Customer Reviews

Iron Dragons: Mountains and Madness

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I picked up this book because I enjoyed the game it was based on and thought that the background provided in the game rules could make for an interesting setting.

Unfortunately, this book suffers from two problems. Either one of these problems would make the book difficult to enjoy; together, they're fatal. One problem is that the book goes out of its way to make sure that various names from the game get dropped in the book. Unfortunately, this results in unnecessary subplots and characters that don't do much to advance the main thrust of the book and ultimately end up being tangential and unmemorable. The other problem is that many of the characters are simply cardboard cutouts. They do not have accessible motivations for what they do; they simply do things because that's the way they are. The author spends a lot of time describing how the main villain was simply evil from the time he was born...but there's no reason for it. He has no aspirations other than power, and that falls flat. Likewise, he has a number of underlings who serve him not because they believe in his vision (whatever that might be!) but simply because he's ranked over them. Even when they question his judgment, it's only to sigh resignedly and remember that he outranks them and hope that, gosh, someone might find a way to stop him because they simply can't disobey him.

Between the forced characters and the unbelievable ones, the story as a whole simply fails to work.