Review: Age of Iron

I recently (enough) did the very dangerous thing of being a book lover walking into a second hand store. Sure enough, that resulted in me leaving with a bunch of books I never intended to purchase. One of those books was Age of Iron, by Angus Watson.

It caught my eye because, despite being an enjoyer of fantasy stories, it has been a while since I’ve read truly adult-oriented fantasy - and even longer since I’ve dabbled in historical fantasy. Being second hand, the book was extremely cheap. So, I couldn’t resist picking it up and giving it a shot.

This won’t be a super in-depth review. I’m dealing with a lot of exhaustion and health issues at the time of writing this. But I still wanted to share my thoughts on the experience with you guys a bit anyway.

What’s It About?

Before getting into what I liked and disliked about the story, I figure I should probably give you a brief rundown of what the story is about. As you might have guessed from the title, Age of Iron is set during the iron age in what eventually became the United Kingdom. It follows a strange group of unlikely companions as they find themselves in confrontation with King Zadar, the cruel leader of the large and powerful region/tribe/kingdom of Maduin.

The primary cast is composed of Dug Sealskinner, Lowa Flynn, Spring and later on Ragnall Sheeplord and his druidic mentor Drustan. Dug is a mercenary warrior who originally intended on joining Zadar’s army himself before getting talked into a job protecting a town that Zadar inevitably attacked. Lowa is an elite archer in Zadar’s army who finds herself on the run from him after he has her squad killed, seemingly for no reason, after the same battle Dug found himself caught up in. Spring is a mysterious and precocious child who is far too clever and skilled for her age in a lot of ways but in no way mature enough to put those gifts to good use. Ragnall is a druid-in-training who takes on a quest for revenge after Zadar kills his family and captures his betrothed, basically dragging Drustan along with him.

This unlikely group all start separately, but as the book goes on, eventually find themselves travelling together with the common goal of unseating Zadar. Meanwhile though, the druids (and Zadar) swear that the Romans are coming to take Britain for themselves.

The Pros

The characters in Age of Iron are by-and-large quite generic and archetypal for the fantasy genre. Dug is the grumpy, veteran mercenary with a secret soft side. Lowa is the attractive lady warrior and agile archer mashed into one. Spring is the mysterious, precocious child that tags along with her battle-hardened caretakers. Ragnall is your more typical naive hero at the start of his journey with Drustan as his wise old mentor. Most of them don’t even develop or change overly much through the story. On paper, I shouldn’t like them nearly as much as I do.

And yet, I do. Somehow, Watson manages to write all these major characters completely on-type with very little character development and still makes them endearing and compelling. I find myself amused by Dug’s inability to say no, invested in Lowa’s anger and guilt and endeared to Spring’s incessant curiosity and quipping. Ragnall falls flat by comparison, admittedly. But I suspect he might be improved in the next book in which he seems set to undergo a journey of his own.

The other big pro for me was the way I was drawn into the setting. We don’t actually know a huge amount about how people lived in iron age Britain. But, Watson very much did his research and, from it, was able to construct a version of that place at that time that felt authentic and believable. Anything that wasn’t based on a confirmed historical record that wasn’t a fantastical addition to the world, was a logical extrapolation from the information at hand that made everything about iron age Britain feel real - or at least plausible. It was very easy to imagine the setting and how people lived in it and extrapolate how that culture influenced the thoughts and feelings of the characters.

I also really liked how the fantasy side of things was worked into the setting. Rather than doing something completely revisionist or history-altering, Watson took a subtler approach by adding a touch of real magic to the ritualistic practices of the druids. He also made actual magic something rare - to the point where not only are we as an audience not entirely sure if the magic of the druids is real or not through the first several chapters of the book, but many characters are non-believers as well. Even many druids don’t really seem to buy into it. This gives things a more gritty and grounded feel that lends itself well to the historical part of the historical fantasy. It makes it still feel like more part of our world than if the author had gone all in on putting spells and miracles everywhere.

The Cons

Of course, no story is perfect and while I definitely did enjoy Age of Iron; there were some things that irked me a bit too. 

The big one here was the romance between Dug and Lowa. It felt extremely abrupt and underdeveloped in how it began and the characters didn’t feel like they had any real chemistry with each other beyond Dug finding Lowa extremely attractive. Lowa herself doesn’t seem to even have that surface level interest in Dug until she’s suddenly in bed with him. The relationship here felt more like an obligation than something that Watson was genuinely invested in - the hero and heroine having to get together because that’s just what they do. It felt very forced and added little to the story aside from some silly, petty drama that felt beneath the characters that participated in it. I’m not against romance in the stories I read in any way, but it never feels good when one is crammed into a story to its detriment.

I feel like I’d be remiss not to address the smuttier parts of the story too. I’m not generally bothered by sexual content in fiction - even much more graphic than was depicted in this story. But, much like the romance, sometimes it felt shoehorned in rather than like something that added anything to the story. At times, it felt strange for characters to notice the things they noticed or acted in ways they acted. At other times, it made more sense. It wasn’t like every page was crammed full of smut that hurt the story, but sometimes it came up at times or in ways that felt weird to me.

Lastly, there were also a few places where the pacing felt strange. Not hugely, for the most part, but in some places it felt really unclear how long characters had been travelling or how much ground they had travelled. That being said though, it was the ending where this was at its worst. The story picked up from a steady but not overly fast pace to a breakneck one only to end in a spectacle that felt kind of abrupt and flat.

In Conclusion

Age of Iron was a fun book that I really enjoyed. A bit pulpy, perhaps, but not to the point that it became difficult to enjoy. Other than how forced and unbelievable the romance felt, the negatives were pretty small compared to the things the book did well. I’m probably not going to rush out to get the next book in the trilogy tomorrow, but I am going to pick it up in the near future so I can see where the story goes next.