Iron and Magic

Hugh D’Ambrey, the great Biblical wizard’s Warlord, has been banished from his presence. For decades, longer, Hugh was Roland’s servant and a lethal, terrifying fighting force and general. And now he doesn’t know who he is

But his soldiers rely on him, people hold grudges, his rival Ness especially. They need safety, they need a home - but who would trust them

Ilara and her people need protection. They’ve been driven to run for too long but are now secure in an actual castle… but they have no soldiers. And Ness wants their land.

It’s not a romantic match… but it is a practical one.

It is so hard to review an Ilona Andrews book. It’s hard because the things that make these books so special - the awesome world building, show more excellent characters, massively fun storylines and tight, descriptive yet well paced writing are pretty much the same in every book. Early on they set the bar at awesome and kept repeating the same levels of awesome and that leaves me with a happy stunned with joy, grieving because I’ve finished it and then flummoxed on how to produce a review that isn’t a duplicate of the last review

This book follows Hugh D’Ambrey - a very different standpoint from Kate given how he has been such a major villain for much of the Kate Daniels Series and how he is, pretty much, The Worst. I admit to having some reservations - I’m not against redeemed villain narratives but all too often they’re done far too simplistically which rarely if ever actually touches real redemption and usually amounts to a handwaving of their past

But this worked. Because it didn’t try to redeem Hugh. Hugh is a monumental bastard and always has been. He doesn’t claim to be different, Ilara doesn’t think he’s different, even the fact he wants to preserve his people isn’t presented as making him a good guy. Even exploring his toxic relationship with Roland and how Roland controlled him isn’t used to redeem or excuse him (though it does include some really excellent character growth moments as Hugh basically learns how to be Hugh without Rolan’s overwhelming presence). Even meeting old enemies who are grudgingly willing to work with him isn’t presented as forgiveness, even when he apologises. Even his own levels of self-hatred and self-recrimination: all of this is here but, at the same time, I don’t think the book ever intended me to think “Hugh is a good guy now”.

And I really like his relationship with Ilara. Firstly she’s an equal - she has her people and he has his both are the supreme leaders who have earned a vast amount of loyalty and even as the two factions begin to blur, it never happens in a way that undermines either of them. Neither are ever the junior partners and while he clearly has combat advantages over her in some situations, she is equally clearly the one with by far the most powerful magic.

And they hate each other which I love. Yes, I know I talked about persistence not being a virtue and love interests whose dislike is worn down by one party’s persistence. But that isn’t happening here - Hugh and Ilara marry for political reasons, so people will believe that their alliance is real (especially since Hugh. under Roland broke a whole lot of alliances). But Hugh and Ilara despised each other from the very first day and their sparring is glorious. Their searing loathing for each other (even as it slowly melts into respect but is never ever not a battle) is hilarious and mutual - Hugh isn’t setting out to win Ilara’s heart and Ilara

I also like the grounding reality that their conflicts can bring - with them arguing over how much things cost and how large Hugh’s monetary demands are. In fact I love that as an entire branch of the storyline - while fighting the many arcane and terrifying enemies that face the castle, they also take time to make alliances with local authorities, overtures to nearby towns and establish business and trade deals to maintain and increase their wealth. This mix of the mundane with the magical is compelling and also makes them even more cemented as leaders (and helps further them as peers since Ilara is more of an expert in this field)

Ooh, bouncing to another thing I love - those myriad arcane threats. In a world setting that has set up an enemy as epicly as the Kate Daniel’s series (there was a moment in a previous book where who and what Roland was was finally spelled out and it was EPIC enough that I couldn’t sit down) but at the same time in this glorious complex and varied world there’s never just one threat or one enemy. I like that there were problems from all sides.

The world - oh the world - the shift between magic and tech, the vampires, the various gods and magical beings and magic waves and out of control nature and just EVERYTHING. EVERYTHING. All explained awesomely without info dump or being too sparse. It’s perfect, perfect, perfect.

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Oh, I can't tell you how much I've been looking forward to this book. I love everything that Ilona Andrews writes. I reread the Kate Daniels books at least 2x a year. So a new book in the Kate world following Hugh D'Ambry was something that I needed to have. I needed to have it like I needed my next breath. So, here it is.

