The Iron Sword: The Iron Fey: Evenfall, Book 2
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A Lot or a Little?
The parents' guide to what's in this book.
What Parents Need to Know
Parents need to know that The Iron Sword is the second book in the Evenfall series, which is a spin-off of the seven-volume Iron Fey series by Julie Kagawa, which starts with The Iron King. The first book in this series, The Iron Raven, was easier to follow without reading the other series. The Iron Sword, however, makes many references to the main characters' history and their ties to the Nevernever and the mortal world. Without this background, this sequel is less engaging. Still, there are lots of skirmishes and battles that keep things exciting, all against nasty faery creatures. Many of these creatures lose heads and limbs and are impaled by ice shards, but it always feels more fantastical than gory except when one character is purposely swallowed by a gross creature in order to stab inside its throat. Main characters are forced to face fears, in one case killing not-real versions of loved ones that seem real. All other content is on the mild side with some light kissing, a scary spider lady smoking, and some swearing, mostly "dammit." One angry mortal says "What the f--," spelled like that, when under the influence of mean piskies. There's a jab at the internet and how it can make us all give into anger if we let it and a tie into the main character's realization that violence and anger begets more of the same.
Community Reviews
Another Enjoyable Iron Fey Book
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What's the Story?
In THE IRON SWORD: THE IRON FEY: EVENFALL, BOOK 2, the Iron Queen and King, Meghan and Ash, get word that their son Kierran has gone missing from Touchstone and all of the Between. Touchstone was attacked by the same angry force they fought off in Nevernever, a many-tentacled thing that feeds on anger and warps the minds of its victims toward hate. When Ash and Meghan arrive in Touchstone, they find the city nearly destroyed and their son gone into the Veil with many of his Forgotten subjects. They fear he's continued on to the mortal world with no way to save his people or himself from the force that's after them. With the help of a ruthless spy network that never gives up information for free, they track him down and face a whole new adversary: tiny piskies invisible to humans that feed off of their negative emotions. Now they must find out how the piskies are linked to the tentacled creature before it's too late to save all the known worlds, mortal, Nevernever, and the Between.
Is It Any Good?
While this is a sometimes-thrilling averting-Armageddon faery story, it lacks the right narrator to tell it. In the first book in this spin-off series, readers follow Puck, and his romance with the warrior Nyx. He's complex and mischievous and funny and still has a lot to understand about himself. In this sequel, readers follow the perspective of Ash, the Iron King whose intense personal growth -- finding love, gaining a soul -- is behind him. Readers get right away that he wants to protect his family -- he says this countless times -- and also that he shouldn't get too angry and lose himself again. That's it. It would have been much more exciting to follow Ash's son Kierran on his adventures to the mortal world and to Wyldwood with the Big Bad Wolf.
The only time Ash's perspective makes the most sense to follow is during the climactic action when he fights against his violent Unseelie nature, and even just before when he fights his own nightmares. This draws the sequel to a close with some real tension. It also makes up for the first half of the book when Ash, Meghan, Puck, and Nyx make the rounds asking after Kierran -- and telling the same story of his disappearance three times in a row. Now that the path is set and the danger is total annihilation, the finale should be more consistently exciting -- especially if the author decides to pick a more interesting narrator to tell the story.
Talk to Your Kids About ...
Families can talk about what Puck says about the internet in The Iron Sword. "Manufactured outrage is all the rage these days." What does he mean by that? Are there any sites you visit that seem to enhance feelings about the subject you're reading about? What do you think a site or a social network gains by inciting strong emotions?
Do you like to read fantasy books about life as we know it ending? Does it help to read them in the context of a faery world with wild monster battles? Are there times you choose milder stories with less at stake?
What do you think is next for each of the main characters? Whose perspective do you want to hear from next as the narrator?
Book Details
- Author: Julie Kagawa
- Genre: Fantasy
- Topics: Magic and Fantasy, Princesses, Fairies, Mermaids, and More, Adventures, Book Characters, Cats, Dogs, and Mice, Friendship, Monsters, Ghosts, and Vampires
- Book type: Fiction
- Publisher: Inkyard Press
- Publication date: February 1, 2022
- Publisher's recommended age(s): 13 - 17
- Number of pages: 304
- Available on: Nook, Audiobook (unabridged), Hardback, iBooks, Kindle
- Last updated: March 3, 2022
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