Novella Review – The Kraken King Part III: The Kraken King and the Fox’s Den by Meljean Brook (4/5 stars)

Reading Level: Adult
Genre: Steampunk
Length: 1657 KB (100 pages)
Publisher: InterMix
Release Date: April 29, 2014
ASIN: B00HZ1E4VI
Stand Alone or Series: Book 4.3 in the Iron Seas series
Source: Bought
Rating: 4/5 stars

This is the third installment in the eight installment series called The Kraken King. This Kraken King as a whole is the 4th book in the Iron Sea series. I really enjoyed this continuation of the Kraken King story. This has been an excellent story full of action, adventure, steampunk, and romance.

In this installment Zenobia, Helene, and Ariq journey to the smuggler’s den. Zenobia’s main goal here is to get transport to the Red City. While she works on that Ariq is trying to track down the raiders that destroyed Zenobia’s ship.

I continue to really enjoy Zenobia and Ariq as characters. They are likable, easy to engage with, and just a lot of fun to read about. There is still a lot of tension between Zenobia and Ariq that is well done. Although I felt like the scenes between Zenobia and Ariq were a lot less frequent in this installment, they spent much of the story apart from each other working on their separate missions.

The Smuggler’s Den is a really interesting area to read about. There are some very quirky new characters introduced. I enjoyed them all. It’s a very creatively done area; there’s everything from the creepy Twins to a battle area where humans face off with zombies.

There wasn’t as much action in this installment. However, there are a lot of politics between the different leaders of Smuggler’s Den. We also learn a lot more about Ariq’s background and even hear some about how he got the name The Kraken King.

Although it is kind of killing me to read this in installments (I just don’t like how you get jerked out of the story and have to wait a whole week to read the next section). The Kraken King has been a very good addition to the Iron Seas novels. I thought this installment was a bit weaker than the last two, but it was still very good.

Overall a solid installment in The Kraken King book. I have always loved the world of The Iron Seas. Brook is an excellent writer who has created some very engaging characters and a wonderfully imaginative world. This was an excellent combination of adventure, action, steampunk, politics, and romance. I definitely recommend the whole Iron Sea series if you are a fan of steampunk and don’t mind some romance with your steampunk.

This book goes towards the following reading challenges:
– Ebook Reading Challenge
– You Read How Many Books? Reading Challenge