Hugh is trying to figure out how to keep going after his whole life has changed. He's looking at his own mortality, trying to figure out what he should do, and what his future will look like. One thing that he knows he's going to have to do is figure out where to find a base for his surviving Iron Dogs so that they can be safe.

Elara is looking for an army to help protect her castle and her people from Landon Nez, show more Roland's Legatus of the undead. He wants her castle for some reason. She isn't leaving. She's planning on staying, but she doesn't have trained fighters to help her. So when she finds out that Hugh and his men are trying to find someplace to use as a base, she sees how it can be a mutually beneficial situation. So they seal their alliance the old-fashioned way. They get married.

There is so much wonderful that goes on in this book. I've always had a love/hate relationship with Hugh, and I was dying to see how Ilona Andrews would turn him into a character who is the hero of his story. They did it so well. So very well. He's not a perfect man. I mean, he's still Hugh, trained by Roland and Voron, and a man who loves war, but at his core, he's not necessarily a bad man. Elara is just a magnificent character. They are so suited to each other. They both need a strong person to stand up to them and support them. They would run over anyone else. Kate would never have worked for Hugh, they would've tried to kill each other. They did try to kill each other. But Elara, she's going to make him a better person.

Such an awesome story. I need to have so much more of it. I hope there is so much more to come. show less

Wow. Yes! I love dark heroes. Hugh is such an ass. But who wouldn't be after being raised by Roland? Roland dumped him though, and after months of self-pity, Hugh needs to find a place to keep his Iron Dogs safe. Elara Harper needs men to keep her people and castle safe. A perfect union. Except Hugh and Elara hate each other at first sight. But also the sexual tension crackles between them and some respect starts to seep in. Really, the chemistry between Hugh and Elara is amazing.

I was able to hate the things Hugh did to Kate and characters I love, but also accept his redemption. I started to admire him.

I really think you need to read the Kate Daniels series before reading this one. Andrews doesn't spend much time explaining the world show more and familiar characters. And I think you need to be introduced to Hugh as Roland's man first.

I received this ARC through NetGalley. show less

I didn't want to read this book.

I mean, what would be the point? Hugh d’Ambray, Preceptor of the Iron Dogs, Warlord of the Builder of Towers is a violent, amoral, narcissistic killer who, in the previous Kate Daniels books, I'd have happily seen cleaved by Kate's sword or dangling in pieces from Curran's claws. Why would I want to read a book by a man like that?

Well, because Ilona Andrews wrote it and because I'd been told that it was a crossover book that I should read before the tenth Kate Daniels book. So it was the anally retentive pedant part of me that picked up this book, not my inner fanboy, but it's the fanboy who's writing the review.

"Iron and Magic" is surprisingly good.

The tone is darker, more muscular and more show more rage-filled than the Daniels books. Kate's I-have-to-save-my-people-to-prove-to-myself-that-I-have-not-become-my-father motivation is replaced by the sceptical pragmatism of the two main characters, Hugh and Elara, who are motivated by the knowledge that To-survive-I-have-to-make-a-deal-with-these-unpleasant-untrustworthy-people-that-I-may-have-to-kill-or-who-may-kill-me.

Most of my enjoyment from the book came from the same sources as the Daniels books: strong, complex, slightly unpredictable characters locked in a frenemy conflict, a twisty plot filled with new threats, excellent battle scenes, the ability to make me care about who lives and who dies and a constant pulse of well-timed humour.

A smaller part of me was applauding the skill with which Ilona Andrews engaged me in caring about Hugh d’Ambray's fate.

It was an object lesson in how to turn a figure of hate into a (sort of) hero in three easy steps:

Make him guilty and damaged
Give him something to protect from something worse than him
See him through the eyes of another monster

Make him guilty and damaged

The humanisation of Hugh d'Ambray began with showing him responding to the loss of his immortality and his exile from Roland by trying to drink himself to death. He's dragged from this by the senior members of the Iron Dogs. the force that Hugh built to prosecute Roland's will, who need his leadership to prevent them from being wiped out by Roland's vampires. The loyalty shown to Hugh casts him in a less selfish light and the vampires provide a credible and dislikable threat.

