Thursday, June 28, 2018

Clash of Iron

Clash of Iron (Iron Age, #2)Clash of Iron by Angus Watson
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

The Romans are coming, the Romans are coming


After defeating Zadar and becoming the Queen of Maidun, Lowa must now figure out how to defeat the Romans. The Romans are heading to Gaul before they make their way to Britain, so Lowa sends three of her best soldiers to help Gaul defeat the Romans. At Maidun Lowa attempts to train her people to face off with the Romans while also attempting to unite all of Britain's tribes to face against the coming invasion.

Clash of Iron is almost exactly what I expected from Age of Iron. It's nearly all brutality, torture, misery, and ancient warfare. Unfortunately what it lacks that Age of Iron had was simply Dug. Dug just made Age of Iron worth reading with his sunny attitude despite the world falling down around him. Dug is largely in the background of the large scale conflict. Most of his early moments are spent with him having girl drama. Dug loves Lowa and Lowa loves Dug. Through a series of unfortunate events and misinformed statements, the two simply drift apart. They each believe the other doesn't care about them. It went on for a long long time.

Clash of Iron increases it's point of view characters adding Spring, Chamanca, and Bruxton to Lowa, Dug, and Ragnall. Spring was a good addition. Chamanca and Bruxton were necessary for the story to be told even though they kept the attention off Dug. Lowa and Dug were strong as expected even overall. The surprise came from Ragnall, who simply put is one of the most obnoxious characters I've ever encountered. His point of view chapters were necessary, but I wish he fell down a well and stayed there.

Even though Clash of Iron was what I expected Age of Iron to be like, I longed for the simplicity and heart of Age of Iron. The scope of the story increases leading the reader to Rome, Gaul, Murkan, and Eroo. I understand the need to expand the story, but I simply preferred Age of Iron to it's sequel.

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