13 Reasons Why You Shouldn't Read Mantles of Oak and Iron
I have a weird sense of humor…
My friends and family know this about me. And they love me anyway. Well, ok, my parents and siblings have a similar sense of humor, so they enjoy it. My in-laws…. tolerate it. Possibly get some small amount of amusement from it. Often shake their heads in confusion over it.
The best example of my sense of humor that I can point to is my weird little short story “Destined for Greatness.” You can get it for free over on Amazon (or I’ll send it to you straight to your inbox if you subscribe to this blog/my newsletter).
In this short little story, a young man named Kendall is having kind of a rough day. He believes that he is meant for great things, but he’s kind of trapped in a boring existence sweeping out an inn where he’s apprenticed. He tries to alter his lot in life, reaching for greatness, but he keeps missing the mark, until finally… finally! Something incredible happens. He ends up coming face to face with the Fates, and he just knows that now is his chance for something epic…
But much to his chagrin, the Fates are a bunch of kittens, and in response to his plea for a better, greater destiny, they turn him into a cat.
Of course, most people would be bothered by this… but as Kendall is now a cat, he—in true cat-like fashion—suddenly realizes that he is now the pinnacle of all creation and begins chasing yarn, fully content in his own self-worth.
It’s a story that pokes fun at cats.
And some people get it and think it’s super funny. Other people… are just kind of disturbed by it.
And that’s okay, because I get that my sense of humor isn’t for everyone. Just like my stories aren’t for everyone. And today’s post is going to highlight that fact. Because I’m letting my sense of humor out of the box for the day.
You see, it’s an exciting day.
Because…..
Mantles of Oak and Iron launches tomorrow!
But should you buy this book and read it?
Maybe not…
I know my books aren’t for everyone. So I thought I’d put together a list of all the reasons why you might NOT want to read this one.
13 Reasons Not to Read Mantles of Oak and Iron
In no particular order…
1. You don’t like pirates.
If you don’t like pirates, you definitely should not read the Turrim Archive books. Pirates feature rather heavily in this series. Airship pirates, to be precise. Swashbuckling, devil-may-care pirates who are angry at the world at large and really have a problem with the tyrannical government and evil warlord dictator who holds sway over their homeland. They might have hearts of gold, but they do steal for a living, and they’re not sorry about it.
2. You don’t like stories about bonds of brotherhood forged in times of hardship.
The friendships that were begun in book 1 grow and expand as Beren, Grayden, and Wynn attend their Military Academy classes and meet other students. Before the book is done, they will have to rely on each other quite a bit to survive the story.
“When you stand beside someone and face the enemy together, you become brothers. When you train together to defend our nations, you become brothers. The second you stepped across the Academy threshold, you became a part of this family.” ~Mantles of Oak and Iron
But I get that not everyone likes stories about brotherhood. So if that’s not your cup of tea, consider yourself warned!
3. You don’t like stories about wilderness survival.
There is quite a bit of “braving the elements” in this particular book. The characters brave frozen rivers, are attacked by grymstalkers, battle nightvines, endure an avalanche, and fight for their lives against every element I could think of. There’s a lot of wilderness and a lot of intense moments in which the characters have to struggle against that same wilderness in order to survive.
4. You don’t like mysterious mentor figures.
This should be one of those “how you know I wrote it” jokes, honestly. But seriously, if there’s a mysterious character who is waaaaaay older than is even possible, it’s probably something I wrote. Dalmir does reveal a bit more about his past in this story, but he still has enough mysterious backstory left to unfold when this one is over.
5. You don’t like airships.
I mean, sailing ships that fly through the air? Who doesn’t think that’s a cool concept? But if airships are not your jam… then you probably aren’t going to be interested in this series. Particularly if you don’t like airships that kinda don’t work without magic… because these ones were definitely inspired by the airships from Treasure Planet. (great movie, by the way!)
6. You don’t want to be immersed in a story with epic world building.
While my natural inclination is to be a little bit more C.S. Lewis with my world-building than J.R.R. Tolkien… “Look! And then Father Christmas showed up! Because… I like it!”
But I have a very attention-to-detail-oriented husband who reins me in when I want to just go crazy with the imaginative hand-wavium stuff. You can thank Derek if you like solid world-building. You can blame him if you’d prefer things to just happen “because: magic.”7. You don’t enjoy political intrigue.
There’s rather a lot of it in this series. There are big political machinations. There are two sides of the world about to go to war. There are maneuvers and kidnappings and assassination attempts!
8. You prefer to read books with a lot of romance in them.
I’m not going to say this series has zero romance, but there’s not much of it. Especially in these first two books. This is not a romantasy story. It’s not a love story. Well… it is a love story, but it’s a love story from me to my brothers and my dad and my husband… it’s a story that I wanted the men in my life to be able to read and enjoy. It’s a story featuring brave men and good men doing manly things… and they’re far too busy protecting the world to be thinking about kissing.
9. You don’t like books with themes of hope and redemption.
This is not a grimdark series. You won’t find gritty realism or edgy dark fantasy here. This is noblebright fiction with threads of hope and light woven throughout. Yes, there is danger. Yes, there are morally gray areas and characters. Yes, there is darkness. To be honest, my villains in this story kind of scare me. But those things do not crowd out the themes of hope and courage and nobility.
10. You only like fantasy if it’s also an allegory.
This is not an allegory. Yes, I am a Christian, and yes, my worldview is apparent in the story, but preaching the Gospel is not the point of this series. One of the main characters in this series begins the story at a point in his life where he’s basically tried to turn his back on God and has been shirking his duty, which means that there’s not much in the way of mention of a Creator-figure or faith in book 1. I promise, it doesn’t stay that way… I’m a big fan of redemption stories myself… but there are some mountains to climb and valleys to sink into along the way. And though I hope that some people do manage to connect the dots if they are struggling with some of the same questions that the characters struggle with…. I also know that those aspects of the story are on the more subtle side. And they are that way on purpose.
11. You are hoping for an Academy story.
I’m sorry, but this is not a school story. This is not Harry Potter or Percy Jackson. It’s not a saga in which we spend several books following a set of characters through their years at school. If you were hoping that the next 4 books follow the boys through their 4 years at the Academy…. I’m sorry to disappoint you. Yes, you will get to go to the Academy with Grayden and Wynn and Beren in this book… but the world is accelerating toward war faster than anyone would like and Telmondir needs soldiers now more than ever.
12. You don’t like series.
I can’t help you here. I don’t have a lot of stand-alone recommendations because you see… I love series. They are my favorite. They always have been. Anything to spend a few more pages with my fictional best friends exploring their extremely epic worlds. Give me all the series. Turrim Archive is a series. It will have 5 books when it’s done, and I’m already low-key planning a sequel series set in the same world some hundreds of years after book 5 ends. Turrim is too fascinating to just stop writing about.
13. You haven’t read The Orb and the Airship yet.
I’d definitely recommend starting with book 1 in this series. Each book has a definite major story arc that begins and ends within the confines of its covers, but there is a vast, overarching story running across this series and it’s best to read the books in order as they were meant to be read. I have done my best to make sure the order of the books is clearly visible on the books themselves, but in case you missed it… Mantles of Oak and Iron is book 2 of this series!
If you haven’t grabbed The Orb and the Airship yet, it’s on sale this week for just 99 cents!
And there you have it! My top 13 reasons why you should NOT read Mantles of Oak and Iron! If, however, these reasons don’t apply to you…. then please, don’t hesitate to grab a copy today!
And don’t forget, today is the last day for you to get that special pre-order price of $2.99 on Mantles of Oak and Iron.