A review by fastasashark
The Iron Ghost by Jen Williams

3.0

3.75/5 stars Most of the book was solidly 4 stars or possibly more. The worldbuilding was quite awesome and I loved the northern wastelands of the Nahrl and Skald, with the awesomeness of the arachnos and other snow/ice creatures, the mountain spirit etc And in the end thats why I rated this 3.75 instead of higher. I love Wydrin and Sebastian's adventures, their forays into different areas of the Northlands the cool and sometimes terrifying creatures they encountered...and I basically just wanted the whole book to be that. But I really dislike Frith's character and find him boring and obnoxious (him and Wydrin together just seems forced, too) and by the end the whole thing with him and Joah got to be a bit tedious for me. Give me more Wydrin, Sebastian, interesting creatures and riveting adventures across strange landscapes, mountain spirits and stories of the brood sisters...and less angsty, "brooding" boring dudes like Frith and Joah. Also I found the way travel and time worked seemed to get jumbled at the end. In the beginning it seems that Skaldshollow is far from everything and the Nahrl city over treacherous mountains that can be difficult to cross. But as the end drew nearer it seems moving around the Northlands and across the world generally happens at the drop of a hat even without Frith's teleporting. So yeah, most of this book truly was awesome stuff, but around the final quarter of the book it kind of lost me a bit due to the abovementionrd factors.