The Iron Duke

In alternate-world Europe, the mysterious Iron Duke, Rhys Trahaearn, freed England from the Horde’s centuries-long control. In the nine years since the monumental event, times have changed, but very much for Inspector Mina Wentworth, whose Horde blood makes her life difficult.

When Mina’s latest case throws her and the Iron Duke together, they discover a plan that will be deadly to most of the British population, and are forced to cooperate with each other as they journey through Europe to stop the conspirators before it’s too late. Further complications ensue, however, when they cannot fight their attraction to one another…

Oh my gosh. I am head over heels for this book. Besides for being a hot and lingering read, THE IRON DUKE show more is also a stellar example of steampunk worldbuilding, and is a book that I know I will be returning to for years to come.

THE IRON DUKE is without a doubt the most well written steampunk novel that I have ever had the pleasure of reading. This is steampunk at its finest: an alternate-history England where man and machine cannot live without the other, where Meljean Brook unfolds scene after scene, detail after detail so elegantly one begins to wonder how this world could NOT exist.

Rhys and Mina are a pretty standard romance coupling, particularly Rhys as the dark, damaged, and very male love interest, but it is Mina who steals the show. Mina’s physical differences from most other Londoners ensured that she grew up quickly and does not easily trust people. Her outsider status, even among the people she’s lived with her whole life, captured my sympathies, and I was rooting hard for her the entire time to finally find acceptance and happiness.

THE IRON DUKE does not belong in the genre of books that I usually review, and as a result it’s hard for me to talk about why it’s so good. But mark my very inadequate words: if you like romance, and if you like steampunk, then you can’t get much better than this first book in Meljean Brook’s fascinating new series. I am so buying the next book as soon as it comes out. show less

There are a few times, with romance novels, that I almost mutiny against the genre.

Not because the book is terrible. Oh no, a terrible romance novel is absolutely acceptable. What’s one more bad romance novel? I toss them down like candy and think nothing of it.
Instead, it’s good book that make me think: if this book had less sex, it would get the attention it deserved.

Meljean Brook’s The Iron Duke is an adventure story set in a Victorian England transformed by a kind of steampunk nanotechnology. I would very easily recommend it to anyone else who found China Meiville just this side of pretentious (I mean, his vocabulary, kee-rist). Fans of The Diamond Age would probably enjoy it. There are kracken and armored sharks, there are show more automatons and mechanical flesh prosthetics. Political conspiracies, pirates, airships, and zombies abound.

Don’t be confused though, this is a romance novel. Fans of Mieville or Stephenson probably won’t even find it in the book store, let alone read it. There is explicit sex! And a man’s chest, NAKED! ON! THE! COVER!

And yet, in all honesty, I am not sure how much I liked the romance either.

Now I like me some anti-heroes redeemed by magical hoo-has and the overwhelming power of luuurve and all that. It's just… Rhys Trahaearn and Mina Wentworth don’t seem to much like each other. Sure, there are frissons of powerful attraction. And yes, as they are forced together to solve an increasingly complex and dangerous mystery, they grow to respect each other’s intelligence and strengths, fueling the attraction and heat between them. On the other hand, it takes Rhys almost half the novel to notice how attractive Mina is— literally, there is a scene where he is all “I MUST HAVE HER!!! Oh, hey, she’s kinda pretty… Huh.”

Perhaps Brook meant to underscore his Ruthless Arrogance and Damning Need to Possess, but to me it was just, uh what? You’ve been recklessly pursuing Our Fair Maiden all this time, AND YOU JUST NOTICED THAT SHE LOOKS NICE TOO?

It’s not fair for me to employ this level of snark (see: “Ruthless Arrogance and Damning Need to Possess”) with The Iron Duke. Brook is a more accomplished writer than I am implying. Like any romance novel, there are the typical tropes of the genre— but Brook employs them almost like mnemonic devices. A ticking jaw is not just a shortcut to a sex scene, but instead evocative and compelling, calling up the whole personality of the character. I mean, seriously, when was the last time you found a ticking jaw in a romance novel actually interesting?

