The Iron Hunt

I HATE this book! Everything about it is terrible. I feel cheated of my time and robbed of my money.

The plot is a simple one. In fact this would've served better as a novella because 300 pages was too many for what little was in them. And grammar nazis will have a fit, running out of red ink before they turn the last page.

For a supposedly lethal hunter and fierce protector of the world against monsters and demons imprisoned behind a veil, Maxine Kiss was a pansy-assed pussy. I'm sorry for my crass language but I'm so Mad. She asked everyone questions and whether they be friend or foe she never received a straight answer. Meaningless riddles are not an answer. She threatened but never followed through. ("You try anything, you even think show more about standing up, and I will have you shitting out of your dick so fast you'll beg me to rip it off." ~ Best threat) She just accepted these non-answers and moved on. To my frustrated consternation this happened repeatedly all the way through the book:

Maxine encountered someone, they talk some shit and do a lot of implying, she'd question them, they'd deflect or give some vague and incomprehensible response. Kick some ass, woman! Where's this fierce warrior that's supposed to "save the world"? Because frankly if you're our saviour, then kill me now. Pathetic.

And what the hell was she doing with someone like Grant? They live by such fundamentally different philosophies. Maxine kills the things that go bump in the night and Grant "saves" them. Slightly naive of him, if you ask me. Also, I'm not discriminating against the disabled here but if Maxine was going to settle down with anyone, shouldn't it be with someone who has the ability to run for his life? Otherwise, they're just cannon fodder. There's no way for him to keep up with her or effectively fight by her side. His flute would be no match for angry demon hordes.

I found none of the characters likeable, unless you count homeless teen Byron who was turned into a pitiable creature. Maxine was unkillable. It was absurdly cartoon-ish the way she was run over by a bus and got right back up again, completely unharmed. I wonder if she's hardy against poison and disease. Please, someone try it.

For someone slapped with a violently pro-active personna she did absolutely fuck all. All growl and no bite. The original premise was a good one but unfortunately it was poorly executed. By the end I still didn't fully understand what had changed from the beginning. It's taken me four excrutingly long months to finish this and that's with skimming.

On the 12th April I said:

"Iron Hunt sucks! I will congratulate anyone who managed to finish it. Those who gave this book 5 stars is not my friend. I've just offended 181 people but I don't care. I hate every character so far except maybe this homeless teenager who's probably just a flash in the pan. It's frustratingly slow and sparse on the background details. Good bits are few and far between. It's a challenge read so I have to finish. Stupid challenges."

I stick by this statement but to any future friends who may have rated this 5 stars, I'm sorry but we may just have to go our separate ways. show less

You may also read my review here: http://www.mybookishways.com/2011/11/review-the-iron-hunt-hunter-kiss-1-by-marjo...

I read a Maxine Kiss short story quite a while back in an anthology and remember really enjoying it,so I wasn’t surprised at how engrossing The Iron Hunt is. Maxine is a Hunter,from a long line of Hunters,tasked with keeping demons in check. She’s settled into tenuous comfort with her boyfriend Grant,former priest and so much more,and enjoys helping out at the soup kitchen and shelter that he runs. He veneer of normality that Maxine has cloaked herself in is shattered when she is accused of the murder of a private investigator. Her name is on a piece of paper found in the dead man’s pocket,and Maxine has no idea who show more else could know of her identity. Her investigation will lead her to a man who may have much to do with her past and creatures that hint at the possibility of a coming apocalypse.

The Iron Hunt opens with this line “When I was eight,my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw.” Sucks you right in,yes? It certainly caught my attention,and I ended up staying glued to the pages. There’s trouble brewing beyond the veil,and things not of this world are pushing through to this reality. What begins with the murder of a private investigator turns into a search into Maxine’s soul,and her past. Maxine is a tough girl,make no mistake,and her tattoos are,um,unusual. During the day,they are her armor. When I say armor,Maxine can get hit by a car and she’ll be right as rain. That’s some serious armor. At night,the tattoos come off and coalesce into five seriously rough and tumble little demons. Zee seems like the alpha guy of the group,and the only one that Maxine actually speaks with. They’re a charming lot,and I found myself falling in love with them as the book goes on. I mean,these little guys can devour a baddie in seconds,like to cuddle teddy bears (well,pieces of teddy bears),eat tools and other various non-edibles (somehow the author makes this charming,seriously),and will do anything to keep Maxine safe. Ms. Liu’s writing is sharp and immediate,and the action hardly lets up. I also like her concept of zombies. We’re not talking the shambling undead here. “Zombie” is used to describe humans inhabited by demons. Maxine is convinced the lot of them are up to no good,but Grant is convinced they can change,and he just might have the ability to make that happen. In fact,there’s way more to Grant than meets the eye. This is just another one of the stunning discoveries Maxine will make during the story. She knew Grant had some magic,but just how much remains to be seen. Her devotion to him is unshakeable,however,and her strength,tempered with an aching vulnerability are part of what make Maxine a heroine to root for. The author has a wonderful way with words,and has created a world rich in mythology,ghosts,demons,and plenty of darkness (although there is light at the end.) Her imagery is immediate and the twists and turns don’t stop! I highly recommend this series to any urban fantasy fan,and can’t believe I had it sitting on my shelf for so long! show less

