Review: Molton Flux by Jonathan Weiss

Blurb:

George Miller's Mad Max meets Howl's Moving Castle in a blaze of sandstorms and scrap metal with this grimdark sci-fantasy series.

You control machines.
This machine will control life.
Do not control it.

As the freshest conscript aboard the walking fortress of Revance, Ryza forges a name for himself in battle. The enemy are the smelters, bandits that trade in reanimated corpses. But for Ryza, the bloodshed represents a path of redemption for an upbringing he’s just escaped.

His prowess with a rifle draws the interest of the Locusts, a clandestine faction within Revance’s ranks. It turns out that not all aboard the fortress seek to stamp out the plague of molten flux, the mysterious liquid metal that fills the bodies of the dead and makes them walk again.

Some seek to profit.

The reanimated corpses —known as autominds— are used to control enormous contraptions of magnetically enchanted metal, forming the backbone of The Droughtland’s factories. The only thing stopping the smelters from expanding their illicit industry is Revance.

The Locusts make Ryza an offer. Either help overthrow Revance to do the smelter’s bidding or reveal his father’s legacy as the very thing Ryza now fights against.

The former is unthinkable. The latter means death.

Ryza resolves to infiltrate them and expose the mutiny, plunging him back into the murky underworld of the smelters, testing his convictions, and even leading him to the ancient origins of molten flux itself.

Molten Flux is the first book of an action-packed fusion of desert-punk scifi and grimdark fantasy. Step into a world of sandstorms and scrap metal with The Flux Catastrophe series to experience blood-rushing gunfights, battles with enchanted machines and magic that pushes to the brink of reality.

Review:

Molten Flux felt like finding a new favorite roller coaster. With a dash of steampunk and a cinematic feel that gives Mad Max, Dune and Mortal Engines vibes, I jumped into this book expecting an epic adventure with high stakes and life threatening peril, which I was greatly dealt. What I wasn’t expecting was the intricate world filled with questions and themes that really hit in surprising ways.

At first glance the Droughtlands might feel a bit expected for a story based in a desert, but quickly opens up to depths above and below the sand, layered with mystery and intrigue. The tech was really cool and I think Weiss struck a great balance of satisfying detail while keeping up with the quick pace of the story. I could smell, feel, and hear the environment and machines as much as I saw them. The vehicles and weapons, towns and ruins all pushed the boundaries of believability without escaping them, which catered to a sense of full immersion into the Droughtlands. 

‘Control means nothing if you’ve got no idea what you’re going to do with it.’

The magic system was really creative, I loved the use of runes painted on the body in order to wield unique elemental abilities. The prejudices built into the world between different factions of abilities brought a nice tension to the society that had an almost classist tone. You leave this book knowing there’s a lot left to discover about their powers and I can’t wait to see what future books hold. The fact that this world will be home to 14 novels sounds like a massive undertaking, but Weiss certainly has done a great job in setting up a world deep enough to hold that much interest. 

Ryza, our main character, is perfectly imperfect. I loved his heart, despite its downfalls, and he came across as really relatable. His struggles, growth, and choices added real weight to the pages, and navigating the experiences he had forced upon him was a treat. I’m not sure I altogether understood some of the characters, especially Holm, though I’m sure that’s because Ryza didn’t either. I hope that she grows on me in books to come because she’s quite an interesting character. I loved the rest of the cast, everyone had a bit of depth to them even when they were fairly far to the side, and there are those I wish I’d be able to see again but are gone for good, sniff. The characters really added a lot of the believability to a world so different from our own, bringing with them the hard earned trauma of survival in the volatile landscape. I think Weiss handled those behaviors very well.

‘Think about it this way, wearing this collar that’s supposed to choke me to death is the freest I’ve ever felt.’

All of these elements came together to enforce a super entertaining plot. I really thought I knew where the end of this story would take us, but around every bend was another curve ball and in the end the book accomplished so much more than I expected. Throughout the story, my own motivations for the characters grew with theirs. I was left stunned and completely satisfied in the end, which I feel is rare for the start of a series nowadays. I have many more questions, and many pages to go with these characters, but I also loved that we completed a full arch in the story. 

And that was what I really loved about Weiss’s writing, it misses very little. The prose doesn’t stubble over itself or come with much pretense. Though you’re sprinting with action and facing new heights at every turn, he allows the breath needed to process and appreciate the scope in which the characters view their world. 

‘My hands aren’t clean.’

Molten Flux checks all the boxes. With a unique magic system, a stark future world, amazing machines and baffling tech still being uncovered, you get a perfectly balanced Dystopian Sci-Fi Fantasy you can't put down. The Droughtlands has a lot more story to tell, and I feel as though I’ve just scratched the surface in the best way possible