That transition, from rockin’ adventure story to romance was tough for me. ME! Who will defend the use of explicit sex and feeeeeelings in books until the end of time! Perhaps because, between Rhys and Mina, there is also an element of force and coercion in the sexxoring. They are not equals, socially. He wants her for the possession of her, not (or at least, not ‘til later) for herself and the feelings that may engender in him. She, in a characterization that struck me to the bone, wants only to be free in her own right. So the force that Rhys employs made me uncomfortable— although it was understandable to the characters psychologies and back-stories.

Here is what I will say about The Iron Duke: the worldbuilding was superb. SUPERB! I mean, Brook just launches you into the middle of this alterna-Victorian England and makes you figure it out. There is no info-dumping exposition, no interrupting authorial narrative, no hand-holding and no wimping out. I drew so much from Brook’s world, could bring to each character the necessary motivations, on my own, without Brook telling me or hammering away at me. How refreshing to have an author respect my intelligence!

4 out of 5 stars. Sometimes, I think it should be 3. But I’m going with 4 because I am itching/dying/crying for the next installment in this series. show less

Prelim Review: This is really more of a 4.5, but I loved it enough to bump up to a 5 for these purposes. I would honestly probably give this a TEN except while Rhys does spend much of the book trying to coax Mina into liking him the vast majority of the 'romance' portion is crammed into the latter third of the novel. Which interrupted my very enjoyable reading of the world surrounding them. I hesitate to say this but...I may been okay if no romance had come up! Or if it had been secondary to learning about the Horde and the aftermath of their being ousted by Rhys.

The Iron Duke is essentially set in an alternate reality during Victorian Time. Rhys is the saviour of England because he freed the people from invaders named the Horde by crashing into the tower. The tower held some sort of instrument which controlled the people through nanoagents implanted in their bodies through the consumption of food. These nanoagents allowed the Horde to control all emotions, movement and sexual activity. Mina, the female protagonist is the result of something called a frenzy - horde induced group sexual madness, in which her mother was raped. So devastated was her mother upon seeing her that she ripped out her own eyes.

Rape was a major feature in this novel because consent is clearly coerced throughout the story. show more When Mina shows up at Rhys' home because a body has been dumped on his property, this small interaction is enough for him to determine her his because he experienced lust for the first in a very longtime. Rhys' says to Mina, “I want to possess you. And if I want something I find a way to have it (pg 167)." I know that we are talking about Victorian times, in which women were the properties of their father's until their marriage; however, Rhys' determination of Mina as property when he had absolutely no claim on her whatsoever, only serves to drive home how little value Mina's personhood is really worth.

When her brother goes missing, Rhys offers to look for him, if Mina agrees to share his bed, with the full knowledge that her family did not have the resources to search on their own. "After paying the taxes, which were hardly lower than the Horde had demanded, and wages for the cook and two maids - far fewer than the town house needed, even with most of the rooms closed up - all together Mina's family earned just enough to scrape by" (pg 52). Obviously by any reasonable standard the family was not truly indigent however, what constituted poverty in those times, in specific circles, is quite different than today; this fact that does not make Rhys' proposition any less disgusting. On several occasions, he forces a kiss upon her, though she makes it clear that she is not interested in him. Mina even attempted to squeeze his genitals in an effort to force Rhys to keep his distance, but instead of causing the horror that she planed, it arouses him. She rejects him with words, with violence and even with a weapon, but Rhys is determined that he can make her want him. I do not know how many more times Mina could have said no, or how much more vehement she could be in her refusals.


When Rhys does sexually assault Mina, he actually has the nerve to be shocked that she is not overcome with joy. This btw, after her consistent stream of rejection for him. She says no repeatedly and he has to restrain her hands when she tries to pull his head away. In response, she drugs him with an opium dart. The next morning he apologises to her and then claims that he would never have forced her into having sex with him, because he is a rape survivor himself -- except that is exactly what he did by ignoring her every time she said no. If that were not enough, Mina falls in love with her rapist. Please tell me what women falls in love with the person who violates them in that manner? I found this absolutely disgusting and was extremely hard pressed not to throw my e-reader across the room. Not only does she love Rhys, she risks her life to save his TWICE.

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When I started reading this book, I was in love with the steampunk alternate history and how it was presented. I became disenchanted when I was informed that ‘nanotechnology’ could not be present in a steampunk novel because it was far beyond the reach of our own technology and didn’t harken back to anything. Despite that detail, it is still magnificent in its world building.

