Reality Bypass

Book Review: The Iron Hunt – Marjorie M. Liu August 27, 2009

To be honest I had no idea what to expect going into this particular book.  I’d seen some very positive reviews and the cover was pretty, though I was wondering if all the tattoos would actually make an appearance in the book.  I get rather tired of the ‘tramp stamp’ tattoos which are put on our warrior heroines and then never show up in the book.  Same with the big weaponry they never use.  Happily in this case the cover is a pretty good representation and is the first of many good things about a good book.

Maxine Kiss is a woman set apart by a call to guard humanity from the demons who slip in and out of their spiritual prison and possess the bodies of the hopeless, feeding on their agony and their lives.  She herself carries five demons who guard her flesh by day as tattoos that make her nearly invincible to damage, and as bodied guards at night.  Their agreements with the women of her family go back more than ten thousand years and one day they’ll move on to her daughter, just as they came to her from her mother.  I have to admit I feared this was going to be cheesy, but it’s done in a lovely way.  The ‘boys’ are Maxine’s family and friends and while the move to her one day daughter is just another turn of the circle they love her and do their best to take good care of her.  As well they all carry their own personalities…and a disturbing desire to rip teddy bears apart.

In the pursuit of her duty there are rules about not getting attached…not to anyone or anything.  Maxine has done both and it makes her a nicely rounded character.  She’s got plenty of ‘kickassitude’, but it’s tempered by an honest caring about the people around her from the crazy lady who grows pot in the basement of the homeless shelter, to her boyfriend Grant, a musical wonder with a twisted leg but a sense of hope that he can make the world a better place.  As you get to know them both you want them to succeed.  I loved the romance here because it was the comfort of people who have been together for a while and live in a world which could tear them apart.  They offer strength and comfort and understanding to each other.  Perhaps my favorite line in the book was after Maxine had a rotten night and Grant was waiting for her in bed.  He just looks up and says:  “I’ll make it better.”  And all through the book he does.

There’s a lot of mythology twisted through this book and a very solid new world emerges.  Liu has a fun new take on demons and on zombies which I’d never considered.  Her heroine walks a line where she knows that she could be someone who will save the world or doom it, and she surrounds herself with people from both sides of the black and the white in order to remember this and make the right choices.

There were a few places where I found myself a little twisted up in the plot, but these resolved and I feel like Liu has a strong idea of where this is going and I’m enjoying the ride.  This is very obviously a first in a series as we don’t get even a fraction of our questions answered, but I didn’t mind that…only that I can’t have all the rest of the series right now, though Darkness Calls is out and my birthday is in October.  Oh husband mine…

Genre:  Urban Fantasy

Age:  15+

Content: violence, a few deaths, implied sexuality

Overall:  Buy