometimes. Maybe one episode would just be Data and Geordie but another would be the whole ass away team and then you’d have a Troi thing going on. And during each story, you get insight into that character and why they’re on these missions and what their strengths are and what their fears are and so on. The stories vary from typical hauntings to demons to “oh hey, that’s gonna be a problem for the whole world, cool.”
I’d never read anything in this universe before and I had no trouble easing into this, and I think it’s a fun romp for anyone who either has familiarity with the universe or has no idea what’s going on whatsoever. It stands alone nicely. And it’s not my usual genre (this was another audio book gift from a friend with whom I’m trading books; they love the books in this universe), but I enjoyed it well enough.
My only real critique was with the sound mixing on the audio book, oddly enough. It may have just been me, but I had trouble hearing the narration during the battle sequences with so many sound effects going on. And I have auditory processing issues anyway, so again, it might have just been a me thing, but I wished I could’ve adjusted the soundboard a little bit.
But! Adventures are fun, action is fun, and I had fun.
I referred to this in my reading journal as “what if Ghostbusters but make it steampunk?” and that’s essentially what we have here. The era is that murky whenever that fantasy takes place—there are cameras, but they’re not super advanced, and everyone travels by horse and buggy, but we also have heating and indoor plumbing. There are a lot of humans, most of the main team as far as I could tell, but you come across trolls and ogrons and dwarfs and what have you and it’s not odd in the slightest. Wars are happening here and there, and gears are probably quite fashionable, except not for the royals who also exist. It’s fantasy time. We handwave.
The book is set up as a series of short stories, each focusing on one of the characters in this team of investigators. It reminded me delightfully of Star Trek: The Next Generation the way they’d kind of pair up for an episode or you’d have the whole team sometimes. Maybe one episode would just be Data and Geordie but another would be the whole ass away team and then you’d have a Troi thing going on. And during each story, you get insight into that character and why they’re on these missions and what their strengths are and what their fears are and so on. The stories vary from typical hauntings to demons to “oh hey, that’s gonna be a problem for the whole world, cool.”
I’d never read anything in this universe before and I had no trouble easing into this, and I think it’s a fun romp for anyone who either has familiarity with the universe or has no idea what’s going on whatsoever. It stands alone nicely. And it’s not my usual genre (this was another audio book gift from a friend with whom I’m trading books; they love the books in this universe), but I enjoyed it well enough.
My only real critique was with the sound mixing on the audio book, oddly enough. It may have just been me, but I had trouble hearing the narration during the battle sequences with so many sound effects going on. And I have auditory processing issues anyway, so again, it might have just been a me thing, but I wished I could’ve adjusted the soundboard a little bit.
But! Adventures are fun, action is fun, and I had fun.
Read
September 26, 2022Ghostbusters in the IK. Mostly fun stories. Most of them drag on a little too long, and they mostly have the same story beats -- spooky paranormal activity, investigation (that doesn't really bear fruit), then a big fight at the end. I was pretty engaged in every story for the first 1/2 to 2/3rds, but kinda checked out after that. The first is the only that really sticks the landing, but for IK game fiction, this collection isn't terrible.
TM1
TM1
July 31, 2017
A great little series of stories about the darker supernatural entities of the Iron Kingdoms.
The story is probably one of the most accessable iron kingdoms books I have read where the story builds its own area of the world instead of relying as much on the readers knowledge of the Iron Kingdoms beforehand.
The story is probably one of the most accessable iron kingdoms books I have read where the story builds its own area of the world instead of relying as much on the readers knowledge of the Iron Kingdoms beforehand.
August 25, 2017
Surprisingly good read! Looking forward to reading more about the coming harvest.
December 25, 2017
What a great way to flesh out a new faction. Looking forward to seeing more of the Strangelight Workshops crew. I quite enjoyed the sheer variety in the short stories included in this collection.
August 30, 2022
The first 2 stories were fine. Nothing special, but fun pulpy fantasy horror. I may pick it up again later if I’m in the mood for that.
December 7, 2024
Really good stories about the non-army, non-warcaster adventures. Varied stories, switching PoVs, overall really good display of the world.
October 1, 2025
3 Yes. . Not a fan. Sometimes these ‘graphic’ novels with a cast of voice actors work for me and sometimes they don’t.
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November 12, 2025"Bustin' makes me feel good."
- Ray Parker Jr.
- Ray Parker Jr.
March 19, 2020
A fun episodic read/listen that's tempting me back into the universe. It really reminded me of a steampunk Ghost Busters.
The broad strokes would be a team of scientists/alchemists go around investigating weird phenomenon, said group starts to learn there's more to these events than they thought. Expect some weird technology, magic, gun fights, demons ghosts and other things that go bump in the night.
To start I played the MK 2 version of Warmachine Hordes years ago so I knew a little bit of the lore and recognized some of the names but I never actually paid attention to the overall narrative. So like most epic settings when you jump into the deep end instead of wading in from the beginning it's a little shocking at first with all the names and technology and locations but after that initial shock this book was a lot of fun.
The broad strokes would be a team of scientists/alchemists go around investigating weird phenomenon, said group starts to learn there's more to these events than they thought. Expect some weird technology, magic, gun fights, demons ghosts and other things that go bump in the night.
To start I played the MK 2 version of Warmachine Hordes years ago so I knew a little bit of the lore and recognized some of the names but I never actually paid attention to the overall narrative. So like most epic settings when you jump into the deep end instead of wading in from the beginning it's a little shocking at first with all the names and technology and locations but after that initial shock this book was a lot of fun.
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews