My Small Kucing Blog

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Iron Fey Series : Iron Knight by Julie Kagawa


Brief description of the book.

This is the last book of the series. Concentrate mainly on Prince Ash.

When he was a Prince in the Winter Court, any show of emotions or feelings is consider to be a show of weakness. Hence, he had to build a barricade around himself. And when his beloved wife died, its was like his heart had died. He only live for revenge.

That is until a girl, a half faery princess and half mortal, Meghan Chase, came into his life. She melted the ice around his heart and he starts to feel again.

However, destiny prevented their union.

In order for him to be re-united with Meghan Chase, he had to give up his immortality and to gain a Soul as all Faery does not have a soul.

This is his quest.

My Comment :

Although this book is not as emotional as the third book, and yet I enjoyed it very much. I love the light banter between Puck, Grimalkin and not forgetting The Big Bad Wolf. For we wouldn't want him to be forgotten and end up as a citizen of Phaed, would we?

As for Prince Ash, I don't think that he was that outstanding in this book but we do get a lot of insight on what he feels and things like that. I feel that he was being overshadowed by the supporting characters.

The part I enjoyed the most is when the came to the Temple and they have to go through a series of challenges.

I would like to comment that the author did a very good job in writing the part where Ash had to go through a series of test in order to become human. That part reminds me of the Chinese Story "Journey To The West" where the Monk and his disciple were face with challenges of the heart, mind and soul.

At the end of the book, there is a chapter in how to survive Faeryland which I found very entertaining. I can see the author's humour there.

Also another notable part is the Interview with the Author. There were two unexpected guests as well which make the interview more "colourful".

However, am feeling a bit down too now. Finishing these 4 terrific books, it's like loosing a friend. The end of a chapter. Hopefully, I would be able get my hands on some more terrific books like these.

By the way, there are two more books to this series "Winter's Passage" and "Summer's Crossing" which I have yet to obtain. It's in the form of e-books.

Tuesday, February 14, 2012

Iron Fey Series : Iron Queen by Julie Kagawa

Brief Description of the book :-

After being banished from the Faeryland with her Prince, Meghan thought it would be over. That they can start all over again in the mortal world.

Unfortunately, it's not that time for them to rest. They were being drag back into Faeryland to fight a war that demand sacrifices. Some sacrifice that Meghan was unwilling but had to make. Sacrifice that might severs her ties with her beloved Prince Ash.

Would Prince Ash stands by his vows?

Changes is in the air but what would it takes?

My Comments :

Of the four books in the Iron Fey series, this book is by far my favourite.

The reason is that the book is full of raw emotions. The characters were most "alive" here. Very vivid. Am impressed with the sacrifices that they made in the name of love. Not love solely as in male and female relationship, but also of friendship and to the realm.

It's a real page turner. Not a moment of boredom nor lagging to be had.

When you read this, make sure you have a box of tissue paper or hanky by your side.

By the end of the book, I was asking myself..why? why it had to be like this? WHY? Maybe that is why the Author wrote the fourth book.

Sunday, February 12, 2012

Iron Fey Series : Iron Daughter by Julie Kagawa

In Iron Daughter, Meghan, the half human and half Summer Faery Princess kept her word. She followed Prince Ash back to the Winter Court. There, she sort of a "prisoner with some privilege" to Queen Mab. Nobody believe their words in the existence of Iron Fey.

To her dismay, Prince Ash attitude towards her had turn colder than frozen ice upon returning to the Winter Court and had frequently look at her with disdain.

War looms between Winter Court and Summer when the Scepter of Seasons when missing. Meghan was there when the Scepter when missing but nobody believed her, especially when she the claim that it's the work of the Iron Fey.

Without her power, Meghan could do nothing. She had to depend on her wit for survival and do the best she can to retrieve the Scepter to prevent war.

Offer to help came to her from an unexpected side. Who can she trust? One miss step would prove to be fatal. Could she believe the words of a seemingly traitor?

My Comment:-

Again, the author had me biting my nails anticipating the action and how the story would develop.

I don't know how she do it but she certainly have the talent to bring the story from one height to another. The chemistry between Puck, Meghan and Prince Ash were there. Some would compare them to Jacob, Bella and Edward. However, in my humble opinion, the former combination is better.

Certainly not to be missed.

However, one down side is that I don't think this book could be read without reading the first book in order to understand fully of the sequel of events.

Suitable for young adults and those that are young at heart. Not much gory.

Friday, February 10, 2012

Iron Fey Series : Iron king by Julie Kagawa

Brief Description :

The series starts off with Iron King. Meghan was turning 16 that year but she is not your normal teenager. There is something special about her.

She discovered the truth one day when her younger step brother, Ethan, gone missing. He was kidnapped. In his place, they left a changeling.

Thus, this is the beginning of her quest to Faeryland (Fairyland) to rescue her brother. Along her side was her best friend, Robbie, who happens to have a secret of his own.

In Faeryland, some secrets were finally revealed. Even though it was not her fault, Meghan made some very deadly enemies and had become pawn in feud between two Courts; The Summer Court who is head by King Oberon and Winter Court headed by Queen Mab.

What made it worse is that Meghan was strongly attracted to the handsome ice prince from the Winter Court, Prince Ash who would not hesitate to kill her in a blink of an eye in view of the feud between the two Courts.

However, some circumstances force Prince Ash, Meghan and Robbie whose alternate identity is Puck, to join force and journey together to rescue Ethan.

There they discovered a new race of deadly faery....Iron Faery.

They managed to rescue Ethan but not before Meghan was given something unexpected and lost something in return.

My Comment :

I was hooked from page one of this book.

As I read along, I had this dejavu feeling that the plots or stories feels familiar. Part of it was like Narnia. Some parts were like Grimm's Fairy Tales and most obvious was a  lot of it made me feels that I am reading a branch of The Never Ending Story.

For example, the Nevernever slowly dying. Poisoned by Iron. Iron from the dreams of modern society.  It is pretty similar to The Never Ending Story where the Land was being devoured by "the Nothing" and the characters/people/fairy in it will soon disappear as people in the mortal world no longer believe in fantasy.

In both books, the characters depend on people's imagination and memory to survive.

Please don't get me wrong. What I am trying to say is that I love this book as it is as good if not better than The Never Ending Story. The author have amazing talent to be able to churn out such a wonderful book.

When I read the first few pages of the book, I felt very "happy". The kind of happiness that only a fellow avid book lover would feel when they finds a good book. Have you ever had that kind of feeling? Guess, am doing a very bad job of reviewing this book as word just doesn't adequately describe the feeling.

Though this book is aim at young adults, but I am sure those who are young at heart would certainly love it too. I know I do.

I hope to be able to collect the full set of this series. However, I was told that for some reason unknown, hardcopies of this book is not available in Malaysia. This book is loan to me by a fellow book lover.