The Iron Children

This book was a really interesting examination of autonomy. It explored the discussions I was hoping I'd see in The First Sister (which I wasn't super into) in far fewer pages, but I would be doing this novella a disservice if I only compared it to existing works. Asher and Barghest, two of the POV characters, had an interesting and compelling dynamic. (Sidenote, I loved how Asher's dialogue was written). I liked how both their individual arcs and the development of their friendship served the themes of this story. At first, I was worried that three points of view might be a lot for such a short novella, but the multi-POV format worked really well for this story, and the author did some cool stuff with POV switches in one scene toward the end. This is a really cool, richly detailed novella that I will probably reread multiple times.

This fantasy novella is the perfect mix between Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe series (soldiers campaigning in the grit and grime of the Napoleonic wars) and Martha Wells's Murderbot, and I'm pretty sure that anyone who's enjoyed either of those two other series will enjoy this one. There are three PoV characters in this novella, all with very different motivations. Asher is a novice in training to become an elevated Sister-Commander, able to take over the adapted bodies of all of her Dedicates (foot soldiers) in the field to enforce the most perfect strategic efficiency in battle. She was only supposed to be coming on this expedition to learn from the Sister-Commander in charge, but when the Sister-Commander is killed in a raid, she's left in charge of a band of soldiers she doesn't know or understand and has to find a way to navigate them all through a perilous, wintry mountain terrain.

Luckily for Asher, she has Barghest, the loyal sergeant in the group who believes in the country's cause and has therefore shoved down all of their own simmering rage about the personal price of it for all of their life so far. Unfortunately for Asher, one of the soldiers in their group is a spy, hiding behind a Dedicate's mask and body of armor and plotting murder along the way...even as they, too, get reluctantly caught up in the bonding activity of trying to survive as a unit in impossible physical conditions.

Not one of them is anything but sympathetic by the end, and they all have good reasons for their beliefs and motivations. There is so much nuance and complexity to every issue they're facing, from the war that they've all been caught up in to the decisions each side has made for their own cause (and which the other side considers unforgivable). This is really a character study, and I loved every one of the characters. I didn't know how it could possibly resolve in a way that felt right for everybody - but I loved the actual ending of the novella, which I would not have predicted.

I really, really enjoyed this!

Fantastic science fiction read with a lot of suspense and mystery! Loved it! Wonderful main characters. Entrancing storyline.

I received a free copy of this book via Booksprout and am voluntarily leaving a review.

In this forthcoming novella, a young woman named Asher finds herself in command of a group of Dedicates--soldiers given iron bodies to fight a desperate, defensive war--on the edge of a mountain in winter. But one of her Dedicates is a spy.

I have a soft spot for the military-fiction trope of the sergeant who knows way more about what's going on than their commanding officer, and the sergeant in Iron Children is pretty great. But this isn't, fundamentally, a story about who's going to win the war. It's about what it means to be an ordinary person living through one piece of it.

I know Fraimow's writing from her historical fiction about being queer and Jewish. Though Iron Children's Dedicates are commanded by a military order of nuns, this feels like a story with a Jewish ethos: the characters belong to (multiple, distinct) religious minorities, and each individual has to figure out what being ethical means on their own, and then live up to it. There are gripping snow-survival moments and knotty questions about agency. Sometimes these are literalized questions about who controls a Dedicate's iron body, presented with the kind of intensity and specificity that fantasy does best.

A great sci-fi novella, tightly crafted - a group of soldiers with a new commander are trying to get off a mountain, but they have an enemy in their midst. Aaaaand the soldiers are cyborgs. Do they want to be? Ethical concerns! With cyborgs! In a war! I finished this and immediately wanted to read more about this world.

PLOT: This story was so fun! It was fast paced and action-packed, but still had several moments where the reader could breathe. It follows Asher (a commander in training) and her team as they navigate the aftermath of an ambush.
Aside from all the cool lore/history, Rebecca Fraimow posed many interesting questions about religion, autonomy, and what it means to maintain your humanity. Truly a treat.

