COlD IrON

released OUT NOW! 437 pages | paperback/ebook Author Miles Cameron Publisher Gollancz

Cold Iron is immersive, with likeable characters, but it plods like a cart horse. Set in a Renaissance-style fantasy land where both gunpowder and magic are commonplace, this first book in the Masters & Mages trilogy is the tale of young Aranthur’s progress in his studies at the Academy. There’s a little of Harry Potter in the adventure of a boy wizard establishing his place in a world amid feuds, secrets and politics; a brutal Harry Potter adventure with plenty of sex and slaughter, mind you.

Author Miles Cameron predominantly writes historical fiction under his real name, Christian Cameron, and that background reveals itself in the authenticity of Cold Iron’s world-building. You can visualise every fencing move, fireplace and doublet button. But this precision hobbles the pace. A large chunk of the early story unfolds in the same roadside pub.

The prose lacks the wry wit of Joe Abercrombie or the lush descriptive qualities of Anna Smith Spark. But it’s entertaining to follow a gang of dysfunctional friends as they survive the city’s conflicts and vices. And there’s a degree of social commentary – many real-world circumstances (refugees and racial prejudice for instance) have corollaries here. With a trip overseas and a war brewing at the end, there’s a sense that the second instalment may have more momentum.