Review: Not Necessary But Nice
Rating: 5 out of 5
Date: 04 14, 2011
This novella takes place in betweenThe Iron KingandThe Iron Daughter; in fact it reads like an episode cut from the beginning of the latter for length (small excerpts of it are still included).So if you are reading the Iron Fey novels, do you absolutely need to read this?IMHO, no.  I suspect that the reason it was cut in the first place is that it contains nothing you absolutely need in order to understand anything that occurs in the second book; however, that doesn't make it useless or uninteresting to Iron Fey Series fans.In this episode we get to see the relationship between Meghan and Ash develop further, which makes Ash's about face in the Winter Court all the more exasperating to Meghan (and to readers!).  We also get evidence that Meghan's true father, Summer King Oberon, cares a lot more for her than he's been willing to admit, given the seriousness with which the Fey view Agreements.  We get an update on the status of Puck and the Dryads of New Orleans.  Perhaps the most intriguing item not revealed elsewhere is the contents of Meghan's FIRST dream about the Iron King.So what it comes down to is that if you loved the first book, you will want to read this before you read the second book.This series is turning out to be a lot of fun!Note: Non-Kindle users finally have an alternative:The Iron Legends: Winter's Passage\Summer's Crossing\Iron's Prophecycollects this along with the two other Kindle-only novellas:Summer's CrossingandIron's Prophecy, and Kindle users who haven't already purchased the other two novellas separately can opt for the Kindle version of the collection:The Iron Legends: Winter's Passage\Summer's Crossing\Iron's Prophecy.Note: The question has been raised whether this can be categorized as Steampunk; IMHO based on the first two books, the answer is no, though there are "steampunkish" elements.