The Iron Warrior

This is the last installment in the Iron Fey and the Call of the Forgotten series. In this novel the author neatly ties up all the loose ends to her story in a neat way that offers no surprises for the reader. This entire series is a teen romance and it shows. That is not a bad thing and overall the series is inventive and lively. This last book, however, was not as novel as earlier entries in the series. It ties things up a little to neatly after the stunning climax of the previous book. Still it was a fun ride.

I wasn't really convinced by this Iron Fey spin off at first but each book was better than the previous, and this final volume was excellent. Especially the last few chapters, which were incredibly emotional, and I admit, I teared up a bit. I also like what Julie Kagawa did with the fate of all the main characters and liked how Ethan and Kenzie's relationship was handled. Now I want more Iron Fey books... I'm not ready to leave the Nevernever!

This story brings the Iron Fey fantasy series to a conclusion. I thought that the conclusion was satisfying. I am going to try to be as non-spoilery as I can be which is going to make this sort of generic.

Ethan Chase is the narrator of this story. Despite his dislike of Faery, he finds himself embroiled in ancient prophecies, family betrayal and a war that would change the course of life in the human world and in the Nevernever.

He and is girlfriend Kenzie along with some former enemies turned allies have to find a way to convince his nephew Keirran to renounce his alliance with the Forgotten Queen. The story includes soul stealing amulet which has made Keirran forget his loved ones. The story is about making choices and dealing with the show more unforeseen consequences of those choices.

The story is also about love. Keirran's love for the Summer girl Annwyl precipitated the conflict. Ethan's love for his nephew Keirran guides a lot of his actions. There is also Ethan's growing love for Kenzie.

The book had both epic battles and small personal ones. Many characters had to make difficult decisions. Fans of the series will enjoy this final visit. show less

This is the final book in The Call of the Forgotten (and the Iron Fey) series by Julie Kagawa. This book did a wonderful job of wrapping up the series. I really enjoyed it and enjoyed how all the plotlines were resolved. This review includes spoilers for previous books in this series. I have also read Kagawa’s Immortal Rule series which I enjoyed and the first book in her Talon series which was a DNF for me.

After a month of being nearly dead Ethan Chase wakes up. He finds that while he was asleep the Veil between the normal world and faerie world dropped for just a few moments. During this time the Forgotten Queen gained a huge amount of power as human belief in the Forgotten spiked. Then Ethan finds out that Megan’s son Keirran is show more leading the Forgotten Queen’s army against the Summer and Winter Courts. Megan’s hands are tied by protocol, this leaves Ethan and Kenzie on their own to unravel the secrets of the Forgotten and find a way to stop this war before it starts.

It was great to visit this world again and to read about all the characters I have known and loved in previous Iron Fey books. This is the book where everything comes together. We get to see a lot of my old favorites from the older Iron Fey books (Grimalkin, Leanansidhe, Puck and Ash all play large parts in the story) which was fantastic.

I still am not a huge fan of the characters introduced in the Call of the Forgotten series. Ethan is just too moody and hard to engage with. Kenzie was a more interesting character and she really steps up to the fight in this book; she helps out by being resourceful and making smart observations and suggestions. I enjoyed Kenzie more in this book than in any other. I also really enjoyed Wolf being in the story and the Thin Man; they both play interesting and large parts in the story.

The plot is very well done. We get to journey in the In Between as well as venture into the darkness beyond the Wildwood. All of the courts have to come together to face the threat of the Forgotten and it is not a comfortable alliance. I really enjoyed how the war and Kierran’s status as a traitor were all resolved. Things are wrapped up very well.

Overall I really really enjoyed this conclusion to the Iron Fey/Call of the Forgotten series. While Ethan and Kenzie aren’t (and have never been) my favorite characters; the fact that you see so much of the original Iron Fey crew really makes up for this. The plot is very well done and engaging and I enjoyed getting to visit new dark and eerie parts of the Fey world. Despite this being the last book in the Iron Fey series I would love to see future spin-off series set in this world. The whole Iron Fey series is recommended to fans of faerie themed urban fantasy. show less

Ethan wakes up – which is something of a surprise since his uncle, Keirran, stabbed him to destroy the Veil

He isn’t dead and the Veil hasn’t been destroyed – but Keirran has joined the Forgotten and their terrible Queen in their war against the other courts. Even Meghan, his mother and the Iron Queen will be forced to move against him.

Unless Ethan can save Keirran from himself – and the whole of the NeverNever with him

My main love of the Iron Fae series is the world. The different fae courts, their politics, their magic how they all combat each other – I’ve always liked this world and it’s an excellent backdrop or adventures.

Ethan is this book’s protagonist… in the past I haven’t been a big fan of Ethan. In a way show more he’s an excellent every-man except for his combat skills. He’s not… stellar in any real way, I find him kind of bland, to be honest, especially next to the major personalities around him. But this book he did have some excellent character growth and maturity that made me like him a little more

The star of the book had to be Kenzie – she works so excellently well with Ethan and, in a genre full of action heroes who can kick arse, she showed us a powerful character who wasn’t defined by her ability to break things. She’s clever, she’s prepared. She has a big pack of useful items. She can negotiate with the fae because she thinks. She’s the brains and she’s one of the most powerful characters because of that. Ethan may be able to stab things, but ultimately Kenzie is the one who knows you need costume jewellery to bribe yourself over a bridge, or to carry a big canister of salt. It’s Kenzie who is most able to cut through the fairy politics and make raging, uncooperative fae stop and think for 5 seconds. Ethan can stab things, but it’s Kenzie with the brain to direct that stabbing.

More than any other character she works with the world. The other characters either have swords or woo-woo enough that they don’t really interact with the intricacies of the world. It’s Kenzie who has to work with how the world works, who knows the bargains and the rules and the loop holes and so it’s she who most shows of the world.

I liked this plot, but I do find the Iron Fae series to be a trifle formulaic. That’s not essentially a bad thing, if a formula is entertaining and a spin is put on it. If you can add more interesting elements, more original features then a good formula still has plenty of fun left in it to keep it going.

It is fun to see

But it does mean you can kind of see the shape of the story as it begins. I can see the quest, can see the twists we’ll get. We kind of know it’s not going to get really dark, we’re probably not going to see any real losses. I suspected what was going to happen to Keirran since near the beginning of the book and by half way I was nearly certain. The fate of the Forgotten was always pretty predictable since we’d already seen, at its core, the same path with the Iron Fae.

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The final book in the Iron Fey series. It was definitely a slow start. I thought with the cliffhanger at the end of the previous book that this would jump right in and hook me but it didn't. It didn't really get "good" until at least a hundred pages in. Even with all this shelter in place and isolation stuff happening, and having all this time to read, I chose to do other things and had a hard time picking this up. Once it got to the real action, I enjoyed it. Getting there left a little to be desired.
It did bring in all your favorite characters and they all had their roles to play. All the loose ends were tied up nicely at the end.

All in all, a good ending to the series. If you've made it this far through the books, then definitely show more read through til the end. Now we need Julie Kagawa to decide to do a Puck book show less

I have so many feels. I've been in a terrible book slump for pretty much all of this past year, but The Iron Warrior has awoken the booknerd within me. This novel gave me so many feels. Mostly because I can't believe the series is over! I read the Iron Fey series so many times (because Ash and Meghan is love) but Ethan's story is just as wonderful. I'm going to miss the world of Nevernever, but it was an amazing journey.