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No day is ordinary in a world where technology and magic compete for supremacy…. But no matter which force is winning, in the apocalypse, a sword will always work.
Hugh d’Ambray, Preceptor of the Iron Dogs, Warlord of the Builder of Towers, served only one man. Now his immortal, nearly omnipotent master has cast him aside. Hugh is a shadow of the warrior he was, but when he learns that the Iron Dogs, soldiers who would follow him anywhere, are being hunted down and murdered, he must make a choice: to fade away or to be the leader he was born to be. Hugh knows he must carve a new place for himself and his people, but they have no money, no shelter, and no food, and the necromancers are coming. Fast.
Elara Harper is a creature who should not exist. Her enemies call her Abomination; her people call her White Lady. Tasked with their protection, she’s trapped between the magical heavyweights about to collide and plunge the state of Kentucky into a war that humans have no power to stop. Desperate to shield her people and their simple way of life, she would accept help from the devil himself – and Hugh d’Ambray might qualify.
Hugh needs a base; Elara needs soldiers. Both are infamous for betraying their allies, so how can they create a believable alliance to meet the challenge of their enemies?
As the prophet says, “It is better to marry than to burn”.
Hugh and Elara may do both.
Rating: Narration – A : Content – B+
With the popular and long-running Kate Daniels series drawing to a close, Ilona Andrews has begun a new series set in the same world, featuring one of the major secondary characters from those books. Iron and Magic is the first in the Iron Covenant series, and takes, as one of its principal characters, Hugh d’Ambray, the villain from the Kate Daniels series. When I picked up a review copy of the book several weeks ago, I hadn’t realised it was a spinoff, and when I found out, was worried I might not be able to follow the story. Fortunately, however, those concerns were unwarranted; I asked a friend for a bit of background, but otherwise, this book works fairly well as a standalone, and there is enough information and backstory given for the newbie not to feel lost.
Hugh d’Ambray had, for almost his entire life, enjoyed a position of peculiar privilege as the right-hand-man of Roland, the god-like being who rules the magical world. As the Preceptor of the Iron Dogs, Hugh was warlord, assassin and enforcer; but when we meet him at the beginning of Iron and Magic, his life has been turned upside down. Cast out by Roland, the life he’d known has been ripped away, and he’s in a downward spiral of despair and hopelessness. Deprived of his sense of self, no longer certain of his place in the world and no longer immortal, Hugh is not even trying to adapt to his change in circumstances; he’s down for the count and seemingly intent on living at the bottom of a bottle.
You can read the rest of this review at AudioGals.
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