Synopsis
Fenn’s first and only memory is finding himself in the middle of a forest, face to face with a dragon spirit mocking him, all knowledge gone apart from his own name.
Lost and confused, his only hope for answers is Calidra—a woman living on the edge of the world with her partner. Forced to return home when her father dies, Calidra has put off facing her estranged mother for seven years, and she begrudgingly helps Fenn, forging papers for him so he can avoid the Queen’s Inquisitors.
But her mother is the least of her worries when they discover an ancient enemy is rising again. It should be impossible with the Iron Crown in power—and Fenn is terrified he might unwittingly be playing a part in the war’s resurgence.
Surrounded by vengeful spirits and powerful magic, Fenn’s desperate attempt to find his way home might well alter the fate of Tassar, and every power in it.
Review
This is another one of those books that I’ve had on my TBR list forever but took ages to get around to it, since I wanted to wait until I was in the right mood for an immersive fantasy adventure. I knew that I’d be in for a good time once I dove in, because the book is a SPFBO finalist and because I was promised a world high in both magic and dragons, which is always a winning combination in my book. And I was thrilled that the Iron Crown delivered both.
We start off with a bang as Fenn, the protagonist, wakes up in a bog with no memory. The amnesia trope is hard to pull off but the author wastes no time in throwing us headfirst into his predicament and also the world, as he runs straight into one of the dragon spirits that are abundant in the world. These spirits are usually born from a particular place, taking the form of a dragon and sometimes bonding with individual humans to gift them with power and strength and other attributes. Right away, this felt like a fresh and original take on a familiar fantasy creature that I hadn’t seen before.
The Iron Crown is a very character-driven story, as while Fenn starts off a victim of circumstances, his choices and actions shape the events that follow. He discovers that the amnesia is due to being affected by a spirit called a Myr – the defeated enemy of the people of Tassar – and that he might have to find them to get his memories back. This makes him a target of the Iron Crown, its ruling queen and her inquisitors who are determined to stop all talk of their old enemies.
There are a number of other viewpoint characters who Fenn interacts with on his quest for answers, both friends and foes. One of his initial helpers is Calidra, a noble who has estranged herself from her abusive mother to live a peaceful life with her partner, Jiysel. The characters and their relationships are one of the story’s biggest strengths and the author puts a lot of care and attention into making them well-rounded individuals. One particular standout is Apollo, a former thief who settled down with a family – including Mal, Calidra’s sister – but is then found by old adversaries who refuse to believe he has achieved the redemption he thinks he has. Varlot and Torsten are also complex and nuanced individuals, and the main players overall don’t fall into stock epic fantasy roles, which felt refreshing.
Similarly, the worldbuilding is fascinating, and is one of the book’s biggest strengths. Each dragon spirit is as unique as its source, and their diverse personalities and abilities help to make the world itself feel bigger and more expansive. We also have talking griffins, which I absolutely loved. Some fantasy books are grounded in the gritty and real, but I feel like the Iron Crown had a perfect balance of morally complex characters and a fantasy world rooted in a sense of wonder that’s perhaps found more often in traditional fantasy adventure. We cover a lot of ground, too, seeing a lot of different settings and corners of the world as the story progresses. Sometimes the plot itself moves slowly in the beginning, but the mystery surrounding Fenn’s identity and also the mysterious Myr kept me turning pages to find out how everything would turn out.
Overall, I found this to be an excellent introduction to a new fantasy series. The writing is polished and engaging and the story is well-crafted on a technical level. I wouldn’t hesitate to recommend this to fans of character-driven stories set in fantasy worlds with a sense of wonder and adventure associated with traditional fantasy but without the typical stock roles that would perhaps be associated with those kinds of stories. It’s a thoroughly fresh take on the genre that has a thumbs-up from me!
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