Compared to the first and third books, the set up and the conclusion respectively, the middle segment of any trilogy seems to get off lucky. Readers know the main characters, the world, the narrative. They’re already invested in your story if they’ve followed you this far. So, the middle book is where the fun happens.

Set up by Twisted Metal, Tony Ballantyne’s opening to the saga of the thinking robots on Penrose, is Blood and Iron. Penrose is a world completely dominated by artificial life, from various robotic communities, down to the more itchy likes of metal beetles and the vast forms of metallic whales. The perpetually abused whales, in particular, have the most cause for sympathy as the long suffering victims in a world where, in one way or another, everyone and everything is victimised. Because Penrose is also a world completely dominated by an obsession with metal.
The story picks up hard on the heels of the previous book. Karel and Susan, the separated husband and wife whose home and child were destroyed in a cruel conflict. Kavan and Spoole, both leaders of the same aggressive nation with no other enemies than each other. And Wa-Ka-Mo-Do, a new character and an introduction to events half a world away.

The narrative is really two stories running parallel. The holdover from the first book is the aftermath of Kavan and Spoole’s war for expansion. Both robots of the totalitarian city-state Artemis they’ve just finished, indifferently enslaving and murdering an entire continent. Moving with an inhuman efficiency, with no room for respite or even doubt, they turn on each other. The reasons for the ensuing civil war are vague: Kavan and Spoole both want to be in charge; they’re a nation of conquerors with no one left to conquer except themselves; perhaps they don’t even know better.

Left behind in the dust of the civil war is Karel. Caught up in the heat of it is Susan. Both have been victimised by Artemis. Of the two, Karel is the main character, but here he’s oddly sidelined. The bigger game-changers witnessed by the other characters are more the focus of Blood and Iron. While Karel makes his slow rescue attempt towards his wife, with the aid of a bitter and mysterious companion, he discovers more of the truth, and some of what he suspects, about robotkind. For Karel it seems to be all buildup to the next book. Susan, on the other hand, is trying to find the one friend in the city of her oppressors, both hating them and too afraid to do anything except what they want.

Wa-Ka-Mo-Do has the more interesting storyline. Immediately he’s more of a fully defined character, and the chapters featuring him are better for it. An elite warrior of Yukawa, honourable in the style of a feudal samurai, suddenly asked by his Emperor to command the city of Sangrel. Why that’s important is because of the humans who’ve just landed there. For the bulk of the book he is completely separated from the rest of the cast, though his tragic experience comes to affect Karel, Kavan and all. Through Wa-Ka-Mo-Do we get the more enjoyable clash of cultures between robots and newly arrived humans. Of course, there’s tension and unease from the beginning, but also more humour.

Blood and Iron feels more engaging, more humorous, more natural. The dizzying zip of the pace is back in force, but fits more easily into the second book. The robot ensemble of Twisted Metal was occasionally infuriating, always switching viewpoints too soon, too eager to move the slim storyline forward when you want it to slow down. To get to know the characters more. Isaac Asimov wrote more compelling and compassionate robotic characters. Iain M. Banks writes his Culture Machines with far more wit and irony. Tony Ballantyne still writes characters who go where the plot wants them to. Occasionally many characters go through sudden reversals of motive, not because it heightens the mystery and tension, because it’s convenient.

Ultimately, any criticism of the book is unfair before the series is finished. The frustrating reversals and lack of weight given to the choices of the characters could make complete sense in the end. The book is a transition, unable to complete satisfy the readers who have followed the story this far. Turns out, the middle book of a trilogy doesn’t get off so lucky after all. For now, Blood and Iron has two great, complex characters between Susan and Wa-Ka-Mo-Do. And when the humans get involved, the book is a lot of fun.

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