The female protagonist is wonderful. I love when there is something different. It seems like every female protagonist needs to have a sarcastic mouth and a lot of snark. So while Mina puts on a front because deep down she has feelings, she isn’t some constant bad ass.

The male protagonist is someone I wanted to punch- in the face, in the balls-, to trip while show more he walked around, to push in front of a bus. He said shag more than Austin Powers. One track mind doesn’t begin to cover his character and subsequent development.

I loved the side characters- the navigator who’s afraid of heights, the big burly redhead with honor, the Lady Corsair, and the traveling adventurer.

The world building, the female protagonist and the side characters were fantastic. It was only the male protagonist that got to me. Minus one star for being a douche. show less

Alas for my girlish hopes.

I heard about this one online many months ago and had been promising myself an uncharacteristically sappy Wellington of Waterloo fame. It was NOT wellington, but a made up duke.

This made up duke was also a pirate, as this is a reasonable job combination in romancelandia.

The love story consisted of her going nonoIcan't and him going butyouWILLmypretty, over and over again. Which palled.

But it was the steampunk world which grabbed me, not the romance. It is integrally steampunk, by which I mean that the steampunk is built into the plot and fundamental to the characters' lives and not a decorative extra. I'm delighted that this is the first of a series, as this is a tempting world to explore, at least on show more paper. To explore it for real, one would have to face down zombies, war and sea monsters, alongside the usual Victorian era unpleasantnesses such as industrial pollution, classism and racism. On the other hand, the women in this version of England do get to have careers without raising an eyebrow, which means we get a marvellous piratical lady airship captain, and the female lead of this book, a homicide investigator.

Setting: unspecified late victorian, tensions between longtime occupants of an england that has been occupied territory and the returned descendants of colonists who fled occupation. Which reminded me of how irish americans used to say I'm Irish too! and we'd think No you're Not. It had a class system and industrial pollution and people worrying about money and while heroine's family came from sunnybrook farm school of unrelieved lovableness there were enough people around being horrid to offset the cloyingness of that.

But! Zeppelins! A kraken! I will forgive much for zeppelins and a kraken who is used in plot. I will even forgive romance, am very open minded like that show less

When this book came out for the first time in US I knew nothing of steampunk, but my favourite blogs were positively gushing about it. I read it on a whim and fell in love with this genre - a peculiar love child of gadgetry and sci-fi in a historical setting.

To this day The Iron Duke is THE book that set my standards incredibly high. A dashing airship captain aka former pirate? Check. Clockwork hearts and tiny minuscule mechanisms miraculously repairing your body? Check. A wilful woman in a traditionally male position of authority? Check. Zombies? Check. Kraken? Check. Slavers, religious nuts, racism, adventurers, inventors? Check and many times more check.

There are so so many wonderful facets to this book, that it's not possible for me show more to describe them all.

Mina is incredible, and her relationships with Rhys strongly remind me of another powerful couple - Eve Dallas and Rourke from In Death series by J.D.Robb aka Nora Roberts.

He is a brute with a loyal and fierce heart whose every action is weighted down by his responsibilities for his people. He has no time or inclination for fripperies and thus he chooses the straightest route to his heart desires. Awkward at social niceties Rhys doesn't understand the complexities of Mina's life and legacy but when he at last does he tries his best to change the situation.

Mina with her Horde's eyes, a child of Frenzy (an impulse sent by The Horde which made people couple so the horde could have more kids as a workforce) faces racism and open hatred all her life. When her investigation brings her to The Iron Duke, the man who freed the country from the oppressors, the spotlight isn't kind to her. It gets worse because Rhys wants her like no other woman and will do anything to get her.

The plot she uncovers endangers all England including her younger brother who is on the ship of the enemy, and Mina will do anything to save him, even risk her reputation and career.

The woman doesn't hesitate in her determination, she aces in their adventures and despite the differences and very hostile and stormy beginning of her relationships with The Iron Duke she finds that they are very similar.

I freaking adore this book, and this is the third time I read it *grinning*

If you are not sure about the genre, this is the best way to find out if you like it or not. However, the only book that came close to Iron Seas epicness in my opinion is Greyfriar by Clay & Susan Griffith.

Recommended to everyone. show less