Iron Jaw and Hummingbird

Celestial Empire

by Chris Roberson

Mars is controlled by the Chinese, who call their civilization the Celestial Empire. But for teenagers Gamine and Huang, it is anything but heavenly. Gamine was taken off the street by an aristocrat, schooled as a fine young lady-then abandoned at her patron's whim and forced to make her living as a grifter. Huang's army career is cut short by a bandit ambush. When the two meet, Gamine -"Iron Jaw"-is the leader of a sham religious movement, and Huang, or "Hummingbird," is the bandits' chief tactician. They join forces to bring down the corrupt government that has determined their lives. "Iron Jaw and Hummingbird" offers a planet's worth of adventure!

Genres: Science Fiction, Young Adult, Teen

380 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 1, 2008

About the author

Chris Roberson is the co-creator with artist Michael Allred of iZombie, the basis of the hit CW television series, and the writer of several New York Times best-selling Cinderella miniseries set in the world of Bill Willingham’s Fables. He is also the co-creator of Edison Rex with artist Dennis Culver, and the co-writer of Hellboy and the B.P.R.D, Witchfinder, Rise of the Black Flame, and other titles set in the world of Mike Mignola’s Hellboy. In addition to his numerous comics projects, Roberson has written more than a dozen novels and three dozen short stories. He lives with a teenager, two cats, and far too many books in Portland, Oregon.

Reviews

[Julie · Rating 2 out of 5]

The premise is interesting. China sort of rose to dominance and then humans colonized Mars, so it all takes place on a very Chinese Mars. And it's YA to boot, which isn't what you'd expect given the first premise.

Unfortunately, it wasn't very interesting to read. I was trying to pinpoint why. Following Iron Jaw for the first section was the best part of all of it, and it just got duller past that.

A lot of time passes, so in ways it's like an overview and not actually getting _into_ the story. Also perhaps more tell than show? More action than characterization? Some combination of those things is why it wasn't very engrossing for me to read.

Then the ending (I was skimming by that point, just to finish) was rather a letdown. More of an anticlimax than a climax. And maybe the author was trying to make some sort of point.. but it didn't seem like the ending it had been building toward.

Also, in a way, it was just another YA dystopia!! Only without a love triangle. Or a trilogy.

I still might recommend it if people are looking for a nonWestern sf future or books on Mars. Just because of the different premise.

[Tomer Klein · Rating 5 out of 5]

סיפור מענין על חופש ואהבה והבחירה בחיים

[Jessi · Rating 3 out of 5]

I chose to read Iron Jaw and Hummingbird when I was processing new books for my collection. The cover caught my eye, so I read the flap and was instantly interested. I keep finding myself drawn to looking at the computer generated animation cover (that's all I can think of to call it) and the picture of Iron Jaw, or Gamine as she was called by friends. She looks really out of place, and a little bit like "Asian Warrior Barbie".

That aside, the book takes you through the lives of Gamine and Huang seperately until they intersect. They are both well developed characters and you feel like you understand them. The setting is a future planet Mars colony if China were the colonizers of the world of the 1400's instead of Europeans. This reminds me a bit of the Firefly TV series.

There are mentions of casual sex, although nothing graphic. It leads me to wonder if this was intended for adults originally.

I won't give away the ending, but it doesn't go as you would expect. I wasn't disappointed, but it was a little anticlimatic.

[Patricia · Rating 4 out of 5]

A sci fi story set on Mars, where the Chinese are the governing unit. They are quite harsh and many people become outlaws or wanderers because they cannot make a decent living. A young man and woman who have been betrayed by their own people decide to try to take on the corrupt government, and form a group called the Harmonious Fists, who believe in an afterlife, and also seek revenge for lost loved ones. I liked it, although the ending was not what I expected. Apparently this author writes a lot of sci fi for adults in this world setting.

[Jeffrey · Rating 2 out of 5]

I really, really liked Iron Jaw and Hummingbird, and then I came to the utterly flat, anticlimatic end. Wow! What a disappointment. The narrative is fun and action packed. I really enjoyed getting to know the characters. But the ending was pwthetic. It felt like Roberson wrote a craftfully craft action story, and then realized, "Oh, no! My immutable deadline is tonight at 12:00! It's 11:15 and I have no ending to my book! Oh, well...a bad ending is better than missing the deadline." So much promise...so little follow through.

[John · Rating 2 out of 5]

The stars are for the idea of setting an Asian martial-arts tale on Mars---though the author has used that in previous books, I think. Otherwise there isn't much to recommend here; the two titular characters hook up for a time but their plots and lives are really separate, and there's neither a climax nor a cliffhanger at the end.

And the cover artist plainly never read the book, because it's a minor but definite plot point that Hummingbird is missing some fingers.