I was reading this book at about the same time as Dead Witch Walking (DWW) by Kim Harrison. I was reading The Iron Hunt at home and Dead Witch Walking in work. By the end of the week I had to think for a moment to figure out which character belonged to which world! The two books are quite similar :) This book is pacier than DWW though. DWW was a very slow starter. This one draws you right into Maxine's world. One thing I regretted doing at the start, was reading the prologue. That took a bit out of the reading enjoyment because the prologue throws the reader right into the middle of the fracas before the world building so it was slightly confusing. So if you haven't read this book yet, don't read the prologue before reading the story. show more Read it at the end. The story telling quality while good is not quite a masterpiece, a 3.5 out of 5. There were parts where the author dragged the drama out in a drawn out overkill which was annoying. It was so overdrawn that it almost presented the main protagonist as "stupid" that she just couldn't "get it", bordering on irritating, instead of the intellegent and kick-ass chick that she is portrayed to be in the book!

The story itself while not original, I still find it quite good and enjoyable. Ms. Liu puts a nice spin to a well-used tale. I'd give it a 4 out of 5. However... the thing about the story is... if Maxine Kiss (heroine) is a one-woman defender of the human race team, why is she travelling only around the US? this begs the question of:
a.) Does that mean that the US has the highest concentration of demons, enough to warrant ignoring the rest of the world?
b.) The rest of the world is not considered human enough to be saved?
c.) It wasn't really a well thought-out plot, and here the snags are showing...

There are also two main "central issues" or, "central dilemma" if you will, to the story. One, is Maxine's journey to self-discovery and burgeoning powers and, second, is the first "demon from the veil" encounter in Maxine's lifetime. The second "central dilemma" was satisfactorily closed with the ending with a bang. While the first "central issue" seems to be an ongoing process. The ending therefore closed the book but also left it hanging. This took the steam off the climax of the story. I would give the ending a 3.5 out of 5.

Overall, I think this is still a wonderful start to what is looking like a worderful series! I enjoyed this book and would read another Marjorie Liu work again. I'd give this book a 3.5 out of 5.

Cherry
www.cherrymischievous.com show less

I don't know what I feel about this book. I found it so complicated. I LOVE Marjorie M. Liu. I love all her books, but this I found unsettling.

Maxine Kiss is the world's last hope. For 10000 years demons have been trapped behind a veil. She is charged with killing those demons that escape from their prison. Things quickly change when something "other" escapes from within the veil. She learns she's not what she seems and neither are those around her. Her mother had kept her ignorant of many things and she's looking for answers.

Maxine is helped by her "tattoos". They are really demons that have been handed down through the Kiss women to help with this task. She is also the Hunter. The last of her kind. With the opening of the veil, old show more prophecies are borne to fruition and she must make sense of her role in the prophecy; and where her demon family fit in.

As I think of the book, I enjoyed it. I just don't know if I liked it. Does that make sense? I don't know if I ever understood why so many secrets, what the purpose of it all is/was, or why so many players. Not all the secrets were revealed or maybe I just didn't understand them if they were. This reminds me a little of the "I am the Cheese" book. I will definitely have to re-read to make sure I got all it. Overall, I like the characters, I love the concept of Maxine Kiss and her tattoos; but I'm just not sure if I really understood what I was reading. show less

The premise of THE IRON HUNT is great - ten thousand years ago a horde of demons was contained in a prison, and Wardens were created to police the earth and capture any escapees. But the Wardens were limited in number, and over the years escaped demons have killed every Warden but one: Maxine Kiss. What's worse, the prison itself is failing and Maxine has no hope of preventing the global annihilation that looms closer and closer on the horizon.

The supernatural twist is that Maxine has a motley crew of allies: little demons that accompany her like a ragtag army at night, but adhere to her skin during the day as tattoos and render her physically invulnerable. It's a pretty cool idea, and the dynamic between Maxine and her demon show more protectors is engaging.

