A Darkness Forged in Fire - Chris Evans

"A masterful debut - if JRR Tolkien and Bernard Cornwall had a literary love child, this would be it" (Karen Traviss, New York Times no1 bestselling author)

Book One of the Iron Elves

Big words to go by, so needless to say I was a bit sceptic about the book, as you often read those kinds of lines, only to be let down seriously by the actual work.

But not really for this one.  Surely, it doesn`t live up to THOSE names of the fantasy genre, but it is never the less a good read, and one I`ll be looking to get the other parts in the series from.  It introduces readers to a world just `past` what most consider High fantasy, as the world is already in a Napoleonic phase of technology with muskets and cannons, but also with magic and mystical creatures.

The Iron Elves, commanded by Konowa, where an elite regiment of Elven troopers, dissolved to cover up a plot of the Shadow Monarch, an evil elven sorceress that wants to plunge the world in darkness.  But when she rises again in power, the regiment is reformed by anything but elves.

The regiment is send out on a probably suicidal mission to recover the fabled `Eastern Star`, and has to overcome a lot of attacks by creatures thought extinct, as well as a revolt by the more savage Elfkynan`s.  They find out however that the oath they swore to the regiment will carry them onwards even after death, as all the forces in the world seem to link together to face off the Shadow Monarch.

The book at times has an `Islandwana` feel to it, as a single, under strength regiment faces off a huge horde of wild warriors while occupying a small fortress.  This all adds to the tension as such, and quite a few mysteries start to be laid down in it`s pages, clearly to be unravelled later on in the next volumes...