The Rise of the Iron Moon

I've now read three of Stephen Hunt's steampunk Jackelian series. The first, The Court of the Air, is mainly a political intrigue story with two young protagonists on the run from forces bent on their destruction. The second, The Kingdom Beyond the Waves, is an Indiana Jones style adventure featuring a female archeologist. The Rise of the Iron Moon is the pulpiest in the series so far.

Hunt's genius is taking every trope in the pulp fiction handbook and mixing them in a blender. You'll find here aspects of Edgar Rice Burroughs' Barsoom series as well as H.P. Lovecraft, Charles Dickens, Jules Verne and Camelot legend. Throw in Victorian era England (Jackals) and Reign of Terror era France (Quatérshift). Does it blend? Well, yes, I think show more it does. Rather well, if you don't get too hung up on the recycling of earlier authors' works. Don't get too hung up on plausible physics either. There is magic as well as machines in Hunt's universe, so I think he can get away with waving his hands over little details like interstellar travel and a breathable atmosphere on other planets. Not to mention the absurd denouement that gets our heroes out of a seemingly inescapable jam.

In spite of all the homage to the pulp writers of the 30s, there are still plenty of original ideas at play in Hunt's universe. Like the Kingdom of Jackals practice of keeping a few members of the royal family in captivity for breeding purposes, just to trot them out on special occasions and throw rotten fruit at them to glorify their democratic government (not to mention the practice of amputating the king's arms as a symbolic gesture).

Rise of the Iron Moon brings back Molly and Oliver from Court of the Air. Also, the steamman Coppertracks and Commodore Jared Black. The latter apparently appears in all the books. New characters include Purity Drake (a runaway royal), Kyorin (a mysterious escaped slave from a far off land), Duncan (the man carrying something dubious in his travel case), Rooksby (the officious government bureaucrat) and Keyspierre (the 'shifty' whose loyalties are questionable).

Just when you think the stakes can't get any higher, Hunt ratchets things up to 11. The evil plot this time is even worse than Kingdom Beyond the Waves. The entire planet is at risk, not just the people on it. show less

Definitely my favorite Jackelian novel so far. I still can't quite work out why I don't enjoy these more. All the elements are there: high adventure, get characters fantastic settings, great world building but somehow they still seem to be less than the sum of their parts.
Perhaps there are just too many ideas here. Several alien races, two lead characters almost on separate adventures, time travel, ancient warriors brought back to life, sentient spacecraft, giant ants all set against the complex political machinations of Jackals. Is it all too much to allow a cohesive, engaging plot to carry through? Still - If you've got it flaunt it - and Hunt certainly has it. There are concepts ideas and scenes here that a lesser author would spin show more into a novel or even a trilogy. I sometimes find myself breathlessly wishing to return to a scene or character to explore more but Stephen Hunt is already on to the next plot twist or bizarre monster encounter.

Often he will leave a scene just as things are hotting up and then when you rejoin this characters you are already in the after math of what happened. This could be frustrating and certainly makes you have to read back a few pages to remind yourself where you left those characters, but it means the plot certainly rattles along and there are no shortage of classic cliff hanger moments.

The ideas are wildly ambitious, expertly executed but the absurdity and derring do of the classic Victorian penny dreadful make this a truly joyful read.

Keep em coming please Mr Hunt! show less

Somewhat slow to start, but an entertaining adventure book in the same vein as the previous. Brings back a lot of characters from the earlier books, which actually is a bit frustrating having been so long since I read them. (Especially the first one, and there's lots of characters and plot references from the first one.) All the dust-jacket descriptions focus on Purity Drake, but I actually identified with Molly as the central character. (Maybe because I vaguely remembered her role in the first book?) Great weird imagery.

Definitely my favorite Jackelian novel so far. I still can't quite work out why I don't enjoy these more. All the elements are there: high adventure, get characters fantastic settings, great world building but somehow they still seem to be less than the sum of their parts.
Perhaps there are just too many ideas here. Several alien races, two lead characters almost on separate adventures, time travel, ancient warriors brought back to life, sentient spacecraft, giant ants all set against the complex political machinations of Jackals. Is it all too much to allow a cohesive, engaging plot to carry through? Still - If you've got it flaunt it - and Hunt certainly has it. There are concepts ideas and scenes here that a lesser author would spin show more into a novel or even a trilogy. I sometimes find myself breathlessly wishing to return to a scene or character to explore more but Stephen Hunt is already on to the next plot twist or bizarre monster encounter.

Often he will leave a scene just as things are hotting up and then when you rejoin this characters you are already in the after math of what happened. This could be frustrating and certainly makes you have to read back a few pages to remind yourself where you left those characters, but it means the plot certainly rattles along and there are no shortage of classic cliff hanger moments.

The ideas are wildly ambitious, expertly executed but the absurdity and derring do of the classic Victorian penny dreadful make this a truly joyful read.

Keep em coming please Mr Hunt! show less

I LOVE this series, but I'm pretty sure this was my favorite one so far. I was always on the edge of my seat (toilet seat actually, because I read this in the bathroom). I liked the characters a lot, it was brutal and filled with cool ideas, and the "world-building" is awesome.

If you're a China Mieville fan, I would definitely recommend these books. Totally non-standard fantasy/sci-fi. Mr. Hunt does a lot less philosophizing and describing than Mieville but I think some people would like that.

When Purity Drake, an orphan and product of the Royal Breeding House, discovers she is next on the breeding list she has to escape. On the run a man saves her life. Turns out he is a slave and running from the Polar Barbarians with news that terrible forces now aim to enslave the Kingdom of Jackals. The unlikely duo team up in the hope for a better chance of survival in this fantasy/Steampunk world.

Molly writes celestial fiction novels and is beginning to have strange visions from the Hexmachina. The stars are disappearing and a comet is heading back to Earth to take residence as a new moon - something is going on - and she needs to find Oliver Brookes for answers.

For all its imaginative world bui
lding flair and well-written prose, I show more couldn't get into this book. For me there was just too much going on, too many fantastical worlds, place names and fractions of which I had the feeling I was not getting the full picture. Usually I love the bizarreness of Steampunk, and I did enjoy learning about some of his characters, especially Coppertracks, the super-intelligent steamman - a nano-mechanical lifeform. But, that wasn't enough. I guess I am the kind of person that needs to read the previous two books in this series to get a true feel of the past happenings of Purity's world. Although, it's clear now it's not going to pass as a standalone story, I do hope to check out the previous books and at a later date, come back better equipped. show less

Stephen Hunt has once more thrown us into a world of intrigue, science and war. This time, The Kindom of Jackals is under threat from a new alien enemy and must travel to the planet Kaliban in order to find help, difficult when it is so hard to tell who are enemies and who are allies against the 'masters'.
The action never stops and whilst sometimes details are confusing, this never really matters because the reader is so swept away by the events of the book and desire to know if the characters will survive.
Overall a fantastic book filled with space journeys, time travel and long lost heirs.