Friday 23 November 2012

The Iron King


Title : The Iron King (The Iron Fey #1)
Writer : Julie Kagawa
Number of Page : 363
Publisher : Harlequin Teen

Meghan Chase was a girl that easily forgotten. She lived in a farm with her mother, stepfather, and stepbrother. She went to school like everybody else. She even had a crush with a popular guy.

The day before her sixteenth birthday, her 4-year-old stepbrother--Ethan--asked her to check his bedroom. Ethan believed there was a bad man hiding in his closet. She didn't think much about this until she found that his brother had changed. Ethan attacked her and luckily Meghan's best friend, Robbie Goodfellow came to save her.  

Robbie told Meghan that Ethan had been exchanged with a changeling. He believed Ethan was in Nevernever, the world of faeries. At first, Meghan thought he was joking. But, the reality that Robbie told her next was even more shocking.

Meghan was a half-breed between a human and faery. His father was Oberon, the king of faeries in Summer Court. And Robbie's real name was Robin Goodfellow or Puck who was a character from Midsummer Night Dream by Shakespeare, the same as King Oberon and Queen Titania. Puck was sent by Oberon to the human's world to protect Meghan.

Although she didn't believe Puck, she followed him to Nevernever because she wanted to save her brother. She was amazed with the world of faeries and she met a lot of magical creatures along the way. Goblins, redcaps, trolls, nymphs, and many others. She even met the arrogant and mysterious cat named Grimalkin who saved her from goblins. After that, she went to the Summer Court and met his biological father.

Nevernever was separated into two worlds, Winter Court (Unseelie) and Summer Court (Seelie). Both courts hated each other and were enemies for thousand years. When Meghan came to the Summer Court, there was a meeting between both courts. And it was when she met Ash, the youngest prince of Winter Court.

When the meeting was disturbed by a monster, Meghan ran away. She wanted to find Ethan, not wasted time in Summer Kingdom. With a help from Grimalkin and Puck, she reached Winter Court. However, Ash was already there to catch her. The queen of Winter Court, Mab, had ordered Ash to bring Meghan because the queen knew that she was Oberon's daughter.

There was a rule in faery world. When you wanted something, you had to pay back the favors. Meghan suggested a contract. She would be willingly captured by Ash without resistance, but only after he helped her saving his brother. Ash agreed although he hated being around Puck. Ash and Puck were enemies for centuries because Puck had caused the death of Ash's former girlfriend.

And the journey continued... They found that there was the third kingdom in the Nevernever, Iron Kingdom. Ethan was caught by the Iron King and Meghan should go to the Iron Realm. However, iron was the weakness of faeries. Faeries could not survive around irons, but Ash didn't care. She accompanied Meghan through the Iron Realm although he was getting weaker and weaker as the time went by.

Puck was injured, Grimalkin didn't want to come to Iron Realm, and Ash was dying. Only Meghan who was immune to iron could beat the Iron King. Without fighting experience, without proper knowledge of her summer magic, Meghan alone faced the Iron King. Could she win and save her brother?

In my opinion:
Wow. I only can say: Wow. I am amazed with the description. I can picture the Nevernever in my head so clearly that I feel like watching a film. I really like the concept, using the Midsummer Night Dream characters. And the genius part is the Iron Kingdom. Summer and Winter feys existed because of human dreams, the arts, the fictions wrote by humans, and human imaginations. Iron feys? They came from the logical parts of human brain, science, and technology. Cool.

The characters are adorable. Meghan was strong and smart. She could defeat her enemies only with her brains. Sometimes what she said was so clever that I laughed. But, my favorite character was Grimalkin. The cat was really funny, wicked, and cute. He was bad sometimes, but I could spare him since he was a cat. I also like Puck. He was annoying, funny, and witty, as a faery should be. I always think that faeries are as naughty as Puck. But, Puck was more cool. He had ability to multiply and turn himself into animals. He was a trickster and jester. Everything he said and did always made me laugh. 

As any young adult fantasies, there was a love triangle. But in this book, the love triangle was not so much since the adventures were more emphasized than the romance. Meghan, Ash, and Puck. Actually I haven't made decisions to side with whom. Meghan loved Ash, although I didn't know why. It seemed it was because of Ash's looks. She kept saying about how gorgeous and attractive Ash was. But, it could also because Ash saved her many times. Ash even accompanied her in Iron Realms although he knew he could be dead. Moreover, I couldn't catch Ash's character in this book. He was quiet most of the time and seemed so perfect. When he kissed Meghan, I didn't know what he was actually thinking. Well, blame the first POV. Maybe I could know more about Ash in the next book.

Anyway, it was a perfect reading!

5/5

2 comments:

  1. Halo! Aku juga suka Iron King, tapi baca yang terjemahan & sekarang lagi nunggu sekuel yang gak terbit-terbit... ;-;

    Ngomong-ngomong salam kenal ya. :D

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    1. salam kenal juga :) baca yang inggrisnya aja, aku kalau nunggu terjemahan ga sabaran hehe...

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