Dead Iron (Age of Steam, #1) in SOS: Serious Overload of Series

Jun 22, 2011 AH rated it really liked it

Shelves: steampunk, witches, own, were, babr-reviews, zombies, first-in-series, zzread-oct-2011

That was different.

Matics, Witches, and Weres, oh my!

I like steampunk. I’m always fascinated by the creativity and usefulness of all those wacky steam powered contraptions and gadgets. I’m not too keen on Westerns. I usually don’t seek out that genre, unless there is a sexy cowboy involved. But I digress.

This is a hard book for me to review. I enjoyed it immensely once I got into it, but I recognize that it may not be for everyone. Dead Iron was different from the other books in its genre – no That was different.

Matics, Witches, and Weres, oh my!

I like steampunk. I’m always fascinated by the creativity and usefulness of all those wacky steam powered contraptions and gadgets. I’m not too keen on Westerns. I usually don’t seek out that genre, unless there is a sexy cowboy involved. But I digress.

This is a hard book for me to review. I enjoyed it immensely once I got into it, but I recognize that it may not be for everyone. Dead Iron was different from the other books in its genre – no corsets and no airships. At times it felt like I was watching an old Western movie or perhaps an episode of Rocky and Bullwinkle – I kept seeing the bad guy as Snidely Whiplash. But there are also elements of magic, The Strange, a witch, and a werewolf – things I did not expect to see in this book.

There’s a lot going on in this book and I often wondered how the author would put everything together. The author manages to capture the Wild West feel and infuse it with magic and steam powered matics.

The characters fascinated me. I loved Cedar Hunt, the bounty hunter from out East. Cedar is cursed and becomes a werewolf at the full moon. The Madder brothers were quite mysterious. I’m still not sure what they are exactly, except that they want a favor from a few characters. The women in this book are strong, independent and unconventional. Mae Linson was a witch. Rose Small had dreams of becoming a deviser and creating contraptions of her own.

Shard Lefel was an oily character, pure evil. His quest to return home at any cost resulted in the recurring death of Mae’s husband Jeb. Not sure if Jeb was a zombie or what he was exactly, I just felt bad for the man. Shard’s matic creations were frightening creatures powered by steam and other scary things. Shard’s henchman was just as frightening.

This is the first book in Devon Monk’s The Age of Steam series. The next book Tin Swift is scheduled for publication in July 2012. I’m looking forward to reading it when it comes out.

Review posted at Badass Book Reviews .
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Jan 26, 2020 Rachel-RN rated it it was ok

Shelves: read-2020

Cedar was cursed as a werewolf. He is tasked with finding a missing little boy.
What sounded fairly simple, was a lot to unpack due to the multiple points of views this book had. There's (of course) Cedar, but add Mae (a witch), Rose, Jeb, The Madder Brothers (Alun, Bryn, Cadoc), Shard Lefel, Mr Shunt, you get the point. The world is an interesting one (old west, but with steam). I am happy to note the big bad gets his due, but someone else is still alive leaving a future plot line open for book ...more

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Aug 31, 2011 Lily rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: on-hand, steam-or-cyber-punk

I am done with this and it started out good but I felt the middle dragged. I think it got lost in the changing of POV and the details of world building. I had to force myself to finish this, but my interest waned. I guess I am not interested or very interested in the minutia of the gadgets. Probobly fun to imagine for the author, and some would be facinated. Just not me. Some detail to bring the world and its intracacies is good. I just felt it got bogged down in the middle. I will probobly chec ...more

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