The Rise of the Iron Moon
category: science fiction: steampunk, author:Stephen Hunt
book 3 of Jackalsoriginal copyright 2009,
read in June 2011
Agamedes' opinion: 6 out of 10
As I started reading I thought, yes, this is quite fun. As I read on I down-graded my assessment. Part of it is the standard problem, of reading first the third book in a series.
But there's more.
Iron Moon introduces a couple of interesting characters. So far, so good. Then we jump to the characters from -- it seems -- previous books. Who -- because the author already knows them -- get just a sketchy introduction. There is a basic dissonance: thorough introductions to characters who turn out to be second-string support, weak introductions to main characters.
Reading just this one book, there is very little to attract me to the main characters.
Okay... All of that is a problem with having missed the first two books in the series. But...
There are three main characters -- and a whole lot of Star Trek ensigns...
In Star Trek, when the Captain beamed down to a new planet, he would take other officers -- and an ensign. The key role of the ensign was to be killed, so that we knew that things were really serious.
Well, Iron Moon is not quite that bad. Several of the "ensigns" -- the secondary characters who accompany the main group -- do play important roles. But they do have tendency to die before the end of the book. Perhaps a better analogy would be the later books of Xanth by Piers Anthony: the characters actually strive to be "main" characters, just so that they will be guaranteed survival...
Anyway, I was disappointed as various interesting characters were killed off. Though I'm willing to guess that several will reappear in later books... Never depend on the death of an interesting hero or villain unless you see the dead body. And, sometimes, not even then.
I also do not like the "civilisation" in which the story is set...
The heroes are battling to save a country which practices barbarism. There is some stupidity... well, a lot of stupidity, which could be intended to be satirical. There is also cruelty, the callous treatment of humans as though they were insensate objects.
This is not a "civilisation" worth supporting. Sure, the baddies are worse. It's a matter of, which evil will we support? Except that the characters do not recognise the barbarity within their own gates.
Yet another comparison: This is a Lensmen book, with vast battles, millions killed, planets destroyed. Where the Lensmen fought for ultimate good over ultimate evil -- these people just fight for their own security. They fight for a country which is, essentially, Eddorian.
Iron Moon is an enjoyable read. If you don't look behind the characters to their countries. If you don't get too attached to characters. And, perhaps, if you're a fan of any book of steampunk.
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