A Circle of Iron review

This is the first book that I read for my 2013 Reading Challenge. I was hoping that A Circle of Iron would be a similar story to that of The Kingkiller Chronicle, which I read last year and loved, but unfortunately, it was not. While searching for books to read, this one grabbed my attention because of the themes it has in common with Patrick Rothfuss' works. However, despite a few minute similarities in theme, this book is about the furthest thing from Rothfuss' writing.

Essentially, the storyline of A Circle of Iron is this: Caleb Thorn is a bounty hunter who works with a ragged crew to kill wights; bloodsucking creatures that roam Thorn's world. Using magic and common sense, Thorn and his group kill a wight a month for a small bounty in order to survive financially for the month, then, each month that follows, kill another wight to keep the money coming in. One wight a month, since it is such dangerous work.

While the plot may seem semi-interesting, the writing sucked. There were very few descriptions of any characters, save noting their gender and a bit about their personalities, no physical descriptions were given. Same goes for the wights. I guess we're to assume that they are a sort of vampire at first; pale with long light hair, fast, blood drinkers, naked sans bright body paint. I assume they are humanoid, but that much isn't ever verified even.

Conversations between characters are lacking any emotion or personal interest, as though the characters are only interacting because someone's forcing them to. The forest, camps, desert, forest, and other locations in the book are better detailed in their descriptions than any characters are. It's almost like a novel of establishing shots, with brief character interactions in between.

Overall, I'd say avoid this book! It appears to be book 1 in a series, but at 180 pages, it read like a boring article, with some gory violence and awkward dialogue thrown in. Not a good read, and certainly not recommended.
/ [Nioniel]

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