The Iron Hunt
2 journalers for this copy...
Bought at 2022 Spring FOL Booksale
I am torn on this one, but really couldn't give it more.
What I liked:
✅ Good world-building
✅ Interesting characters
What didn't work:
✅ Everything else
Maxine is a demon hunter with a remarkable resilience due to her tattoos. The tats are her "boys" - they are five demons who sleep during the day on her body and shield her from any number of bad things (like getting hit by a bus), but at sunset peel away and become separate entities, although they stay close and still protect her. A man is murdered and, while she does not know him, it appears he was looking for her. As the story unfolds, it appears that this world is endangered by the thinning of the veil that holds back any number of baddies and Maxine is the only one who can stand against it.
That sounds promising and I liked many of the characters (Grant, her main squeeze, was especially intriguing, as was Byron, a teen Max rescues, who may be more than he appears). The beginning was promising. But about a third of the way in, the story bogs down. There are too many unknowns. Too many things that are just dropped into the story and then just go nowhere. It was confusing and filled with choppy descriptions of fantastic sensory experiences with little else to go on. The writing style is more suited to graphic novels (and I think the author *does* them as well) and does the reader no favors. The time Max spends in the Labyrinth is a confusing mess - pages upon pages of nearly nothing. The ending is as ambiguous as the rest and I doubt I'll be reading further. There were teasers of things to come but I can't continue this series. (SPOILER ALERT:
The biggest one was that Grant was called "Lightbringer" - and if you know your names, that is the translation of Lucifer. So is Grant, a former priest actually The Devil? Or is something else going on here? I may never know...
What I liked:
✅ Good world-building
✅ Interesting characters
What didn't work:
✅ Everything else
Maxine is a demon hunter with a remarkable resilience due to her tattoos. The tats are her "boys" - they are five demons who sleep during the day on her body and shield her from any number of bad things (like getting hit by a bus), but at sunset peel away and become separate entities, although they stay close and still protect her. A man is murdered and, while she does not know him, it appears he was looking for her. As the story unfolds, it appears that this world is endangered by the thinning of the veil that holds back any number of baddies and Maxine is the only one who can stand against it.
That sounds promising and I liked many of the characters (Grant, her main squeeze, was especially intriguing, as was Byron, a teen Max rescues, who may be more than he appears). The beginning was promising. But about a third of the way in, the story bogs down. There are too many unknowns. Too many things that are just dropped into the story and then just go nowhere. It was confusing and filled with choppy descriptions of fantastic sensory experiences with little else to go on. The writing style is more suited to graphic novels (and I think the author *does* them as well) and does the reader no favors. The time Max spends in the Labyrinth is a confusing mess - pages upon pages of nearly nothing. The ending is as ambiguous as the rest and I doubt I'll be reading further. There were teasers of things to come but I can't continue this series. (SPOILER ALERT:
The biggest one was that Grant was called "Lightbringer" - and if you know your names, that is the translation of Lucifer. So is Grant, a former priest actually The Devil? Or is something else going on here? I may never know...
Releasing in box of books
Mass-market paperback; appears to be the first book in a series. Interesting cover art by Craig White.Part of a box of books generously sent from Tennessee by Bkind2books.
I might read this, or it might go into my Asian Diaspora bookbox if I ever get my act together and send it out again...
