Robin (Bridge Four)'s Reviews > Echoes of the Imperium

This review was originally posted on Books of My Heart

Review copy was received from NetGalley. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.

4.5 hearts

Echoes of the Imperium is the first full length novel of the Tales of the Iron Rose.  I read the prequel to this series when it was free on the author's website and loved the idea of a series that went out of its way to break some of the common classic fantasy tropes.  For instance the Captain of the Iron Rose, might be swash buckling but he is a green goblin and only a swamy five foot tall.   While I do highly recommend reading A Matter of Execution, it isn't necessary to join our goblin captain and crew on this adventure.



William Blair now is a beloved captain of the Iron Rose and her eclectic crew.  All of them have a past of some kind, but when you come onboard the Iron Rose, you leave that life behind and you have a chance at a new found family and possibly redemption of a sort.  Sailing the skies in a privateering ship Captain Blair and his crew take questionable jobs to make ends meet.  Think a little bit Firefly, if it was all on one planet and the crew consisted of a Faery navigator, a granny type that is a hell of a shot, an engineer obsessed with keeping a tea set in one piece and a sixteen year old brought up on mystery novels ready to run cons and outmaneuver the adults.  They sail the skies from port to port but this new job might just get everyone on the Iron Rose killed and Captain Blair could be in over his head.

“Miss Hawkins,” I said, “I am used to being the biggest troublemaker in town. I’m not certain I like the suggestion that you’re about to outdo me.”

This is a world where the mortals were used to fight a war for the Seelie against the Unseelie breaching through into this world.  Twenty years ago that war was brought to a halt when a rebellion broke out and the Imperium was destroyed.  The members aboard Captain Blair's ship are from all sides of that conflict and have found a peace and a way to coexist.  The story is told mostly from Captain Blair's PoV in present and past as we learn how that fateful day 20 years ago ruined the Imperium.  Years later and there is evidence the Unseelie have breached into this world.  Captain Blair will revisit some of the atrocities the Imperium committed and find a way to keep the Imperium from returning from the ashes to conscript the unwilling into a new war.

I had a great time with this story.  I like that all the characters in the ship are different and have interesting character development to make them three dimensional.  Syrene is Fae and I think the author did a fantastic job of showing us how 'other' she is; in her demeaner, her emotions, the way she moved and her appearance.  I enjoyed the worldbuilding as well and how aether powers ships and can be harnessed as a weapon too.  The fights and flights were entertaining and nail biting at times, without going on so long that I lost focus.

Overall I am enjoying this series and how much fun the authors seem to be having with it.  I recommend it to people who enjoyed Firefly, Treasure planet and the new Star Wars movies.

“Everything matters, Wil,” Evie told me. “But I don’t think penance is about fixing things. I think… it’s about…” There was a strange conviction in his dark eyes now, though he struggled to find the words to convey what he was thinking. “It’s about becoming the sort of person who would never make that mistake again. It’s about caring so much that you have to fix all of the little cruelties that you can. Until it’s the most natural thing in the world to you.”