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A review by evenshadow
Cold Iron by Stina Leicht
2.0
I picked this up after reading and loving Persephone Station, and was extremely disappointed.
There were parts of this that I enjoyed. The Waterborne, some of the early encounters with Nels, that was interesting. I liked both Suvi and Nels even though the argument could be made that they basically have the same personality, just with different hobbies. However, the plot seemed to lose momentum as it went along, becoming slower and slower until the last 250 pages were a slog. I honestly think that this series could have been one long book if Leicht had cut out all the dead weight.
The politics could have been interesting if we'd been given a more compelling reason to care. As it is, we don't really have a stake in the Acrasia vs. Eledore fight aside from the fact that Nels and Suvi are likeable. We aren't given a reason to be afraid of or hate the enemy. It's just two governments killing off the poor because that's what governments do. By the time the stakes are raised in the war, there is no reason to care who wins. I understand the desire to show how pointless war is and avoid a 'this race bad, this race good' binary, but we still need someone to root for. When there's clear villains on both sides (actually, more on the side we're meant to care about) and the reader knows you're not going to kill off all your main characters because at least one has to survive for there to be a second book, there's no tension, no stakes, no victory either way. There was so much unnecessary political b.s. in the middle that it just made me want both sides to lose out of spite for wasting my time with their nonsense.
Also, can we please stop fetishizing children having sex? Please? Thanks. I don't see any good plot reason that Nels and Ilta are together romantically, and though I assume Ilta takes a larger role in the later books, there are so few chapters here from her POV that it's pointless to have her there at all. There could have been so many other ways we could have learned about her role, if it's really even necessary.
There were parts of this that I enjoyed. The Waterborne, some of the early encounters with Nels, that was interesting. I liked both Suvi and Nels even though the argument could be made that they basically have the same personality, just with different hobbies. However, the plot seemed to lose momentum as it went along, becoming slower and slower until the last 250 pages were a slog. I honestly think that this series could have been one long book if Leicht had cut out all the dead weight.
The politics could have been interesting if we'd been given a more compelling reason to care. As it is, we don't really have a stake in the Acrasia vs. Eledore fight aside from the fact that Nels and Suvi are likeable. We aren't given a reason to be afraid of or hate the enemy. It's just two governments killing off the poor because that's what governments do. By the time the stakes are raised in the war, there is no reason to care who wins. I understand the desire to show how pointless war is and avoid a 'this race bad, this race good' binary, but we still need someone to root for. When there's clear villains on both sides (actually, more on the side we're meant to care about) and the reader knows you're not going to kill off all your main characters because at least one has to survive for there to be a second book, there's no tension, no stakes, no victory either way. There was so much unnecessary political b.s. in the middle that it just made me want both sides to lose out of spite for wasting my time with their nonsense.
Also, can we please stop fetishizing children having sex? Please? Thanks. I don't see any good plot reason that Nels and Ilta are together romantically, and though I assume Ilta takes a larger role in the later books, there are so few chapters here from her POV that it's pointless to have her there at all. There could have been so many other ways we could have learned about her role, if it's really even necessary.