Readers eager for a sugar-rush of dark super-powered action and shadowy secret societies will find lots here that’s fresh and vivid. But editing and presentation issues, plus the novel’s relentless momentum and protracted length, make Sid’s adventures challenging to keep up with, even as the many twists, confrontations, power-set evolutions, and bursts of crisp dialogue (“He thinks he’s uncontrollable, but that makes him one of the most easily guidable people I’ve ever met”) prove individually exciting. But too often the rushed, unpolished prose reads as if texted: “Oh yea he brought Peacock with him he’s holding that knife made out of his skin and hair in his right hand did I mention that has that been mentioned?”
Characters and developments are introduced so quickly, with so little explanation, that they lack impact and often clarity. The fantasy of Sid, at 14, running a super-powered assassination squad is so fun that readers will want to relish the characters and imaginative setups before it all goes pear-shaped. That’s true, too, of later stages of Sid’s journey, involving demons, other dimensions, a Red Lightning civil war, and more. (It probably doesn’t apply to the surprisingly graphic sex scene.) When the narrative voice connects, though, Blacksmith blends a playful spirit and storytelling that surges.
Takeaway: Inventive but unpolished epic of superpowered killers at war.
Comparable Titles: Alexander Darwin’s Combat Codes, Drew Hayes.
Production grades
Cover: B-
Design and typography: C
Illustrations: N/A
Editing: C
Marketing copy: B
