I Read Books: The Rise of the Iron Moon

The third in Hunt’s Jackals series has the kingdom of Jackals – the entire world! – threatened by alien invaders from the planet Kaliban, the equivalent of Mars, though that’s more of a H G Wells/Edgar Rice Burroughs Mars.

(Apologies for Wells and/or Burroughs fans for jamming the two together).

Molly Templar and Oliver Brooks return from the first in the series. Brooks, now the Hood o’ the Marsh, the personification of justice for the kingdom, relinquishes his role to allow the true queen, Purity Drake to rise. (Jackals overthrew it’s kings several hundred years ago, their monarch now a mutilated prisoner). She in turn reawakens some legendary heroes, but does she have enough belief in herself to turn back the invaders?

Templar meanwhile gets together with a bunch of scientists from Jackals, the Steamman Free State and even rival nation Quatèrshift, to mount an expedition across the deeps of space to the source (Kaliban). Obviously everything goes wrong.

As is usually the case, many characters, both admirable and despicable die, often in horrible ways. There’s a lot of people sacrificing themselves, not always for any good result. It feels more tragic than the previous novels which have never shied away from being gritty.

There’s a twist to do with time at the end, but it’s about context and history and motivation rather than the complete bizarre change out of nowhere that characterised Kingdom Beyond the Waves. Probably the best one so far, though relying a little on the knowledge from previous books.

Read This: For weird mind-bending celestial fiction
Don’t Read This: For light amusing reading.