The Iron Hunt by Marjorie M. Liu Series: Hunter Kiss #1
Published by Ace on 24 June 2008
Genres: Adult, Fantasy, Paranormal
Pages: 305
Format: Kindle
Source: Kindle Purchase
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Silver smoke winds around my torso, peeling away from my ribs and back, stealing the dark mist covering my hands and lower extremities...tattoos dissolving into demon flesh, coalescing into small dark bodies. My boys. The only friends I have in this world. Demons.
I am a demon hunter. I am a demon. I am Hunter Kiss.
By day, her tattoos are her armor. By night, they unwind from her body to take on forms of their own--demons of the flesh, turned into flesh. This is the only family demon hunter Maxine Kiss has ever known. It's the only way to live, and the very way she'll die. For one day her demons will abandon her for her daughter to assure their own survival--leaving Maxine helpless against her enemies.
But such is the way of Earth's last protector--the only one standing between humanity and the demons breaking out from behind the prison veil. It is a life lacking in love, reveling in death, until one moment--and one man-- changes everything...
Quite different from what I expected based on the summary, The Iron Hunt is a story in which all kinds of secrets are being kept very close to the vest by most characters, and thus, the whole storyline and plot became a little dis-jointed to me.
My The Iron Hunt review:
I expected a fast-paced kind of crazy story when I picked up The Iron Hunt, because the summary mentions demon-hunting and tattoos coming to life. However, apart from Maxine’s tattoos coming to life, there isn’t really much hunting going on at all. And Maxine has been left without all the information she needed in order to make the right decisions moving forward. Also, I felt that for a full length novel, I should have gotten to know Maxine better as a character.
The world-building didn’t always make sense to me, either, because there are so many things I still don’t know about how things work where Maxine lives. There are zombies and other supernatural beings, but we don’t know where they came from, how they were put into a kind of spiritual prison, and why there is only one single hunter – Maxine. Some readers will probably find the fact that there are many things still to learn enticing, but that didn’t work for me, I want to have some kind of grasp of the universe I read about.
Written in third person point of view and past tense, the story was fast-paced, though, even if I didn’t learn as much as I wanted to, I enjoyed several aspects of the narrative. Maxine could be an amazing character, and I’m pretty sure she’ll have to step up in future books – even if I’m not sure I’ll come around to follow her.
Some of my favorite The Iron Hunt quotes:
Silence descended. Slow, cold, heavy as snow. Pregnant – a word I would have used. Expectant, full, with something living and turning, gestating, in that dark smoky womb.
Today, especially restless. Tingling since dawn. Not a good sign. When Zee and the others slept poorly, it usually meant someone needed to run. Someone, being me.
He was afraid of me. He hid it well, his human mask calm, but I could see it in the little things. I could taste it. Made the boys even more restless on my skin, but in a good way. We liked our zombies scared. We liked them better dead.
Reading this book contributed to these challenges:
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
I’m glad there were aspects of the narrative you enjoyed, Lexxie. But if you didn’t feel you *knew* Maxine, then you can’t be truly invested in her and therefore, why would you care? I’m sorry this didn’t turn out quite as you’d expected. And it’s too bad because the synopsis did seem to promise a good read. Great review though! 🙂
Hope you’re week is going well, my dear! I’m *loving* Immersed!! Woohoo…steampunk! 😉 **BIG HUGS**
I know! I was hoping for a strong, bad-ass heroine who knew what she was doing. While Maxine was definitely bad-ass in some aspects, she didn’t know much about what was going on, so it was hard to see how she would be able to save the world… I’m so happy you loved Immersed!! *BIG HUGS*
Twitter: talksupeblog
One hunter for all the zombies?? How the heck is she going to survive??
Exactly! And not only that, she really didn’t know enough about the history or the different kinds of paranormals she was dealing with on top of the zombies.
Twitter: Mlsimmons
I’ve heard of this author, but nothing recently. I’m sorry that this book wasn’t rated higher. Better luck on your next book.
Thanks, Melanie! It doesn’t happen very often, but it always disappoints me when I pick up a book I don’t love.