I remember the first time I opened a book of The Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa. I was absolutely transfixed. The colourful painting of the world was so picturesque, so unique and beckoning—that I couldn’t help but read the entire book in one sitting. The first book of the series, The Iron King, was published in 2010 and since then four more books (along with three novellas) have been published, with another book currently in the making. So what is The Iron Fey series all about? Up to book four, The Iron Knight, the books and novellas can be summed up with this excerpt:
‘The Iron Fey saga follows half-human, half-faery Meghan Chase as she fights to claim her magical birthright.
Meghan’s journey begins in the mortal world, when her half-brother Ethan is kidnapped. The mission to rescue the innocent child draws Meghan into the Nevernever, the magical world where the never-before-seen Iron fey are raining destruction upon traditional faeries. Meghan’s quest is fraught with unimagined dangers, unpredictable powers and an utterly forbidden love.’
The rest of the books are a spin-off series called The Iron Fey: Call of the Forgotten. The spin-off series along with the novellas following book four take place in the same world, but we now follow a new protagonist: Meghan’s brother, Ethan. However, in this review I’ll be sticking to the original four books of The Iron Fey.
While the plot of The Iron Fey series can be summed up easily with an excerpt, what is the fantastical world really about? Think Lewis Carroll’s Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland meets William Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream. A hint of other works can be glimpsed throughout as well, be it characters such as the Big Bad Wolf, or mythical creatures —who doesn’t like the odd dragon or chimera? The courts play a major role as well, they have long been pitted against each other, Summer fey against Winter fey, but they never thought they would soon have a common enemy. Personally, I found the series unpredictable. At one moment the characters would have room to breathe, but the next, a flurry of daggers and trickery would leave them running through the Wyld wood.
Now on to the forbidden romance. It is not another Twilight love story. Ash and Meghan’s love can only be described with the word ‘epic.’ When a person is willing to go to such extremes, such lengths, that they would even sacrifice their own life to protect another —that is nothing short of epic love. When Ash or Meghan were in grave peril they only thought of the safety of each other, not themselves, building on to the depth of their characters.
All in all, this series will forever be one of my favourites that I hope to reread again. Julie Kagawa does a superb job of building an imaginative world in which characters partake on magical quests, while battling unforeseen forces of love and trickery. Fair warning, for any of you who have experienced a book hangover, this series will definitely give you one. For those of you who don’t know what a book hangover is: it’s when you’ve finished reading such an amazing book, that when you return to the real world it feels incomplete. Yeah that’s a thing.
Rating: 7/10
Favourite Quote: “Oh, we’re playing nice now? Shall we have tea first? Brew up a nice pot of kiss-my-ass?”
Sounds like a good read.
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