The guilt comes more slowly, but constantly, as Hugh starts to realise how he failed to question Roland's commands, no matter how brutal. Hugh is still a violent, dangerous man who pursues his self-interest without hesitation or regret but now that he's no longer doing Roland's will, he's forced to define the "we" that his self-interest covers and to consider the cost of his actions.

Give him something to protect from something worse than him.

Ilona Andrews knows that you make violence honourable by using it to protect the innocent. The Iron Dogs could never be seen as innocents so we get a community made up families of hippyish witches, holed up in a castle, surrounded by hostile or indifferent neighbours and under threat from the same vampires hunting the Iron Dogs. The threat is then amplified as a previously unknown force of magic-using warriors start to annihilate the surrounding villages. Now Hugh's violence is turned from the sword of a tyrant to a shield for the innocent.

The new bad guys are an inspired addition. Suddenly, Roland's people aren't the top of the food chain any more and the new Big Bad is alien, inscrutable and deeply scary. I hope they're part of the crossover to the Kate Daniels storyline.

See him through the eyes of another monster.

I think the master stroke of the book is the creation of Elara Harper, The White Lady and leader/protector of the community of witches. Elara is more dangerous and less human than the now weakened and mortal Hugh. She takes an instant dislike to him (which speaks well of her judgement) but is willing to use him and his Iron Dogs to defend her community.

Ilona Andrews version of witches has never felt wholesome. There has always been a whiff of rot and a twitch of insanity associated with them. Elara and her community carry a greater sense of threat with them than that. They seem... slippery. Elara certainly sees herself as a monster and so her view of Hugh is unique.
In a reversal of the development of the relationship between Kate and Curren, the relationship between Elara and Hugh starts with a marriage. True, it's a marriage of convenience to convince the world that these two, who each has a history of betraying allies, really are united. This device allowed intimacy without empathy between the two players and provided a framework for a "Taming Of The Shrew" theme with Elara and Hugh taking turns at being the shrew. Their mutual antagonism is credible as well as being fun. It gave a space for Hugh to continue on the path to humanity by expanding his definition of "we" to include Elara and her people and Elara's slow, reluctant growth of Elara's regard for Hugh made him more engaging.

Then there was the sex scene
Am I the only reader who'd like Audible to have a Skip-To-End-Of-Overlong-Sex-Scene button?

This book was going well. Then we had the sex scene that was almost a chapter long, almost all of which was cinematic i.e with a strong emphasis on what the sex looked like rather than what was going on on the heads of either participant. The fight scenes told me more about the hopes, regrets, excitements and fears of the combatants than this description of sweaty gymnastics provided on what was going on in Elara's or Hugh's head.

I could see that it moved the relationship between the two of them on and did so just before the big everything-hinges-on-this fight but I really didn't need a whole chapter on this.

I recommend the audiobook version.

Steve West does an excellent job as the narrator, His slightly rough, slightly Northern, very English voice for Hugh is inspired. He does a credible job with Elara and I felt like cheering when he used a Hispanic accent for the leaders of the Bouda Clan.

Click on the SoundCloud link below to hear an extract.
https://soundcloud.com/audiolibrary-a/iron-and-magic-iron-covenant-book-1-by-ilo... show less

When I saw this was coming out, at first I was conflicted because, ugh, Hugh D’Ombray! I totally hate Hugh, don't I? But I should have known Ilona Andrews could get me to fall for any character with enough time, and sure enough, they managed to turn me into a Hugh fan by the end of it, eager for the next two installments in the series. Our favorite villain was made completely sympathetic with good backstory and present day action that meshed his history plausibly with a redemption arc.

I loved Elora, and loved that while this was set in the Kate Daniels world, it also had a sort of LOTR feel of it, set in a castle out in the middle of nowhere with the threat of danger constantly looming. A completely awesome relationship between show more Hugh/Elora that sizzled, and amazing fighting scenes! You just wanted them to come onto the page together so they could scream at each other with that awesome snarky banter! Loved this one!

Please excuse typos/name misspellings. Entered on screen reader. show less

Well…I am not sad I waited while you all read about my beloved Hugh. That was well worth it.

