The Iron King



The Iron Fey is a series of Young Adult novels by Julie Kagawa, dealing with the misadventures of young Meghan Chase in Faeryland.

The Iron King is where our story starts. Meghan finds out that her father was not the insurance salesman she thought he was, but was instead Oberon, king of the Summer Court of the Fey. She also finds out that her best friend, Robbie Goodfell, is actually Robin Goodfellow, better known as Puck. She ventures to faery lands to rescue her brother, but finds herself caught up in the politics of the world, and is forced to fight against the iron court, a brand new court formed as human dreams begin to shift toward technology. Along the way, she meets Ash, the son of the Winter queen, whom she agrees to accompany in exchange for his help dealing with the iron court.

The next part of the series is the novella "Winter's Passage", which follows Ash and Meghan as he takes her to the winter court per their agreement, but along the way they are attacked by a creature sent by Oberon to "rescue" Meghan.

The Iron Daughter opens with Meghan a prisoner of the Winter Court, where she dreams of the Iron King she killed at the end of The Iron King. She feels betrayed by Ash, who must pretend not to care while they are in the court. The two are forced to leave when one of Ash's brothers steals the Scepter of the Seasons, which he intends to give to the new Iron King in exchange for power. Ash, Meghan and Puck go after it, with the help of Ironhorse, who tells them that the new king is a fraud. The group retrieve the scepter, but Ash and Meghan are banished to the Mortal realm.

Book 3, The Iron Queen, picks up where The Iron Daughter left off, as Meghan and Ash approach her human home. When they arrive, they find her home being attacked by iron fey under the orders of the false king. The two decide to flee to Leanansidhe, also called the Exile Queen, for shelter. Along the way, Glitch, a former lieutenant of the Iron King and current leader of the rebels against the false king, attempts to take them into custody for Meghan's protection, fearing that all would be lost if the false king captured her. While training to go after the false king, they discover that in addition to the Summer glamour she gained from her father, Meghan also has Iron glamour gained from killing the Iron King back in book 1. The three return to faery after Meghan and Ash's banishments are lifted, and Meghan takes her rightful place.

Another novella, focusing on Ash and Puck's adventures, follows Iron Queen, titled "Summer's Crossing".

The fourth book, The Iron Knight, came out in November 2011.

This series contains examples of:

