“literary fiction, alt history, and fantasy in one satisfying package”
Obligations to family and nation, and the pursuit of a higher calling collide in Sir Tamburlaine Bryce MacGregor’s multi-faceted Gothic tale of second-sight, disembodied souls, royal scandal, evictions and afflictions, orphaned children, wandering spirits, seaweed, whisky, and murder.
The year 1864. Magick is real, but not respected: displaced by a new world of iron and industry. Charles VII is king of Anglia and Scotland; France and Spain colonise the Americas; and Sir Tamburlaine Bryce MacGregor, Scotland’s foremost novelist, publishes the first book of This Iron Race.
The year 2018. Nevil Warbrook, a middle-aged literary scholar with a first in Theology and Babylonian Studies from Israel College, Oxford, defends the reputation of Sir Tamburlaine Bryce MacGregor. Opposing him is conjuror-turned-psychic, Hendryk van Zelden, who claims MacGregor practised witchcraft. This Iron Race is at the heart of their argument for the published novel is only a shadow of the work MacGregor intended. Twelve conflicting narrative voices converge across history and geography from the mid nineteenth century to modern times in an England almost, but not exactly like our own, in book one of This Iron Race.
For all lovers of Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell and novels about books and their authors and fans of Gothic magical realism and paranormal gaslamp fantasy with a hint of romance.
Reviews
“a great read,” “remarkable,” “memorable,” “brilliantly clever,” “utterly engrossing,” “revelatory and wonderfully entertaining” from Goodreads and Amazon reviews
“If you liked Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell by Susanna Clarke, or Possession by A S Byatt, I heartily recommend this extraordinary, fascinating, metatextual delight”
“shockingly well-written”
“A remarkable book, one of the most unusually constructed I’ve read, and enjoyable too.”
“an imagined nineteenth century, an alternative history, a Britain almost but not quite recognisable, and obviously, magic.”
“a fascinating and genuinely innovative novel”
“I absolutely love the depth of it, and heartily recommend it to anyone who loves books, writing, magic, intertextuality, footnotes …”
“wholly delightful, absorbing, and entertaining … I’m very much looking forward to subsequent volumes!”
“The whole project is a tremendous feat of research and imagination that has completely won me over. Bring on Book 2!”
Books two and three are now published with book four expected in 2027
“Deny magick, it will destroy you: untrained it will destroy those you love”
Reviews
“I am endlessly fascinated and impressed by the immensity of the project. There’s so much going on here, beautifully imagined and wonderfully described. A marvel.”
“Volume 2 in this deeply layered self published fantasy and it certainly has about as original a construction to a story as I’ve read. Enjoying it for that and for the excellent prose too.”
“I’ve not mentioned the parallel series that you should read at the same time based entirely on the daily routine of Nevil Warbrook, the present day editor! ”