CHARACTER DEVELOPMENT: It was really easy to care about (and empathize with) all the characters: the main protagonists, their chaotic team of Dedicates, and even the secret enemy that lurked among them. And, in the end, they all came out of their adventure with deeper insight—whether it was newfound empathy, confidence, or even a little bit of doubt.

WORLD BUILDING: The world in this book was fascinating. Although a bit loaded, the cohesive, easy-to-follow narration made it easier to understand the deeper intricacies behind the Levastani vs. Celesti conflict, the different ranks within Asher's team (Sor Commander, Sergeant, Dedicate, etc.), and the sacrifices they had to make to become a part of a greater(?) cause.

OTHER: If the author ever chooses to make this novella into a book, or a series, I will read it all.

Thank you NetGalley for an ARC in exchange for an honest review!

I devoured The Iron Children in a matter of two days and found myself wishing for more. This is an excellent take on the military fantasy genre, featuring an isolated unit with a rookie commander, slogging through dangerous terrain with an imposter in their midst. The novel moves between three points of view: first, the aforementioned rookie commander, Asher; then, the Dedicate Sergeant Barghest, and finally, the infiltrator, whose name we don't learn until close to the end of the book.

Asher's task was supposed to be to learn and observe while Sor Elena, a soul in a metal body, actually commanded the troops of their unit. She was to assist Sor Elena with maintenance, study terrain, and learn all the things she needed to know about command before she shed her flesh body for a metal habit and became a Sor-Commander herself. Instead, Sor Elena's habit is injured in an ambush and has to be sent back, while Asher continues on to the front with the metal-clad but still flesh-bound Dedicates.

Barghest is the sergeant of the Dedicate unit assigned to Sor Elena, one of the oldest Dedicates, veteran of many battles. They care about their fellow Dedicates, which alternately clashes with and supports their sense of duty toward their country.

The infiltrator was made into a Dedicate but then escaped to the enemy country. Now their goal is to kill Asher, steal the command plate with which she can control the Dedicates, and suborn her unit of Dedicates to fight for their enemy.

I love the way all of these perspectives complicate each other and how the harrowing journey through the snowy mountains forces all the characters to confront each others' humanity, in all its many facets. This novel is a masterful first book, and I absolutely cannot wait for a possible sequel.

The Iron Children by Rebecca Fraimow will be out in early April; I read an ARC via Netgalley. In this novella, two countries are at war. The larger and more powerful Levastani want to take back the smaller country, which split off long ago due to their Celesti religious faith. The Celesti faith includes a strong belief in service, and in true speculative fiction fashion, some of their nuns gave up their bodies to become armored warriors who can telepathically control the bodies of armored Dedicate soldiers. If the Sor bodies are killed, usually the Sor can be moved into a new body. The Dedicates mostly originated as children orphaned by the war, who are now sealed within armor with an extra set of arms to aid them in battle, and a chip of “godstone” in their necks that allows the nuns, the Sor-Commanders, to control them at need. The Dedicates cannot remove their armor, and when they are killed, it is permanent. The story opens with a young nun in training, Asher, accompanying her Sor-Commander and a small group of Dedicates to the front, but then disaster strikes and Asher is left in command, relying heavily on Sergeant Barghest for advice and reconsidering all that she thought she knew about her world. Asher, Barghest, and a traitor in the group are all narrators at different points; their deep characterization enriched the worldbuilding and various ethical concerns of this intriguing secondary world. I would happily read about these characters again, to learn how their experiences in this story change them and their society.

I love both Sci Fi and Fantasy but more and more I'm drawn to the philosophical questions that great Sci Fi encourages us to explore. And Fraimow has asked some brilliant thought-provoking questions in this well crafted, clever Sci Fi novella.
Asher is a novice on a training run with her trainer. They are in charge of a group of Dedicates who are moving towards an encounter with the encroaching enemy, their neighbours from Levastani. Finding herself in charge and then with a traitor in her midst, Asher starts to question her role as commander-in-training as well as the way that soldiers are recruited, trained and used in war. It causes her to question her life-choices and soon she is battling both external and internal forces to successfully bring her battalion home.
A clever, well written novel with a slight hint of the great Murder-bot novels, The Iron Children really delivers and with hope Fraimow will continue to deliver stories of this world.