Shawn Speakman’s The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey (The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey #1)
Description
A mech – a whole mech – Erth hadn’t been allowed control of one in generations, but now Antiquity stared at one buried in the desert sands, intact, functioning, and illegal.
Antiquity had learned the history, her grandmother had made sure of it. Years ago, the Imperium had returned to Erth, the Splinter War had followed, and left Erth defeated, without mech control, ruled by the Imperium, and ravaged for materials. Now, living in a world oppressed since the time of her great grandmother, and in a family shunned and ostracized by all, Antiquity can see a new life. With this ancient, forbidden mech, she sees her family’s redemption and reinstitution in what little government Erth retains.
But this mech holds much more than she sees – more history, more promise, more secrets. So many secrets.
Disclosure
I personally bought this book. There was no agreement with the author, publisher, or any third party that I would publish a review. The following review is unsolicited, unbiased, and all opinions are my own.
Review – Spoiler Free
From the book description, I was wary of how heavily The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey would lean into the dystopian story arc. I don’t tend to enjoy the back-stabbing style of suspense that is prevalent in most dystopians (Red Rising was a great book but not my cup of tea at all), so I was hesitant. But knowing Speakman’s connection to Michael J. Sullivan (a favorite author of mine; see my reviews of some of his work here and here), my interest won out and I picked up this copy from a bookstore associated with Speakman, The Signed Page.
I was pleasantly surprised. Erth is very obviously in a dystopian situation, but Antiquity is a younger main character, which can swing Grey into young adult, and the storyline follows a little more closely with the hero’s journey and coming-of-age arcs, which kept it more enjoyable for me.
There were a lot of one-liners, character descriptions and interactions that I loved. And the importance placed on properly understanding the past, in order to affect the present and even the future was awesome. Speakman did a great job running along the fine line between Antiquity having to be led through a lot, and keeping her in the loop to make her own decisions, so by the end the reader knows she got there by her own choices and wasn’t just brought along by the decisions of others.
My absolute favorite thing in The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey is tucked into the second to last chapter. In a situation where all information points to Antiquity having to choose a certain path, she stops and makes a choice that goes against what seems like the obvious and easy answer. She makes a choice where the result, while more difficult to live out in the long run, upholds and respects the value of a life and the autonomy of an individual. I love this so much. Reading along, you feel the obvious choice coming, you don’t like it, but have already accepted that it has to happen even before a secondary character encourages it, and are then surprised and pleased when Antiquity chooses an option you didn’t even realize would be there. Awesome, Speakman, awesome.
The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey did, however have the ever-annoying “one day you will understand”, or “I will tell you more when the time is right” reason for Antiquity not knowing things integral to the story. In Speakman’s defense, he has good reason and one character even gives Antiquity a beautiful one-liner explanation as to why. But still … it’s just one of those tropes that gets me.
There are a few spots where something already explained is re-explained when Antiquity understands it, which could work out well if a reader isn’t tracking it already, but otherwise is kind of annoying.
And … drumroll please … this is book 1 of a series! If you’ve read my book review of Michael McClellan’s The Sand Sea, you already know how much it irks me when I go into a book expecting a standalone only to end up realizing at the end that it is the first in a series. Maybe this pertinent fact was mentioned somewhere in the Kickstarter that launched it, and as of this writing it is linked to a series on Goodreads, Amazon, and Speakman’s website, but the only place it is mentioned in the book is at the end of the story, on the first page of the back matter – not on the cover, the cover page, or in a subtitle. I’m fine with this being a book 1 and am actually looking forward to book 2, but it’s just nice to know going into it how much story to be expecting.
Overall, I was pleasantly surprised with how much I liked The Tempered Stel of Antiquity Grey. It’s one of those books that grows on you as you read it. I would recommend this book to both sci-fi and fantasy readers, to adult and young adult audiences. I’ve just ordered it’s prequel novella, The Undone Life of Jak Dreadth, and I’ll be looking for when Speakman launches book 2.
Quote
“The past. It is ever present in the now. Yet neither the past nor the present should be sacrificed for the future.”
Vestige (The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey, Shawn Speakman)
Ratings
- Quality of Writing – 3
- Plot – 4
- World Building – 4
- Characters – 3
- Ease of Reading – 4
- Pictures/ Illustrations – 3
- Overall Enjoyment – 3
- Final Rating – 3.5 (Actual: 3.43) – Liked It/ Really Liked It
Want to learn more about the numbers I use for rating, and the qualities I’m thinking about when writing a book review? Check out my post How I Rate and Review.