The back of the book hooked me into buying this book. The premise of the story is there is a veil that leads to a prison where demons and worse things have been hidden from our world. And there is only one hunter. One per generation ala Buffy. Max is dark to Buffy's light however. The tattoo's are really interesting and a great addtion to the story. They come alive and protect her.

However I must say that the story itself falls flat. I felt like I was either struggling to understand some secret vocabulary or I was bored and really didn't care. There are too many people/things doing mysterious things for mysterious reasons. And none of it really gets resolved in the end. It felt like a prequel novel to a more complete book. I will get the next one to see if it's better fleshed out since the idea of the book was so great.

On the whole though I wouldn't recommend it to anyone.

"Silver smoke winds around my torso, peeling away from my ribs and back, stealing the dark mist covering my hands and lower extremities...tattos dissolving into demon flesh, coalescing into small dark bodies. My boys. The only friends I have in this world. Demons.

"I am a demon hunter. I am a demon. I am Hunter Kiss."


If you are looking for a soppy supernatural romance with a bitchy heroine and a alpha male love interest don't get this book! You, like some of the other reviewers, will be dissapointed.

This one took my breath away. The first person viewpoint is intense and startling. It's IS a little confusing, but it's meant to be. The reader must put the pieces together just like the heroine does. And this is no swooning heroine. She's not looking for a prince charming. She's got the world on her shoulders and demons at her back and she knows she'll win simply because she must. The description of the demons and other supernatural characters are guttural and poetic. Think more Dante's Inferno than Anita Blake.

If you're tired of bland prose and want something more etheral, more guttural. If you're tired of flighty heroines whose only determined quest is to sleep around. And if you're tired of heros who are full of the same annoying, macho blandness then you will like this book.

I REALLY enjoyed this book, however it is very unusual and I highly recommend reading the prequel short story, which is in the "Wild Things" anthology. It sets up her relationship with her boyfriend (which is kind of distant in this book) and gives more background. There's no real romance in this, it's a pretty pure, dark urban fantasy that was fantastic. The set-up was very unique, and the dark world really pulled me in. I can't wait for the next book in this series!

Liu has created an incredible world with this book. It is sometimes frustrating to be reading from the heroine's point of view because there is so much information she doesn't have and we don't know what's going on either! I have high hopes that some things will clear up in book two. After I read this book (Book One) I found out there is a prequel in the Wild Thing anthology. Perhaps more would have made sense if I had started there. There is so much in this created world - good (?) demons, allusions to fairy tales and ancient civilizations, beings that look human but aren't, not to mention her tattoos that protect her!

First off... This is not the first in this series...that is why so many readers felt lost. The first story from this series in in an anthology called "Wild Thind." You must read this story first and you will fully understand the The Iron Hunt.

Now....I completely agree with Linda C. This book was fabulous. It was refreshing and had a completely different feel to it than most of the mooks that I have read in the paranormal genre. It is very different from Liu's Dirk and Steele series. I can't wait to read the second book! LOVE IT! LOVE IT! LOVE IT!

It was fast paced, cryptic, scary, touching, mysterious, and ultimately wonderful. I loved it! I'll definitely be adding this one to my favorites list and waiting breathlessly for the next installment.

I wanted to love this book, but I spent the first half wondering if there was an introduction, maybe a short story in an anthology, that I'd missed. Then the story really got rolling and while it has a good premise, the main character spends A LOT of time being introduced to new characters, nearly all of whom know more about what's going on than she does and none of whom will ever answer a question directly. Some of this in a novel is intriguing and gets a reader thinking, too much is just plain frustrating. This was a little too much in my opinion.

I imagine I will eventually try the next book in the series to see if Liu has worked out the kinks, but I won't be waiting out in front of the bookstore for it.

I came away from this book feeling.... nothing. I feel like I missed something or that I was an outsider looking in. However, that seems to be parallel with the heroine, could be on purpose? I really liked the idea of the plot and storyline but seemed to be lacking background information or it was all jumbled up in riddles. Maybe if I had a better background of the Wild Hunt legend this might have been better... I do have to say I loved the idea with the tattoos!!

This book started off slow, then hooked me in with the story...only to make me feel like an outsider trying to catch up on a secret language. There was way too much going on in too little space, too many characters to keep up referencing things that happened in the past without any backstory.

The concept of this book is amazing...something new in the dark fiction genre. I just wasn't as impressed with the story as I was with the idea.

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For anyone who was confused by this book or is considering reading this book, beware that it is the spinoff series from a short story contained within a collection called "Wild Thing." I think if I had read "The Iron Hunt" without having read the short story I would've been a bit lost.

That said, I really enjoyed this book. I had reservations about ordering it based on some of the reviews I read on PBS but I believe that most of those bad reviews would be much different if those people had read the short story, it really does explain a lot and I can see why they felt the story was flat or that they were missing something or that they couldn't figure out the main character. That said, I felt this book was quite different than anything else I've read in a long time, so many fantasy books have cookie cutter heroes or heroines and sometimes you just roll your eyes at the cliches. Maxine--who she is and what she is is quite different. She almost reminds me of a sort of Buffy the Vampire Slayer but in the demon world.

I can't really say whether I liked this or not. It was really bizarre and at times seemed to just ramble with no direction. The story was hard to follow as it was just too abstract. Not enough information was given as to what the heck was going on. Though I really liked "the boys" - these demons were cool. They ate tools and teddy bears. How cool is that?

I havent' decided whether I'm going to read book 2. I did like Maxine Kiss and Grant and especially Byron. Heck I even liked Tracker and Oturu. Hell, I guess I did like it after all. Maybe I will read book 2.

I was not really thrilled with this book. It went from one problem to another, which is fine, but it was boring and confusing even if you read the book "Wild Thing" with the being of the story. I also wasn't thrilled with the story being told in first person. Liu's idea about tattoo demons is awesome, but it needed more. I seriously don't know what Liu was thinking. For get this series and go for her "Dirk and Steel" series. That is a series that won't disappoint.

looks like a new series from liu thats different from her previous works

I did not like this book at all, the writing left me cold & I didn't like the main character. I probably won't read anything else by this author again.

The premise of the story caused me to buy this book, but it fell short of the mark. There is so much information that it becomes confusing and hard to keep in order. I'll try the next and see if the series improves.

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