A review by crimsoncor
Cold Iron by Stina Leicht

4.0

I like how this book plays with the audience's expectations.

Spoiler

We start the book assuming our protagonists are humans. And then swiftly find out they're not. A dark take on elves and their relationship with "lesser mortals". There is a lot of fascist implication here which is, unfortunately, not explored as fully as it could be. It shies a bit into "the good germans" territory, except for the part where the entire empire is destroyed and its people driven into exile. That was unexpected.

. There is a lot the book never explains. That's a feature, I think. Telling too much can be a negative in fantasy (death by info dump). Instead the reader can piece together a lot of what is happening in the background from what is happening in the foreground. There are enough clues to pull it all together. I'm excited to see where book 2 goes.