Iron Company (Empire Army Series) Book

After reading Reiksguard, the first in the Empire Army series, I was dead-set on continuing on to the second book (whatever it may be). When I found out that it followed the story of an engineer of Nuln on campaign, I knew immediately that I was going to enjoy the book immensely!

The story follows Magnus Ironblood, a son living in the shadow of his father's reputation, as he strives to battle his own daemons by accepting a commission from a Hochland nobleman. Chris Wraight manages to brilliant capture the mood of each situation throughout the story; giving the reader brilliant insight into the emotions of each character, and the feel of the surroundings. Whether through experience or not (hopefully the latter), Wraight seems particularly adept at writing from the perspective of one who's hit rock-bottom and desperately tries to find solace at the bottom of a bottle!

The character development in this book is superb. By the end of the story, the reader is left with a veritable dossier of the characters, their backgrounds, their motivations and appearances. Despite there being an array of key players in the book, the reader is never left thinking, "who's that guy, again?" as in some other stories who seek to introduce a larger number of characters, but lack the depth to properly describe them.

The only thing that prevented me from giving this book a 5-star review was the predictability of some elements. At times, some information that was clearly supposed to be a subtle glimpse or teaser turned out to be a complete giveaway. In one or two instances, it allowed for an enjoyable pantomime-esque sense of "it's behind you!", but at others left the reader waiting impatiently for the inevitable.

One particular element of Empire culture that is not nearly covered enough, but is thankfully mentioned at length in this book, is the enmity between the devout followers of Sigmar and the practitioners of the "new sciences". As with the entirety of the 'ascendancy' of Sigmar and the subsequent cultism, similarities can be drawn to Christianity. The dialogue of the priests condemning the progression of technology and education in favour of the primitive ways of their patron deity provides a contemporary and quintessentially human facet that even the uninitiated to fantasy literature can relate to and feel a part of.

I look forward to continuing the Empire Army series and hope they're just as good as the first two!