Waiting on Wednesday – Born of an Iron Storm by Anthony Ryan

Welcome to my weekly segment, Waiting on Wednesday, where I look at upcoming books that I am planning to order and review in the next few months and which I think I will really enjoy. Stay tuned to see reviews of these books when I get a copy of them. For this somewhat late Waiting on Wednesday, I check out the awesome upcoming book from Born of an Iron Storm by Anthony Ryan.

Amazon

As some of you who are familiar with my blog would have seen, I just published a long-overdue review of the awesome 2024 novel, A Tide of Black Steel by Athony Ryan. A sequel to the authors previous Covenant of Steel novels (The Pariah, The Martyr, and The Traitor), A Tide of Black Steel was one of my favourite books and audiobooks of 2024, and I have been meaning to put a review of it up for a while.

As I had an outstanding time finally writing up my review for A Tide of Black Steel, I thought this would be the perfect opportunity to review the intriguing upcoming sequel, Born of an Iron Storm. The second book in the author’s Age of Wrath series, Born of an Iron Storm is set for release in late August 2025 and will continue after the impressive cliffhanger that Ryan left his previous novel on.

Plot Synopsis:

From the international bestselling author Anthony Ryan comes the spectacular second novel in a new epic new fantasy trilogy inspired by Norse mythology.

The Sister Queens have fallen and Ascarlia lies naked before the storm. A Nihlvarian plan, years in the making, has seen Ascarlia’s enemy seize the capital Skar Magnol. Now the invaders look to the wealthy port city of Olversahl to complete their conquest.

But there is hope.

Elvine is trapped at the heart of the conspiracy, yet her role in the new government offers the chance to plan resistance from within. She must tread a fine line between loyalty and secret disobedience, knowing the smallest mistake will mean her death.

Meanwhile, Thera has secured the Outer Islands, but her loyalist forces alone cannot liberate Skar Magnol. She must seek allies to have any chance of defeating the Nihlvarian threat. But her greater challenge will be to overcome her own doubts and become the leader she needs to be.

If she fails, Ascarlia will fall.

And far away across the ocean, Felnir embarks on a bloody path towards kingship whilst to the north, Ruhlin seeks escape from the tyrannical realm of Nihlvar where the mysterious Vortigurn holds sway.

Continuing the epic tale begun in A Tide of Black Steel, Born of an Iron Storm is a compelling saga of bloody retribution, deadly intrigue, and desperate courage.

This is a very awesome sounding sequel, and it looks like Ryan is going to expand on a lot of very cool plot points in Born of an Iron Storm. Set to continue with the four same perspective characters from A Tide of Black Steel, Born of an Iron Storm will likely start with several separate narrative threads as these great characters each try to navigate on from the dark places that they finished the last book in. I deeply enjoyed all four of these separate, character focused stories in A Tide of Black Steel, and I look forward to seeing how each character survives their last misadventures and continues to try to fight back against the mysterious new enemy.

Of the four I think the perspective I am most looking forward to in Born of an Iron Storm is that of Elvine, a young scribe caught up in the middle of a successful conspiracy to destroy Ascarlia from within. A lot of the reasons I am keen to see Elvine’s perspective is her recently revealed connection to the protagonist from the original Covenant of Steel novels, and it will be interesting to see where Ryan takes her familial story going forward, especially as she tries to survive alongside her adventurous half-brother, who those familiar with Ryan’s previous series will know has quite a dark legacy behind him. Elvine’s chapters also have the potential to be some of the more intrigue and mystery laden as the protagonist attempts to rebel while forced to live in service of those who want to destroy her people, and I cannot wait to see how that blows up in her face.

While Elvine’s chapters have a good chunk of my interest based on the synopsis above, the rest of the perspective chapters in Born of an Iron Storm have a lot of potential as well, and I can see all of them being quite impressive in their own way. Thera’s chapters will likely be the most militarised, as she attempts to fight back a massive invading fleet, so expect a lot of cool longship-on-longship or shield wall combat there. Felnir’s narrative will likely be the most frustrating, as the young captain seeks glory and power in all the wrong places, although I feel there will be some intricate lore in these chapters. Finally, the young escaping pit fighter Ruhlin will likely have a dark tale of survival and finding oneself in his storylines, and it will be interesting to see how this monster survives on the run. All four of these character perspectives sound extremely compelling, and I am anticipating that there will be some excellent crossover the further we get into Born of an Iron Storm’s story, which should make for a particularly incredible novel.

Due to how damn impressive Anthony Ryan’s last four books have been, there is no way that I will be missing out on Born of an Iron Storm later this year. Sure to be filled with complex characters, great action and some elaborate storytelling, Born of an Iron Storm has so much potential, and I have no doubt at all that it will be another five-star read from this great author. As such, Born of an Iron Storm is one of my most anticipated books coming out in the second half of the year, and I cannot wait to see how Ryan continues his exceptional Age of Wrath series.