Hammering Iron product reviews

I started reading this book almost a month ago. My immediate impression of the book was that it was not for me. The characterisation was 2 dimensional for almost all of the characters. It was really descriptive, but in ways that detracted from the story. I just struggled to get into it. Then around page 40, something changed. Finally all the "scene setting" stuff was done. The story got properly swinging. I was finally able to enjoy reading it. Once that happened, then the next 150+ pages were zoomed through in a matter of days.

I did enjoy the fact that this book is a historical novel. I love history and I studied ancient history at University so I imagined this would be an interesting read. I liked the details about ceremony, war strategy and the trade skills of the time. At the same time, there were parts of the book that were quite hard to read. Life was tough back then, and a few things happen that made me feel a little ill. I don't think it was particularly descriptive of the brutal stuff, but those things do happen. Some of the characters attitudes are quite different to modern times as well which is to be expected, but was hard to read as well.

I don't think I would re-read this book. But I did find that towards the end I did lose track of time with it. It was just a little difficult to be enthused about it to begin with.