The Iron Hunt

By: Marjorie M. Liu

Narrated by: Marguerite Gavin

Length: 9 hrs and 30 mins

Publisher's summary

Silver smoke winds around my torso, peeling away from my ribs and back, stealing the dark mist covering my hands and lower extremities...tattoos dissolving into demon flesh, coalescing into small dark bodies. My boys. The only friends I have in this world. Demons.

I am a demon hunter. I am a demon. I am Hunter Kiss.

By day, her tattoos are her armor. By night, they unwind from her body to take on forms of their own. Demons of the flesh, turned into flesh. This is the only family demon hunter Maxine Kiss has ever known. The only way to live---and the very way she'll die. For one day, her demons will abandon her for her daughter to ensure their own survival---leaving Maxine helpless against her enemies.

But such is the way of Earth's last protector---the only one standing between humanity and the demons breaking out from behind the prison veils. It is a life lacking in love, reveling in death, until one moment---and one man---changes everything.

©2008 Marjorie M. Liu (P)2008 Tantor

No vampires or werewolves for a change.

I picked this book only because I loved Marjorie M. Liu's Crimson City novel. Other than the Crimson City book, I knew nothing about Liu's work. Well, I'm very glad I gave The Iron Hunt a listen. Liu, unlike a lot of the women currently dominating the fantasy genre actually created a paranormal heroine that wasn't a vampire or a werewolf. I have no idea how that happened, since it seems like vampires and werewolves are almost all that gets published anymore in the paranormal genre.

Liu's heroine has tattoos of demons on her body that come to life and fight for her as well as protect her so that she can do her job as a hunter and executioner of demons that have escaped an extra-dimentional jail. Of course, these abilities comes with a price that will eventually have to be paid when she has a daughter.

There are a lot of interesting characters and things in Liu's novel, which is obviously the start of another paranormal series starring another tough, hard case, smart mouthed, female. While that in and of itself isn't anything new, the rest of The Iron Hunt is refreshingly different. I look forward to the next book.

LOVE this author and this series!

If you could sum up The Iron Hunt in three words, what would they be?

Chick Kicks Butt!

What other book might you compare The Iron Hunt to and why?

Anthony Francis Dakota Frost series due to strong female leads and powerful tats -- although these are better -- go Demons!

What does Marguerite Gavin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Gavin always delivers! Love her voice and the personality she gives the characters.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

n/a

Any additional comments?

Audible, please bring us more Liu books!!

Good pick but ended abruptly

I just picked this book kind of "at random". I didn't expect much but figured "Why not?" I found the content good and it held my attention. The narrator was a little over dramatic in the way that she made the characters' voices sound. Overall however I really liked the book. The author used imagery very well and I was able to "see" the story. Maxine Kiss is a very strong character and her little demons are very interesting as well. The only thing I thought the author should have done differently would be to have an ending with a little more to it. It kind of left me hanging.

Beautifully written, nicely narrated

What did you love best about The Iron Hunt?

I've read this whole series a while back, and was happy to find at least one of the books on Audible. The narrator uses just the right amount of drama and expression - I was struck at how evocative Marjorie Liu's writing is - something I didn't realize as I rushed through reading the books. Beautifully descriptive, brings a lot of depth.

What other book might you compare The Iron Hunt to and why?

I think this series is similar to the Jill Kismet series, but Maxine Kiss, the boys, and Grant all bring more humanity, and add an element of softer emotions.

What does Marguerite Gavin bring to the story that you wouldn’t experience if you just read the book?

Marguerite Gavin found the exact level of drama and adventure to provide a very satisfying read/listen. Her voice is perfect for this book's characters. I liked her in the Rachel Morgan series, but there were times where I felt her voice made Rachel sound a little wimpy. NOT the case with this book!! Sue wish more of the series becomes available on Audible. I don't have much time to read, so have to get my escapism on iPod.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I was drawn in almost immediately, and am torn between a marathon listening session, or ekeing things out since this is the only book available.

most pointless hero ever.

