Blog Tour: Clash of Iron by Angus Watson

Blurb: The second book in Angus Watson's epic Iron Age fantasy trilogy. 

LEADERS ARE FORGED IN THE FIRES OF WAR

Iron Age warriors Dug and Lowa captured Maidun castle and freed its slaves. But now they must defend it.

A Roman invasion is coming from Gaul, but rather than uniting to defend their home, the British tribes go to battle with each other -- and see Maidun as an easy target.

Meanwhile, Lowa's spies infiltrate Gaul, discovering the Romans have recruited British druids. And Maidunite Ragnall finds his loyalties torn when he meets Rome's charismatic general, Julius Caesar.

War is coming. Who will pay its price?

Review: Clash of Iron is the second installment in the Iron Age Trilogy by Angus Watson. The first book, Age of Iron, centered in the British tribes, especially Maidun. And we met the archer Lowa, now Queen of Maidun, Dug, a rather old warrior but still in great shape, and Spring, a girl with the ability to create magic never seen before. In Clash of Iron, the setting of the story expands to the whole of Europe as we read about the Romans and their ways of life in Rome and follow their General Julius Caesar in his battles to conquer the Germans and the Gauls. 

As a consequence, the story seems to forget a bit about our beloved main characters in the first third of the novel. During the first 200 pages the story had a slow pace for me. But then, as the Romans are getting closer to Britain, the story picks up and it seems like everything starts happening at the same time. Lowa and her tribe find themselves in the middle of what will probably be the most epic battle of the era. And after finishing this book I really can't wait to find out what happens in the last book of the Trilogy. 

One thing for sure though with the introduction of the Romans, the story gets a lot more horrifying and the gore details grow exponentially, with crucifixions, tortures and burying people alive. Enter here the crazy King of Eroo, who after conquering the whole Island, plans now on conquering the island of Britain too, or the even crazier Pomax, the Queen of the Murkans, another British tribe. Their ways are definitely not recommended for the lighthearted. I think I had never thought of how many ways there are of torturing and killing someone. Life was not really valuable back then. Also, the growing magic in the Druids, especially the dark magic, gives the story the perfect fantasy touch, making the battles unexpected and giving everyone something to fear the most, the unknown.  

There are two things that I am highly enjoying in this series. First, all the magnificent female characters, Lowa, Spring and Chamanca being my favourites. They are not seen as inferiors for being woman, quite the opposite. Having a woman rule a kingdom or directing an army was not an exception (quite different for the Romans, though). The second thing is the historical character of these novels, we know so much of the Romans and how they lived but have no idea who their opponents were and how they lived. I find reading about the British tribes, the Gauls and the Germans really interesting. 

Angus Watson is an author and journalist living in London. He's written hundreds of features for many newspapers including Times, Guardian, Financial Times and Telegraph, and the latter even sent him to look for Bigfoot. As a fan of both historical fiction and epic fantasy, Angus came up with the idea of writing a fantasy set in the Iron Age when exploring British hillforts for the Telegraph, and developed the story while walking Britain's ancient paths for further articles. 

Visit Angus on www.guswatson.com or follow him @GusWatson

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