 * Amazing Technicolor Population: Rampant. This is Faeryland, after all.
 * An Aesop: The Iron King's Aesop seems to be "Great adversity helps make people stronger." And...well, "Don't piss off the fairies."
 * An Ice Person: Ash, and other members of the Winter Court.
 * Animorphism: Puck favors the form of a crow, though he can do other animal forms. A phouka can turn into any animal they want to be.
 * Asshole Victim: A bitchy cheerleader makes fun of Meghan after a particularly vicious school prank. Puck loses it and turns her nose into a pig's snout. The trope is subverted, however, when Meghan meets the same girl again later, finds that she's matured quite a bit from enduring teasing about the pig snout, and actually feels a bit sorry for her (and angry at Puck).
 * Baleful Polymorph: Being in the wrong place at the wrong time can get a human turned into whichever animal strikes an angry faery's fancy. Titania even threatens to turn Meghan into a deer, and then unleash her hunting hound on her.
 * Berserk Button: Puck. Make fun of Meghan. We dare you. Ash has a soft spot for Meghan as well, but he does his best to hide it so that his evil family members won't kill her to get to him.
 * Betty and Veronica: Puck, Meghan's best friend and a mostly trusted servant of her father, is the Betty while Ash, the youngest son of the enemy court, serves as the Veronica.
 * Big Badass Wolf: The Big Bad Wolf himself.
 * Black Eyes of Evil: Queen Mab, the Iron King Machina, and many Always Chaotic Evil faeries have this on a day-to-day basis. Even somewhat less evil characters, like Oberon and Titania, can get this when they're significantly angered.
 * Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: Any time Meghan, Ash, and Puck are travelling together, they make up this trope.
 * Broken Masquerade: Meghan finds out what's really going on within the first five chapters of book 1.
 * Cats Are Snarkers: Grimalkin.
 * Cats Are Superior: Grimalkin certainly feels that this is true.
 * Changeling Tale: The story really sets off when the Faeries kidnap Meghan's younger half-brother and replace him with a foul-mouthed monster brat.
 * Childhood Friend Romance: Of the "Unrequited Love" flavor. Puck has really fallen hard for Meghan, but, as of yet, Meghan seems to think of him as only her best friend.
 * Cinderella Circumstances: Titania puts Meghan to work in the Seelie Court's kitchens to get back at her husband for cheating on her. It only lasts until Elysium, when Meghan's expected to look like a princess.
 * Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday: The first novel opens the day before Meghan turns sixteen, and the plot really kicks off on her birthday.
 * Defrosting Ice Prince: Ash's Character Development progresses this way.
 * Disappeared Dad: It's actually disappeared stepfather in Meghan's case. He was kidnapped by faeries around the time she was six.
 * Everything Trying to Kill You: Meghan soon discovers that humans are playthings at best in the faery world. At worst, they are food. And the fact that she's half fey does not help at all.
 * Evil Matriarch: Both Faery Queens count.
 * Evil Redheads: Well, Puck isn't exactly...oh, wait. He's Fey. Of course he's evil. Just not as evil as generally everyone else in the Nevernever.
 * Extra Ore Dinary: An ability held by some members of the Iron Court.
 * The Fair Folk: Many of the fey shown in the series come off this way, even Puck and Ash.
 * Fiery Redhead: Puck.
 * God Save Us From the Queen: Titania and Mab.
 * Gray Eyes: Ash is this, classification 2, as is his older brother Sage. Though Ash has been getting better of late.
 * Green Eyes: Puck suits this trope to a tee. So does Oberon, when he's not very displeased.
 * Green Eyed Red Head: Puck.
 * Green Thumb: The basic form taken by Summer Glamour.
 * Guile Hero: Par for the course in Puck's characterization, as anyone who's read A Midsummer's Night Dream will confirm.
 * Hair of Gold: Meghan is blonde. She's also a little less naive and innocent than most heroines of this trope, but she's still described as a good-hearted, noble dreamer.
 * Halfbreed: As the daughter of the Seelie king and a human mother, Meghan is despised by everyone, except Puck and usually Ash.
 * Half-Human Hybrid: Human mother, Faery king father.
 * Heroic Bastard: Meghan.
 * Icy Blue Eyes: Ash's brother Rowan has these, as does Titania. They aren't nice people.
 * Innocent Blue Eyes: Meghan's characterization generally favors this description of her eyes.
 * Invisible to Adults: Young children like Meghan's brother Ethan can see magical things. Generally they grow out of it, but artistic people like Meghan's mother sometimes retain some of this ability.
 * Invisible to Normals: Anything magical has this kind of power over grown humans. Even Meghan, who's only half normal, only noticed magical things out of the corner of her vision until she turned sixteen.
 * It's Not You, It's My Enemies: Or, in Ash's case, "It's not you, it's my evil Fair Folk family members who will eat you alive just to annoy me."
 * Land of Faerie: Most of the story takes place in Faery, also called the Nevernever.
 * Love Triangle: There are three, so far.
 * One Type 4 in the main cast. Ash and Meghan are in a relationship, but Puck has an unrequited crush on Meghan.
 * Two Type 7's concerning Meghan's parents. Oberon and Meghan's mother cheated on their respective spouses to produce Meghan, but it only lasted for a one night stand.
 * Magically-Binding Contract: To the point that one needs to be careful when saying "thank you" to anybody in the Nevernever, since those words basically mean "I owe you one." Faeries will take Meghan at her word for that, and try to call in the debt later.
 * Magitek: Used by some of the Iron Fey.
 * Masquerade: One has been held around Meghan for her protection since she was an infant.
 * Multicolored Hair: Very common amongst Faeries of any kind.
 * Playing with Fire: An ability of some Summer Fey.
 * Precision F-Strike: Ethan drops one of these early in the first book, one of the many signs that he's not really Ethan.
 * Raven Hair, Ivory Skin: Queen Mab, Ash, Rowan, and Sage all match this description.
 * Redheaded Bully: Puck has his moments. Pick on Meghan, and you might end up with a humiliating disfigurement of some sort. If he's in a good mood.
 * Redheaded Hero: Puck, again.
 * Redhead in Green: Yeah, Puck basically cleared out all of the Red-head tropes. It's impressive, actually.
 * Red Oni, Blue Oni: Puck is the Red to Ash's Blue, just as pretty much all the Summer Fey are the Red to the Winter Fey's Blue.
 * Shiny Midnight Black: The phrase "so black it looks blue in places" is actually used to describe Queen Mab's hair.
 * Tall, Dark and Bishoujo/Handsome: Pick an Unseelie prince. Any Unseelie prince.
 * Theme Naming: Mab's three sons: Sage, Rowan, and Ash. This is also an example of Family Theme Naming and Plant Theme Naming.
 * Troubling Unchildlike Behavior: How Meghan learns that her brother has been replaced with a changeling.
 * True Sight: Meghan's is strong due to her father's identity, but up until the beginning of the first book it has been kept controlled by the fact that every year until her Dangerous Sixteenth Birthday, Robbie would dose her with Mistwine to suppress it.
 * Two Guys and a Girl: Ash, Puck, and Meghan. Grimalkin gets thrown in there too for a while, but that does not change the team dynamics one bit.
 * Voluntary Shapeshifting: Puck uses this a lot, though he usually favors Animorphism.
 * Wicked Stepmother: Titania is this IN SPADES for Meghan. The girl was lucky not to be turned into a deer or something equally edible.
 * With a Friend and a Stranger: Meghan runs away from the Seelie court in the company of Puck, her childhood friend, and Ash, her currently unknown enemy who is only kept from killing her by virtue of a Magically-Binding Contract.
 * Your Cheating Heart: Oberon cheated on Titania, which is why she has it in for Meghan. Meghan's mother also cheated on her husband with Oberon, but the poor man had no idea that had happened.