There's a lot of good stuff going on with THE IRON HUNT - the problem is that Marjorie M. Liu's writing is somewhat overwrought. This is a sample of what I mean:

"Shadows shifted, stretching like mouths across the room, spreading and rising from the floor and walls in churning waves. Like oil running up walls, or the abyss of Oturu's cloak, full of pressed faces and twisted bodies. A breathing, aching darkness; a tsunami of soul cages; demons hurled and writhing. The apartment grew dark and closed, as suffocating as the Wasteland, and it was the wall of demons who made it so; entombing, consuming us."

It's beautiful, it's intense, it's vivid, and it's also constant. Every paragraph is stuffed to the gills with dramatic metaphors and dramatic imagery and dramatic tension. If she used this kind of language more infrequently, waiting for the right moment to pull out all the stops and wow us, I'd be a lot more impressed. Instead, I felt the writing actually interfered with my ability to follow the story and engage with the characters.

By the same token, I think that Liu made a mistake with THE IRON HUNT by turning the "mysterious" dial up to 11. Almost every character in the novel, other than Maxine, at some point taunts her with knowledge they cannot, or will not, share. Her little army of demons have made promises to keep quiet; her enemies have no interest in telling her what she doesn't know; while her more provisional allies seem to keep secrets just for the hell of it. A lot of the time the mystery is much bigger than the secret, which is easy to guess and fairly obvious; this has an unfortunate Wizard of Oz effect. In general, I feel like a little bit less mystery would have allowed for a lot more plot.

I'm on the fence about this book in the end. On the one hand, I really enjoy the premise and the characters. It's a smart book, and Liu is capable of really incredible writing. That's enough to make me curious about the series to come. On the other hand, if I get more of this overwrought language and atmosphere drenched in mysterious mystery this series will sink to the bottom of my list real fast. show less

This did not really work for me, despite an interesting premise (living demonic tattoos that can separate from the body; together, they fight demons, but also, they are demons), interesting approach (the book felt like it was really starting in media res of an ordinary paranormal romance arc) and a lot of things that I ordinarily like: female protagonist, maternal line, relative lack of unnecessary romantic tension, swords (eventually).

So why didn't it work? 1 - The prose. Too many sentence fragments. Fragments of sentences, repeated, dramatically. With drama. - 2 Too much talking about a mystery and not enough actual information, in ways that felt driven more by the need to have secrets than by the need of characters to keep secrets. show more I mean, if she's supposed to save the world, and some of them need her to do that, why not just tell her whatever the hell it is she's supposed to know? - 3 Lots of tough talk but not a lot of actual toughness. 4 - The mystery felt a little too cosmic woowoo. 5 - A long day's journey into some sort of mystic realm. I hate mystic realms.

I did like that she took time out from her busy life solving some kind of cosmic mystery to help people trapped by rubble from an earthquake. But was she only helping them because there was some possible demon connection?

Anyway, although I was drawn in right away, and stuck with it to finish it, I don't believe I'll be able to read more of this series, unless things shift dramatically. show less

Maxine Kiss was raised by her mother to be a loner and a nomad, moving place to place, keeping to herself, having no friends outside of the boys. The boys are her living tattoos that she wears on her body by day, they peel away at night to become her personal, demon protectors that she lovingly calls "my boys". Maxine is from a warrior race of demons created long ago to guard the humans from the demons and zombies. She is the last of her line and they call her The Hunter.

Going against family tradition, Maxine has put down some roots with Grant Cooperon, who has a few special gifts of his own, in Seattle, Washington at the Coop, a homeless shelter owned by Grant. Grant is also a former priest. Maxine has some trepidations about about show more living with Grant but she loves him and can't keep herself from not staying with him. In Maxine's own words:

"Grant Cooperon, my magic bullet. And it was going to kill me one day."

Maxine senses that the veil, a prison created ten thousands years ago to imprison the most dangerous of demons, has opened and something evil has slipped through the cracks to earth's realm. Maxine has to find out what slipped through, before it finds her.

I love the way Marjorie M. Liu writes, her words are like poetry, the way they flow off the page. It was a treat to read The Iron Hunt coupled with Ms. Liu's writing style and an introduction into world of demons that is a rare one with many dimensions to explore. I enjoyed the closeness and companionship that Maxine shares with her boys. The romance in this story is very subtle, the love shared between Grant and Maxine is unquestionable from the very the start. Which I think is refreshing to see the protagonist in a solid relationship throughout the story. Maxine Kiss is a strong, warrior through and through but she is also kind, she has a softer side.

This is a read that requires your full attention because there is so much going on every page. At times the story can be dark and bleak. The Iron Hunt is an engrossing, solid story with action throughout it's pages. The end ties up the major plot point of this story but leaves a lot questions needing answers. Most of those questions are answered in Darkness Calls.

The Iron Hunt has a prequel Hunter Kiss, a novella in the Wild Thing anthology. I did not read the prequel and feel it didn't hinder the story in any way. show less