Tristan

2.5/5 - My main takeaway from this read is that the gimmick of this series was wearing thin for me. I might have had a more positive reaction at a different time.

While the book keeps the historical framing device and sarcastic tone, something about this one was just not as fun. This book ends up being the mongol conquests if facilitated by a random diplomat (from alt-Rome). The protagonist seems to be able get away with everything due to effective dealing with bureaucracy and reading books. Most plot points in the book have an aside detailing how he read a book to get a critical piece of information or has is friend cheat the bureaucracy. After a while it felt a bit grating.

My biggest criticism would be the plot/side characters. Nobody but the protagonist really has agency on the plot after the setup. All the side characters that do come up feel very flat. Any opposition in the story is a problem that can/will be solved fairly quickly then moved on from.

4/5 - This review is after a reread before I continue onto the next book. On a reread I enjoyed it much more.

Hanrahan's Black Iron God book are some of my favorite books and when I first picked this up I was hoping for his creative world building. It was then a little jarring to come into a world so full of LOTR and DnD tropes. In my first read through it was distracting to encounter the aftermath of A DnD campaign in a LOTR copy and a few odd choices like calling the dark lord Lord Bone. On the reread I was able to ignore these elements and enjoy the story knowing it gets to new and interesting places.

This book really felt like a setup book to bring the setting from the typical end of the story everybody knows, the group of adventurers takes down the dark lord, to the story the author really wants to tell. That being what happens when to occupy the dark lords domain and the start of a civil war in the "good" alliance.

Alf's POV is the stand out in this book, he has the more interesting plot in the book and the better side characters to interact with. Especially the talking sword which is just always a fun concept. Alf is also a bit of a refreshing character as his backstory, age and personality make his displayed power feel earned rather than a chosen one trope.

Olva's POV suffers from being the audience surrogate. She has from stories and legends essentially the same knowledge that the reader can assume from the setting. In her chapters we get to see where the stories were wrong or exaggerated and that evil was not ended defeated with the dark lord. Her chapters were very slow, a large portion of her chapters are her waiting, being captured or traveling and only really useful to give the audience information for Alf's chapters.

3.5/5 - Definitely not where I thought this was going based on the last book.

This pacing of this book felt very weird. The book is split into parts with each part focusing on one POV/plot of Bor, Olva and Alf which also gives insight into the three major factions at the start, Earlking, Necrad, and the rebellion respectfully. Each part ended on a cliffhanger that was related to one of the other plot points than the next part would go back in time and show how the cliffhanger was reached from another perspective. It worked by creating some tension in the subsequent chapter, like how did Alf loose Spellbreaker, but always felt like stepping away from the most interesting plot and slowing down.

That is until the part part of the book when the whole plot setup in the previous book is concluded very quickly. The book is left in a way that the main characters stories feel completed and I would be happy with it. However if it is left there it calls into question why the books focused on certain aspects only to have them dropped in the finale. An example would be how much time we spent in Necrad, talking about it, exploring it, only for it to be taken over by an evil faction and not dealt with further.

I would be interested to see if Hanrahan will return to this world in the future, it might change how I feel about the ending.