Dark Forge

I jumped straight into Dark Forge after ploughing through Cold Iron in a matter of days, hoping that it would meet the fairly high standard of its predecessor.

From the outset, this book looked like it would have everything I could ever hope for. A host of well-developed characters from the first novel, a story far more like a good old fashioned adventure across distant lands than the first was, and what might have been most important from my personal perspective: battles, and multiples thereof. The first book was a bit of a standout for me in the amazing character development but was lacking on scenery, and in that respect, Dark Forge did not disappoint.

Our protagonist, Aranthur, spends this book galivanting around exotic and dangerous lands all while either hunting or being hunted by the dreaded forces of The Master, and some of the landscapes, cities, and people are not just beautifully described but truly feel like they exist in a living, breathing world. As for the action, well, were Cold Iron excelled at describing one on one combat or small level skirmishes, this book goes full force into expansive battles, ranging from pitched engagements to gruelling sieges, and they are done extremely well. I’m a bit of a history buff and have a tendency to nerd out on good use of authentic tactics and creative uses of new concepted (usually the realistic application of magic within the context of large scale battles and how that would alter the entire dynamic of combat) and once again, I wasn’t disappointed.

The magic system used in Cameron’s world was left a little wishy-washy in Cold Iron, and although it is still lacking the beautiful grounding and physical properties of series such as Mistborn or Stormlight Archive (yes, of course I’m a huge Sanderson fanboy in this respect), it is much more explained in this book than the last, delving into some of the deeper concepts and firming up the rules. I will admit that Aranthur gets somewhat OP in this book, but there are story-friendly explanations that keep that little logic goblin in my mind from tearing his hair out. The story itself goes a lot deeper into the causes of the current conflict that besets Aranthur and his world, as we would expect, but as the drives and motivations of our secretive enemy are revealed, I did at one point hear myself giggling and whispering aloud ‘ooo, that’s fucking clever’. And that kind of response from me is hard to come by.

However, despite this book seeming to, on paper, have everything the first book was lacking (pun entirely intended), as I look back at it, I regrettably find myself saying that it just came up a little shorter than its forbearer. Now, that’s not to say it wasn’t a thoroughly enjoyable listen, but that desperate drive to know what happens next just wasn’t there, and I think I know why. Where Cold Iron shone brightest was the characters, their relationships with one another, and the humanising imperfections that they struggled against that truly made them believable. Now, this book did have those very things, in shapes even, but they were mostly contained to our wonderful protagonist, Aranthur. Yes, the other main characters from Cold Iron are with us on this journey, and yes, we are also introduced to a whole range of new ones, but they just lacked that special something compared to what I expected. The last book put so much time and effort into the characters because the scenery didn’t change all that much, but in this book, the opposite is the case. I know, I know. You can’t have your cake and eat it too, but Cold Iron had baked such a tasty cake that after devouring this one, my sweet-tooth was left just a little wanting. I enjoyed this book a lot, and I will certainly be getting the next instalment, but maybe next time Cameron could finetune the balance betwixt characters and storyline just a little more to cook for me a fantasy flan that satisfies all the elements of my very discerning pallet.

The narration for this book exceeded the previous, but only in the fact that travelling to distant lands allowed our narrator to go balls to the wall with the accents and characters he brings to life. And bring them to life Mark Meadows certainly did. All I’ll say is wow, what a range.

Personal rating: 4 stars

Professional rating: 4 stars