Bright Steel

I didn’t read this book immediately after Cold Iron and Dark Forge despite my glowing opinions of both. I know full well why this is, and it’s a personal hang-up I have about listening to the next book in a series when things have suddenly gone poorly for the characters in the previous novel right at the last minute. It almost makes me scared to see what happens next and kills my enthusiasm to carry on, but when I did finally get around to starting this book, I could have slapped myself right across my stupid face for being such a little sissy. This was a great book through and through and a fantastic climax to the trilogy; although Cameron does give a vague hint after the epilogue that we may be getting more books from this universe, something I would be very excited to see.

From the get-go, this book had me hooked straight back in, with our heroes playing a game of intrigue and deception to try and undo the poor state of affairs they found themselves in at the end of Book 2. Aranthur and co set about using their sharp wits and even sharper blades in a series of events that are clever, gripping, and super satisfying to watch unfold, and we get the pleasure of watching our one time farm-boy emerge from these events as a very competent spymaster, managing to brilliantly balance all the spinning plates in this dangerous game of shadows. This half of the book brings back some of the best aspects of Cold Iron through the in-depth character development; however, this time it is spiced liberally with the trials and tribulations those characters have already gone through. These are human characters, people who know they just have to get on and do some nasty things for the right reasons, and how they come to deal with the aspects of themselves that these trying times have fashioned is both believable and understandable. Maybe I like these books so much because Aranthur speaks to my personal sensibilities and mentalities so much, as even when Aranthur makes a choice that I would not have (which is rarely), his actions and motives are explained to a degree that I entirely understand why he makes his choices. Every main character in this book is a three-dimensional being, and in crafting them as such, Cameron has given true depth to the world he has created.

The second half of the book then pulls out some of the world-trotting, in-depth military aspects that set Dark Forge apart from Cold Iron. I’ll admit that these aspects aren’t quite as awe-inspiring to the history nerd that I am at heart as the content in Dark Forge was, but that’s not to say that they still weren’t delivered extremely well. I know it’s such a nerdy thing to love, but the minutia of military planning and logistics is something that I am personally very interested in (see my love the Spellmonger series), and the methods through which the arcane arts of Cameron’s world are integrated into these aspects are fantastic. Although there aren’t the succession of huge pitched battles that we were gifted with in Dark Forge, we do get enough swashbuckling combat to tickle that morbid adrenaline junky who sits at the back of my mind judging any book that shies from blood-soaked heroism. Once again, the blend of fantastic swordsmanship descriptions, interesting and at times devilishly implemented magery, and the whipcrack nature of black powder weaponry makes the fight scenes in this book some of the best I have ever come across. Just beautifully written.

As for the story itself, it is well thought out, well executed, and doesn’t hold any punches, going to efforts to explain some of the burning questions we are left with after Dark Forge. By the end of this novel I was left well and truly satisfied by the conclusion, having spent three books watching these characters develop and grow in a way I could only ever dream of in my own writing.

Here’s a little example of how engrossing this story was that highlights it’s quality better than any pure description ever could. I drive a lot for my day job as an ecologist, and often at ungodly hours of the night thanks to bat surveys. I have a rule where I only listen to audiobooks when I drive during the day, as I need all my attention for the late night driving and can’t risk the slight lulling of my senses that comes from listening to a flowing story. I started this book just as I was beginning one such late night drive, three hours of motorways and roadworks after what had already been a very tiring day. I thought that I’d listen to maybe 30 minutes of the book to hook my interest once more then crank up a Foo Fighters album to keep myself awake for the rest of the drive, only the Foos never arrived. Within ten minutes of listening to this book, my brain was so engaged that the very idea that I might get tired at the wheel seemed ludicrous. The story of this book didn’t just entertain me. It jump-started my sleep-deprived brain to such a degree that I could have driven on all night. I wasn’t blindly engrossed. I was critically thinking about what each character was doing, why they were doing it, and how that might impact the greater narrative. And there aren’t many books that will get that kind of response from me.

As with the last two books, Mark Meadows’s narration was brilliant. Meadows has a voice that had me unsure for the first couple of minutes, with a quality to it that I wasn’t positive that I liked immediately. This unease lasted for all of ten minutes though, after which I remember why I loved this man’s narration and character portrayals from Cold Iron and Dark Forge so much. He does a hell of a job with such a spectrum of voices and accents that I genuinely don’t know if I have ever listened to a narrator with such range before. Bravo.

Personal rating: 5 stars

Professional rating: 4.75 stars