Cold Iron

May 25, 2015
This hefty coming-of-age epic fantasy from Leicht (And Blue Skies from Pain), which launches the Malorum Gates series, features not one but two adolescent heroes: 16-year-old twins Nels and Suvi, children of King Henrik of Eledore and his queen from neighboring Ytlain. Eledore, home to the magic-gifted and nonhuman kainen, faces a mortal threat from the human Acrasians, who have no magic but possess a huge army, while the twins’ nefarious uncle, Sakari, plots to seize the throne. Nels is renounced by the kainen king as defective because he lacks magic powers; grappling loudly with self-doubt, he becomes a soldier and then unconvincingly takes over Eledore’s entire army. His sister, Suvi, happier in breeches than court dresses, gains command of the Eledorean fleet. Despite Leicht’s attempt to flavor the proceedings with Finnish-like names, the worldbuilding tends to get bogged down in adolescent dialogue and sentimentality. She relies too hard on having her characters constantly plunge into action, with hardly any pauses for inner reflection or growth. With the subterranean Old Ones also threatening, Nels and Suvi apparently have a long road ahead, and the book’s bloodthirsty violence may make it feel even longer.

July 1, 2015
Cold Iron follows the journey of Nels and Suvi, twin heirs to the kingdom of Eledore. Nels is forced to relinquish his standing as heir to the throne and join the army after an accident and hasty decision that he knows will forever change his life; he navigates the strange new world of soldiers, and as war with the neighboring Acrasians becomes more inevitable, his knowledge of their language and culture comes in handy. Suvi, newly made heir, must learn to navigate the complexities of court intrigue after years at sea, and she does relatively well although she keeps finding new levels of betrayal and plotting at every turn. The kingdom is crumbling, and the two of them are in a desperate race to force enough change to save their people before war tears everything apart. The fantasy of it is solid, with sound character building and expert courtly intrigue, in a world just different enough from what we've grown to expect from doorstop epics to be interesting. All in all, a promising beginning to a series, with lots of places to go and a wide range of characters struggling to find their paths.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2015, American Library Association.)