George never meant to start it. He never meant to take his anger out on the side of the museum. He never meant to break the stone dragon carved
there. And he certainly never meant to rouse the anger of the taints: the carved stone beasts of London, created to terrify all who gaze upon them,
that live on a layer of existence beyond what most men and women can see. But he did, and now he finds himself plunged into a world of living statues
and ancient darkness, a world shared by evil taints, sometimes-benevolent spits - bronze statues and the like, who have the souls their Makers gave
them, unlike the ever-hungry emptiness within the taints - and the strangely gifted girl Edie, whose anger rivals his own. He can only escape by
solving a maddening riddle from a pair of Sphynxes in downtown London. As he dodges angry taints and struggles to unravel the riddle, George realizes
that, just as London apparently has many layers beyond the one he had lived in for twelve years, that his own journey has deeper and darker
meanings...
and consequences.
Review
The dragon books on the shelves started looking a bit similar (honestly, do we need yet another story about an orphan who finds a dragon egg?), so
I found myself drawn to this one. It has vague shades of other "worlds within worlds" tales such as Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere, where it is
possible to have grandiose, mythic encounters within a densely populated urban area and without any "normal" people (read: extras) noticing the epic
battles in their very midsts. Fletcher introduces and explores some original territory. While re-imagining London as a home of man-made creatures, the
author explores the ideas of creation and destruction. and what century upon century of Man making and destroying things can build up in a city,
especially a city as old as London. Somehow, he does all this without stopping the narrative cold: George's story starts moving almost from the first
page, and the boy hardly has a moment of peace afterwards. George and Edie both have plenty of anger and pain in them - once in a while I felt like
smacking them when they spent more time being obtuse and angry than dealing with their perilous predicaments - but for the most part I liked them. Of
course, being the first part of a trilogy, the story arc is not entirely resolved, but a fair bit of it wraps up by the last page, making the wait for
the next book somewhat more bearable. I do wish I hadn't stumbled across it until the next two volumes are available, though; bearable or not, waiting
for sequels can be tedious.
George, the London boy who awoke the wrath of the city's gargoyles and other soulless "taints" by breaking a stone dragon, faced a choice: take
the easy way out and return to his normal life, abandoning the "unLondon" of living statues and cursed immortals, or stick it out with his new
friends - the Gunner, living statue of a World War I soldier, and Edie, the hard-living "glint" who can see the secrets remembered by stone - and
see how hard the Hard Way is. Choosing the latter seemed like a good idea at the time, but it isn't long before George sees just how much more
trouble he's in for. With the Gunner abducted by the dark Walker, Edie and George have to find him before midnight, for if the Gunner isn't back
on his plinth by the turning of the day, he'll die. But finding the Walker may mean death for them, too... especially if the foul, eternally-cursed
man gets his hands on them. The Walker has waited centuries for a boy like George and a girl like Edie; with them, he might not only be able to
break the curse that binds him to the Stone at the heart of the city. In freeing himself, he might unleash a force upon the world that no living
thing could survive.
Review
Just like the first book, Ironhand picks up on the first page and doesn't stop until the last. George and Edie discover more friends and
enemies - and a few characters who seem to be both at once - as they delve further into the shadows beneath London's mundane surface. If once in a
while it felt like Fletcher drew things out to avoid advancing the plot, well, I was mostly happy enough with his story to wait him out. I enjoyed it
greatly, and am only sorry I have to wait for the third book to come out.
The thirteenth hour has struck, and all across London the people vanish as time without time takes hold. Only the spits - living statues on the
side of good - and the taints - grotesques and gargoyles working with darkness - and the cursed immortals remain... aside from George and Edie. When
their enemy, the Walker, escaped through twin mirrors into the outer darkness, an evil entity was displaced into London. The Ice Devil wastes no
time in allying itself with the restless force trapped in the London Stone at the heart of the city; together, they might be victorious, but first
they must crush the upstart young maker George and his glint companion, Edie.
As spit and taint prepare for the final battle, George awaits the final of the three duels he must fight. Edie, returned from Death itself, has her own
quest to follow: during her entrapment by the Walker, she found her mother's heart stone, and the dim glimmer of light within tells her that perhaps
her mom is still alive.
Review
This book starts fast... so fast, in fact, that I strongly suspect that it was never intended to be its own book, but an extension of the prior
installment (Ironhand.) Fletcher doesn't slow down for recaps or refreshers, plunging straight ahead as though there hadn't been a year-odd
gap since the previous book's release. It took me some time to catch up on the fly, but I finally got my bearings. George and Edie both learn
important lessons on their separate quests, and come together for a great, tense, and action-filled finale. There's just a teaser of potential for
sequels at the end. On the whole, I enjoyed Fletcher's trilogy. I wouldn't mind reading more from the same author, with or without George and Edie.
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