Iron Kingdoms Chronicles: In
Thunder Forged by Ari Marmell, Fall of Llael #1
The Iron Kingdoms are at war: a war fought with
machine guns and magic, knights of valor and earth-shaking titans of steam and
steel. And now that war may hinge on nothing more than a sheaf of papers.
An alchemical formula, stolen by an ally they
thought they could trust, could cost the brave soldiers of Cygnar everything,
unless they retrieve it before their enemy can. Their only hope: a cunning spy,
a knight out of her element and a frighteningly small unit of the best that
Cygnar has to offer.
Arrayed against them is not only a single,
devious enemy, but the combined intelligence apparatus – and possible the full
military might – of the most brutal martial power Cygnar has ever known.
Last year Pyr, one of the
leading publishers in todays Science Fiction and Fantasy books and Privateer
Press, an award winning tabletop wargame producer put their heads together and
decided to novelize the wargame The Iron Kingdoms. With two big releases set
this for 2013. The book that kicks off this series is In Thunder Forged and is published
this June of 2013 with Big Iron following it up in July 2013. I am familiar
with a tabletop game for the competitors of Privateer Press but haven’t played
any of Privateers Press’ just yet. However, as soon as I read the announcement
I delved deeper into what The Iron Kingdoms were all about, and just after
opening the webpage and reading the first few sentences, it got my curiosity
piqued. This book and this series therefore made it directly on to my “most
anticipated” list for 2013. But enough talk about all this lets look at what In
Thunder Forged is about.
Just up front, if you are
like me not familiar with the world of the Iron Kingdoms, do not say, nah won’t
read it because I won’t understand it. You will only do yourself short. In the
back of the book and on the site of Privateer press there are tons of
information about the different kingdoms that are being explored in this first
book. Allowing you to get a clear overall picture of what this series is about.
How several kingdoms have alliances and which kingdoms are at war. And even by
that there are actually only two kingdoms where the full focus is on. Cygnar
and Khador. And I probably even reckon that when you read this series with no
background information you will still enjoy it. This is mainly achieved by how
Ari Marmell writes up this opening to the series. I think he did take into
account that not everyone has the same knowledge upfront about the Iron
Kingdoms. Ari Marmell writes with a very clear and crisp manner when the
history and background of several characters are being discussed or explained
and keeps this up even in the fighting. Next to this great writing, In Thunder
Forged features a heavy load of action. The fighting scenes are pretty viscous,
somewhat gruesome and a little brutal. (Talking about an understatement right
there!)
In Thunder Forged starts off
with a mentioning that there is a war going on, but most of the population
doesn’t know about this. Cygnar is at war with Khador. The kingdom of Khador,
brutal barbarian like people, have been a constant threat for many of the bordering
kingdoms. The other kingdom that they at war with, Cygnar, is viewed upon as
the “iron fist” of all the kingdoms. Being the most prosperous in mineral and
technologies and others a like. The government of Cygnar wants to put a stop to
this waging war and have or I should say had enlisted the help of an well
respected alchemist to make a specific formula to bolster their technology even
further and give them the upper hand in it all. But as you can make up from the
synopsis. He has gone rogue… Now the pressure is even more on to make sure that
this all important formula doesn’t fall into the hands of the opposite party.
In order to not let this
happen the military force of the Cygnaran people is being called to action.
Well not the full might but a specific unit the “Unorthodox Engagement” team.
They are send out because they are special and the best. But they aren’t the
only ones, because the Cygnaran army has a special intel division the CRS, the
Cygnaran Reconnaissance Service. These special agents are trained to be
assassins, spies and a lot more! It is just by reading about these divisions
and the special “classes”, if you can name them that way, that I got really pulled
into this story. Some players of the series might already be familiar with
Warjacks, Storm Knights and Gunmages, YES! You read that correctly GUNMAGES. Cool
stuff indeed. The formers are like mechs with big guns, chainsaw or huge axes.
The middle are a special class that use lightning weapons to battle it out with
quite the destruction. And the latter. Wow. Gunmage are way cool. There is one
gunmage that you follow, Atherthon Gaust. He is a bit cocky, but has a
calculated sense about him. Like one of those old time gunslingers. What damage
Atherthon can wreck is unimaginable and he kept amazing me. Being able to fire
of rune inscribed bullets that can have different magical abilities. Like
having the kinetic force of a bombshell… it is more by the intervention of the
special classes like the Storm Knights and the gunmage that you see a great
intertwinement of the magic and machine guns. With just having been allowed to
have glimpsed these classes my curiosity up by miles and I am more than eager
to explore what else can be found in the Iron Kingdoms.
Now Cygnar wouldn’t have the
need to go to war is it hadn’t been for the people of Khador. In Thunder Forged
you get the introduction to some of the agents of this kingdom but the focus is
still on the Cygnaran Empire and their army. So I cannot yet mention that much
about about the Khador’s however with the introduction of their elitist and
brutal kommandos the Man-o-War, I think I will be in a treat as well. And with
the way that Ari Marmell let In Thunder Forged finish, it will definitely not
be the last that we have seen from them.
Plot wise In Thunder Forged
is more or less linear in that most of the events follow each up pretty nicely
but there is enough room to introduce the unexpectable twists here and there.
Just coming back to what I have mentioned earlier I think this was a good
approach in keeping the focus on setting the start just right in the first book.
Thereby allowing an approachable introduction into the series for both the
familiar and the un familiar. I have high hopes of having crosses, double
crosses and even triples as the story continues, there are still a lot of other
kingdoms which have only been mentioned but not made such a heavy introduction.
With only having glimpsed the tip of the iceberg of The Iron Kingdoms I am very
eager on how all the stories will go in the following books.
Just to sum it all up. In
Thunder Forged is an energizing and riveting start of The Iron Kingdom
Chronicles. Having a crisp and clear narration that make the pages fly by. The
various actions scenes, featuring the destructive lightning of the storm
knight, the bullets of the gunmage or the steam hissing of the warjacks is
brutal and bloody at times, with a tinge of dark grit thrown into the mix. Ari
Marmell kicks off The Iron Kingdoms with all bang and no hiss, the next book
out this July is written by C.A. Sulieman, I hope he will be able to continue
this great success and I am eager to fins out as soon as possible!