THE IRON TRAITOR
By Julie Kagawa
~Book Review~
*Contains MAJOR spoilers, proceed at your own risk*
ALRIGHT, Meghan’s little brother: what’ve you got?
The Iron Traitor
is Book II of the Call of the Forgotten Series, based in Julie Kagawa’s Iron
Fey world. This is a spin-off series that switches the narrator from Meghan
Chase to her younger half-brother, Ethan. The Lost Prince is the first book, in which Ethan reconciled (somewhat) with his
fear of the fey by going on a little Faeryland adventure
of his own. On the way, he befriended (somewhat) his sister’s princeling son,
Kierran; Kierran’s boring summer fae love interest, Annwyl; and he more-then-befriended
his classmate Makenzie, who is dying of leukemia and thus finds the fey world exhilarating.
Before we begin:
I’m an uber huge fan of The Iron Knight (Iron Fey Book IV), which had no annoying Meghan and focused on
Ash and Puck’s bromance as they underwent one of the most creative and
jaw-dropping fantasy adventures ever through Faeryland—to the “End of the World”
itself. Everything was well-paced and plotted, and the characterization? You
couldn’t ask for better character chemistry. So I was super excited to hear
about Kagawa re-visiting Faeryland in the Call of Forgotten Series, although I
was apprehensive when I heard the narrative voice would shift to Ethan.
Ethan’s okay. He’s not too riveting, but he’s not one-dimensional,
either; he’s just kinda a guy who wants to do the right thing. And who cares,
when he’s gonna show us more of Faeryland, with its devious, deal-making Fae, intricate
world-building, and the king of one-liners, Grimalkin.
In Iron Traitor,
Ethan attempts some semblance of a normal life with his now-girlfriend,
Makenzie, before he receives news that Kierran has gone missing. Since Kierran’s
life revolves around Annwyl, a very passive but beautiful
banished Fae who is Fading, it doesn’t take too long for Ethan to figure out
that Kierran is attempting to stop her Fade by dealing with some very seedy
characters. All Fae fade if they spend too much time away from Faeryland or
if they’ve been forgotten by humankind. Speaking of, the Forgotten Fey are back,
and they’re determined to no longer remain forgotten in the minds of humans
through any means necessary.
Ethan jumps to help Kierran and Annwyl (hey, it’s more
interesting than anything he’s got going on at home) and thus faces a series of
difficult decisions as to how far he will go to save a loved one’s life—which
successively get harder and harder, and more convoluted, and more destructive.
Of course, such decisions don’t seem to be too difficult for
our boy Kierran, and you have to give him points for how long he’s able to
manipulate the group. At other times, you have to rant. Excuse me for a moment.
KIERRAN, Kierran, Kierran. *Pats him on the shoulder and
sighs*. Okay, maybe Ethan gets a pass
on Politics 101 because he obviously spends his school days hanging out in the
principal’s office rather than in class (*cough,
cough* and is content to blindly follow your rebellious little teenage butt around
*cough*). But Mr. Prodigy Son of Meghan and Ash! When the merciless Queen Titania--who is an awesome wicked character in her remorselessness but who has never once done something remotely beneficial
to others—makes you the following offer:
MAJOR SPOILERS!!!
MAJOR!!
How ‘bouts dis: you go into the realm of my SWORN enemy, the
Winter Fae, and kill off this giant mysterious beastie living in the heart of
the Frozen Wood, and then I’ll consider
lifting dear sweet Annwyl’s banishment. Consider.
Consider. CONSIDER.
A.k.a: ha ha, no.
Her insane offer is so blatantly obvious that Annwyl’s
reinstatement ain’t never gonna happen that she’s practically insulting the
main characters’ intelligence. Which is funny, but they take her seriously. How
desperation dost blind the brain past any sense of reason (Kenzie, that would
have been a good time for you to step in). Let’s consider why Titania would want some age-old power living in her opponents’
realm dead. Hmmm, out of the goodness of her heart to get a terrible monster off
the Winter Queen’s plate? No. If it’s causing havoc in the Winter realm, then
she has a lot of motivation to let it be. So why would she want a
beneficial/neutral creature in the Winter realm gone? Obviously by getting rid
of it, then it will benefit Summer somehow. Make Winter more vulnerable.
Probably piss them off a lot. And since she’s so vague about why she wants it
dead, then you know the stakes are pretty high—as in
game-altering-causing-a-war type of high. Maybe a little more negotiating and
turning the attention back to Summer
and asking if there’s any pesky Fae running around Summer’s territory that they could get rid of, they would be able
to tease out her true intentions instead of accepting her lies at face value.
But then we wouldn’t see Ethan and Co. face down a giant,
terrible ice monster, and who doesn’t want to see Ethan fight an epic battle
with an ice monster out of Kagawa’s fantastic imagination? No arguments here.
So Kierran’s soul is being corrupted and he doesn’t give a
damn about Winter and Summer. Clearly this corruption comes with a little
stupidity, too. But whatever. We get a cool journey through the Winter Realm
and an epic showdown. From there, you’d think the answer would be to knock
Kierran out and have his ass fired from the “saving Annwyl” operation, but he’s
more interesting when he’s running around causing mayhem. And boy, does he. The
interesting question in the third book—besides if we’ll see Titania fight more—is
if Kierran can redeem himself.
*END OF SPOILERS!*
*END*
So if you can suspend your disbelief for more than just the
hobgoblins running around New Orleans and understand that all of the characters’
actions are going to be along the lines of: “Yeah…we probably shouldn’t be
doing this…but what the hell. We’ve gotta save what’s her name—Annwyl,” then
you are in for yet another entertaining adventure in Faeryland, far more
intriguing than Book I: The Lost Prince,
in my opinion. Kagawa brings up fascinating dilemmas like how the fey know they
can live forever…as long as they aren’t forgotten (what must they do to ensure
that?) and I still think her Summer/Winter Fae conceptions are some of the best
‘round fantasy town. Here’s to Book III—and given the shocking (but not
unforeseen) cliffhanger to Book II, whatever delightful surprise Kagawa has
waiting for us next.
Recommend for fans of: Melissa Marr, Richelle Mead, Andrea
Cremer
Upcoming April Book Review: Sweet Evil by Wendy Higgins
No comments:
Post a Comment
Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.