Bear with me. First, I rarely read this series that fast. Second, I rarely listen to audiobooks this fast. And third, I think this duo finally struck the exact right chord (hard to say - looking at my Hidden Legacy reviews) for me.

In Kate Daniels, while we have an amazing heroine…and amazing cast. What confounded me in all those years was the fact these sat on any kind of romance shelf. Sure, there were pairings. Sure, the romance has strengthened in the past few books. And sure, there were some hot sex scenes and sexual tension from the get go, but the romance aspect was lacking. The KD series about the plot, and the world-building and show more here’s where I’m heretic: the romance sucked. *Slams hand down* There I said it. I’m not taking it back. Was part of it, perhaps, that I’m not a huge fan of were kind? (Derek notwithstanding…and Ian…and Jack obviously if he counts) and in KD, it was like a insanely interfering aspect of their lives. And I hope you’re all sitting down…I never thought Curran and Kate were as well-matched as they make us try to believe. Their relationship feels like an epic power struggle that’s only beginning to mature. They are constantly sacrificing their relationship for the sake of their independence. And if you only take one thing from this review, understand that that annoys me.

In Hidden Legacy, the writing duo took family dynamics and romance to the next level. I like this one better. I won’t belabor this point. I will just say I’m happy to put HL on a romance shelf.

But this— this is romance. This one, though it tells a solid story, focuses on the relationship. And holy crap, did I love it. I waited for it. I needed it. From the get-go, I harbored a huge crush on Hugh, and I’m not ashamed to say I always liked him better than Curran. It was the flamboyance, it was the fact he was such a worthy villain, it was the outsider status. He’s just hot. And without all that pack baggage. And in this book,I love the way they complemented each other. Rather than being equally tough & aggressive characters, Elara is not just another Kate. She’s fierce and with a backbone. She’s a gentler soul, loving, empathetic, protective, and an outsider herself. Hugh is my very favorite type of romance hero-a baddie who wants to belong. A killer with a soul. A man who needs to stand on his own. A monster made by circumstances. There was so much to like about his redemption, but it was not really just a redemption was it? It was more than that. We got to see how Hugh was molded and shaped into the man who tortured Kate and her friends (Okay, he wasn’t that hot in the knight protector scene. That was brutal.) by a man who was ruthless and who he saw as his family. He began to realize that loyalty and trust were paid back in kind. The relationship from hate to love, but with an undercurrent of respect was something I loved about Elara & Hugh. They followed through with their promises. And it was sweet and refreshing to not read about characters so hellbent on independence they border on acting the fool.

I did feel there were a couple of inconsistencies
remembering torturing people, but having mind-carve outs for control? Not sure I get this…i felt like the Roland control thing thrown in there at the end was just kind of…convenient?

As we know, Hugh’s also a hell of a smartass, and I love that underlying his bravado is an intensity so powerful that it makes Curran look like a kitty. (I know I don't need to compare, but I always did)

Honestly, there were scenes that were heartbreaking and wonderful. Funny and sweet…and then there was Steve West. Do I think that this would be a 5 star book without him? Probably not. His Hugh was magnificent. (There was a couple points in the middle with Elara and Savannah that I got confused, but that wasn’t quite enough to say much about). More than that, he was able to set the scene, as he does in all the fantasy I’ve listened to him perform, to perfection.

So what else would I give it? 5 stars. For the babies. show less

At first I read this only because it's set in the same world as the Kate Daniels' books. But it was Hugh, see, and I hate Hugh. Everyone hates Hugh. He deserves to be hated. (I still kind of hate him.) But I like Elara, the woman who is too powerful and too frightening to be tolerated by any other than the people she protects. Hugh and Elara make a deal to marry in order to combine resources to protect all of their people, his and hers. They don't like it, they don't like each other, but they'll do anything to keep the people who depend on them safe.

The marry your enemy for the greater good trope works for me, especially when it includes the sly pleasure of teasing the person you claim to dislike. Hugh changed in this book and it was show more believable, something I wasn't expecting.

This is a good addition to the world Kate inhabits. It broadened the world and made it fresh again. show less