2019 Dragon Award Finalist, Best Alternate History: "The Iron Codex"

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Greetings to all my internet friends and neighbors, and for those of you who are counting down with me to the Dragon Awards, I'm PLANNING to get two done today. I have 8 days left, and 10 (or 11) books to read.  And to any of my family dropping by, the meal last night was FABULOUS! I even invented a new kind of gravy. That, plus the abject, sincere groveling, was enough that I am allowed inside the people house again.

“The Iron Codex” is a finalist in the “Best Alternate History” category. I don't know who decides on which category is appropriate for the nominations; is it all done by the person nominating? If I turn my head to the side and squint one of my eyes nearly shut, I THINK I can see the justification for this being in the category of Alternate History. It does, after all, tie the story into real-world events, but offers different causes for them. And maybe that's all that is necessary.

However, I don't think that's the MAJOR characteristic of the book. Now, admittedly, I'm going to suggest that it belongs in a category about which I know nearly nothing, so, take my opinion with a grain of salt. But do, please, at last give this some consideration.

I think the book belongs in the Horror section. I have two comments about that classification preference:

1.  I do NOT read horror. I don't watch horror movies. I stay as far away from horror as I can. Therefore, I may be just as ignorant about the rules for the horror genre as I have been about the rules for some of the romance books. I was schooled about that several years ago, when I read a book about a person who turned into a jungle cat, and so on, and who encountered a person who turned into a bigger cat, and so on, and they formed an immediate attraction for each other, and so on. My interpretation was that this was soft porn; those with more experience than I pointed out that this sort of thing was EXPECTED in that genre, and so on. Okay, I learned that. And there are surely some things that I would need to learn about requirements for the horror genre, were I to try to obtain expertise in that field. I'm basing my classification just what I know about today, and:
2. The CORE to this book is not about alternate history; it's about demon possession. And I think that makes it horror. Maybe not. But, until I learn otherwise, having murderous, grotesque minions of the devil summoned via incantations, hemmed in by lines drawn in specific diagrams, or even being controlled and internalized: that's horror. And, had it not been that the book was nominated in another category, and that I feel responsible to follow through with my public commitment to review the entries in the four categories of Best SF, Best Fantasy, Best Military SF, and Best Alternate History, there's no way I read this book past the first half of the first chapter. As it was: I was squeamish. YMMV.

I thing the cover is GREAT! In fact, that's how I selected this as the next book to read. It's a dark-haired, black-clad figure with a blade, riding a black motorcycle, so YAY! The cover art is by Larry Rostant, and the cover design was done by Jamie Stafford-Hill; these are people I'm not familiar with, but I do like their work here.

And, the book opens with that scene. It's 1954. The figure on the bike is one Anya Kernova, and she is in hot pursuit of a wicked, wicked NAZI!

Whatever else may be going on in the book, the author is good with the details. The bike she is riding is a Vincent Black Shadow, a legendary machine that was clocked in excess of 150 mph at a test run at the Bonneville Salt Flats. The motorcycles are no more, alas; they depended on hand-fitting the parts by master craftsmen, and that just wasn't economically feasible, once assembly line techniques were mastered. At the time, though, this was the fastest production motorcycle in the world.

1953 Vincent Black Shadow

Although I loved the bike, and am always in support of tracking down wicked, wicked Nazis, I do confess to being a bit perplexed by one thing: Anya is possessed by demons. At first, I thought they were speaking figuratively, as in, the demons of your guilty past, etc. Nope. These are nasty, pit-dwelling demons; even if they ARE used as weapon to capture and interrogate wicked, wicked Nazis, how do you tell the good guys from the bad guys if they are all possessed by demons? It's a non-trivial issue.

But here's a take-away: Anya wants to kill Nazis.

On the other side of the world, in a London gentleman's club, dastardly Dragan Dalca hosts manufactures representatives from France, America, and Russia. It's pretty east to tell that HE is a bad guy, because he accepts bribes from them to sabotage a British de Havilland Comet, an early jetliner.

In Washington DC, Briet Segfrunsdottir starts a new day in the Silo, in the Pentagon, where she summons demons to prepare a defense against nuclear war. Ob this particular day, she is angered, because she is presented with four new trainees. She has already prepped three prior sets, but they have mysteriously disappeared.

In Rome, Father Luis Rodrigo Perez is horrified by the action of Dalca's demon, as he destroys the airliner and passengers, and is dismayed that the church team observing fails to intervene.

In Laos, British intelligence agent Miles Franklin finds his partner, American ex=pat Cade Martin, in a narcotic stupor, as a demon prepares to devour him. At the last second, Cade rises and kills the demon. Then, the pair kills three Russian agents on a hit mission. And Cade seems to be available to go back to work.

Anya tries to swap the journal she took from the body of the wicked, wicked Nazi for assistance from a group of rabbis in translating a peculiar document she owns: the Iron Codex. It is written in an angelic language, that only a few can read. The rabbis aren't interested in helping her. A group in the Catholic Church could help, but they want the Codex for themselves. In fact, the head of the secret magic-wielding order, Cardinal Lombardi, sends Father Luis to La Paz to get the Codex from Anya.

Briet has her work shut down, in the middle of interviewing a powerful demon. And Dragan blackmails a US senator into transferring title of a facility over to him.

Those are all the pieces we start with; of course, the fate of the world is in the balance. And I'm just guessing that the group that is working against the plans of the evil jetliner-killing Dragan are the good guys, although I can't quite work out the morality of subjugating demonic and angelic beings. 

I think your opinion of the book is going to depend on how you feel about working with demons. Me? Don't care for it. Would not read this book, or the prequel, or the sequel. However, I THINK you'll find that the book is well-written. I only found one minor weapons quibble; a flash suppressor on an M3 carbine will NOT muffle the sound, but for sure, wind noise can distort the sound of a gunshot. And other elements are well detailed.

As for The Question: Is “The Iron Codex” a worthy choice for the 2019 Dragon Award in the category of Best Alternate History?

My opinion: No, it isn't. In the first place, as I said earlier, this isn't alternate history, it's horror. In the second place, the history itself isn't alternate at all. The REASONS behind some historical events are different, but the events themselves take place in the story just as they do in our timeline. YMMV.

Peace be on your household.