I should say I only grabbed this book because I like listening to M. Gavin's narration.

the IDEA of this story is really really good.

Unfortunately, the main character Maxine, very poorly thought out. For one, she's a demon "hunter" but hunts nothing the entire length of the book. Every single confrontation flops in front of her as if by accident and then some one or something fights FOR her.

secondly: demon killer, who uses DEMONS to kill DEMONS...hypocritical considering her "Deep hatred for all things demonic".

And the biggest gripe of all. a Demon hunter, who was born of a long historical line of demon hunters, born and bred, raised for one singular purpose, to hunt demons, and she knows absolutely NOTHING about them or their world! what the hell did her mommy teach other than fighting?...nothing!!! seems so stupid to me.

not to mention that normal society doesn't seem to mind all the demon possessed "zombies" anyway! which in the end makes our "hero" stupid, Hypocritical, and useless. SURROUNDED by people who know everything but won't tell her... being "cryptic" just for the sake of being Cryptic.

this book is infuriatingly bad. it just wasn't very thought out.

A special kind of pain.

This book is filled with colorful characters and great ideas that just fall short of being good. There isn't enough imbued into the skin of them for you to become attached enough to care what happens to them. The heroin is perhaps the whiniest characters in the genre. She continually throws herself into horrible situations that are pointless again and again. Most of the time having to be rescued by the people who warned her in the first place. You just don't feel like she really exists, and is worth the effort others have taken for her. This would only make it a mediocre read if it wasn't for the prose changes. One minute it is a contrite listen of the environment around the characters, the next it is the most metaphor and over the top saccharine sweet verbo-crud I have had to endure in a while. It reads like a 12 or 13 year old girls describing fairy land. Fortunately that happens only every other chapters, though it is distracting.

The book could be pulled into something better if Marjorie M. Liu does some serious prose work on the next book. If I had read this book I would have given it three stars. The hands down worse part of this book is the narrator. Her horrible reading and characterizations caused me to literally have to take long breaks. I will not be able to subject myself to another dose of this, perhaps one the worst narrations in about 500 audio books I own. I have enjoyed this narrator in other productions but if I had heard this first I would never have listened to the Dead Witch Walking series. Yes, this was that bad. Please listen to the sample, then decide if you can endure ten hours of that. I have a strong constitution and can put up with a lot. This seriously taxed my ability to endure.

No explanations given for nonsense story

“When I was eight, my mother lost me to zombies in a one-card draw.”
If only this had leaned into the zombie humor. Sadly, this was humor free.
What’s the deal with zombies in the world?
Why does she have five demons on her body?
How come her mom told her nothing?
She’s a demon hunter that never hunts demons?
Those around her know what’s what but won’t explain because …?
This was a long, muddled mess headlined by an underwhelming Maxine Kiss.
We’re strung along for no reason until the underwhelming, and frankly predictable, reveal.

“I had never been hit by anything larger than a dune buggy- and that was under extenuating circumstances involving a runaway donkey, a one-legged zombie with a shotgun,
and the unfortunate arrival of a freak sandstorm.”
Meanwhile, she recalled random incidents that sounded far more interesting …
but the story never expanded upon those either. It was just a tease of vaguely cool concepts.
I liked this author’s Dirk and Steel series. I did not like this.

Some crackers with that whine?

I truly did like the story plot, if we could scrap the main character and carry on with everything else I would have given the book five stars. I was extremely turned off by the whinyness of the heroine. She is so dramatically written that it seemed like Sylvia Plath met urban fantasy and had a really theatrical lovechild, that she later abandoned on a street corner. Maxine is a demon spawned demon hunter, that is in utter denial about EVERYTHING. Her number one response through the whole story line is a disbelieving "No". It is hard to say if I will purchase the sequel. At the end of this book she comes to terms with the world around her, which leads me to believe that the next one might be better... but I think i am still on the fence on that idea.