Winter of Ice and Iron by Rachel Neumeier
Standalone Epic Fantasy
Published: 2017
Tropes: Land Magic/ Wild Magic, Mythological Fantasy, Bi-Protagonist, Court Intrigue, Dark Fantasy.
Winter of Ice and Iron was my pick for the “winter” theme for January, in Bookish Valhalla’s TBR SFF 2022 challenge. I’ve read and liked Neumeier’s work before and I think she deserves more press — so I picked this one up with interest.
Each kingdom’s land has a wild force which must be mastered by its ruler (else it will destroy the ruler and the people). Trouble starts when one particular mad king plans to usurp the wildforces of all neighboring kingdoms.
“Wolf Month was the starving month, the bitter month, the month when winter stores grew lean and the new growth had not yet come, the month when the long haunting cries of the wolves drifted almost nightly from the high mountains. It was a hard month. The cold lingered.”
This book reminded me of Game of Thrones but with land magic involved. (There are a lot of kings and queens asking each other to “bend the knee” which is a GOT reference if ever I saw one.) Ahem:
What I liked about this book:
Very good 3D characterizations of not just the lead players but also the supporting roles. The bodyguard, the seneschal, the double spy, the mad king’s courtiers, etc. etc. — everyone gets some interesting page time. But in particular, the Wolf Duke Innisth who is brutal to his enemies, but tries to be a just king to his people. I can’t remember the last time I came across a volatile character like that before, an unpredictable protagonist barely able to control his violent temperament. I’d say, read it for Innisth.
This book is also one of the rarer breeds in epic fantasy literature: a standalone. If you want to avoid a series read (which I did), then this is a good pick.
Not so much:
On the other hand, the plot and settings are so grand scale that the book actually suffers from being a standalone. Lots of intriguing plot threads are brought up in passing and not explored further. The first half is definitely stronger than the second half.
8 replies on “Review: Winter of Ice and Iron by Rachel Neumeier”
This does sound a lot like Game of Thrones, which I like. But it’s too but some plot points weren’t further explored. I can definitely understand why that can be frustrating.
Yep, well summed up! 🙂
Epic standalones can be really difficult due to the scope needed. It sounds like this one did a good job with the space it had available.
Exactly, it’s so rare to get standalones in high fantasy and this one managed well despite the grand scale/ high stakes.
I do like that it’s a standalone!
Haha, that was the selling point!
Boy, “bend the knee” is everywhere now since Game of Thrones, huh? 🙂
I usually love fantasy but have read so little of it lately!
I read that phrase in the book… and all I could think of was GOT! 😂