Title: The Iron Teeth - A Goblin's Tale
Author: Scott Straughan
Rating: T
Genre: Fantasy
Status: WIP - on book four, with 3-4k updates twice a week
Fandom: Original Fiction
Summary:
These are the Iron Teeth. This is the north proper, the very knife edge of civilization. Here among the stark mountains and endless forests there are undiscovered treasures, amongst countless unmarked graves. Here, monsters stalk the night and outlaws gather. It is the land of the desperate and the foolish. A land of singular wonders and crushing horror.

Here dwells Myagnoir the Doom of Coroulis, the Great Drake, the City Killer, the Greatest Enemy of Man. His coming sealed the North’s decline that the wars of the south begun, and shattered all hopes of safety from those wars’ depredations. Amongst the icy ruins of the once great Coroulis he rules unchallenged.

Here the Forest People wait and plot their revenge on the kingdoms of men. Those that drove them from their ancestral homes, but whose once unmatched power now wanes. Amongst all this simple people struggle to survive and carve out new lives for themselves far from the greed and wrath of kings.

Now arrives a newcomer, a captive, a slave, a goblin, a spark onto tinder. The North shall burn, and only time will tell what rises from the ashes.

Link: http://www.ironteethserial.com/dark-fantasy-story/online-story/the-road-north-1-1/

I came across this because an edited and pimped out version was available on Kindle Unlimited, then moved over to read the rest on the author's web serial. I'm a whore for stories from the perspective of "the bad guys" and this really hits the mark. The characters are clearly not good people, but it's sincere in a way that attempts to do 'villains' rarely is.

A goblin is captured to work as a minion for a hunter who is part of a band of outlaws roaming the desolate north and generally up to no good. He's a snivelling little shit in some ways to begin with, but as he grows bigger, stronger, and sneakier, that quickly turns into sly cunning and gleeful malice.

There are some fun scenes as he traipses around the woods learning how to scare humans, and then once he's all grown up things go into shadowy assassinations between criminal gangs in a city.

The writing is a bit repetitive, but otherwise alright. For the novelty as much as anything else, I'd rate this quite highly.

5/5

 

I agree.

It's nice to see a story from a villain's point of view where they don't try to justify it, they don't try and dress it up, but they also don't go on drug-fueled murderorgies. They're just criminals because it's easier than being lawful.

The story starts quite well, and continues setting things up in a timely manner. However, it feels like a lot of the characters talk too much - new information is delivered in conversations between two characters who both already know it all, and it's a poorly disguised mini-infodump.

Also, a lot of the word choice feels slightly stilted. Nearly all dialogue is followed with a "he explained", "she responded"; but rarely adverbs, and often with a "she told him", which again ruins the flow. On top of that, there's a lot of repetition within chapters on how everyone says everything, and it was noticeable enough to pull me out a time or two. Otherwise, I didn't notice any real technical issues - spelling and grammar all seem fine, with line breaks and capitals as appropriate. Some minor inconsistencies with pronouns, but I only noticed because I was searching for them.

There's some repetition in text, which again brought me out of the story. It's a pretty minor thing, considered, but it's also one of the first things a re-read should have pointed out before publishing. Also, the writing reads quite simplistically? More like a YA novel than anything else. Sentences are all a very similar length, and there's little-to-no metaphor or simile, the writing feels quite robotic. I had thought this could be because we're reading from the PoV of a dimwitted character, but the interludes read the same way.

So far, the cast has been interesting, and varied enough that they don't all start blurring (which often seems to be a problem in online original stuff). They don't all work together for the benefit of the MC all the time, and there's quite a few who actively dislike the MC.

Definitely a fun read, and worth a shot, but not wonderful. A low 4/5 from me

 

I'm in the same boat as zombie. I read a couple chapters, and I really wanted to like this story. But the prose is just so simple and dry, and the worst sin, boring. I got to the scene with the harpy fight, and the "action" just launched me out of the story.

 

Alright, so I rated this when I saw it come up earlier cause I've come across it before and forgotten the name so couldn't find it again. I've been catching up and I both really like it, but am kinda disappointed.

First of all, the prose is a bit simple and kinda made me feel like the chapters were shorter then they really were. A big nitpick of it is the interlude characters, the very first one felt way too simple even if it was to show the brother being dumber then his sister it seemed out of character. While the other ones were improved it still felt a bit off.
That leads to the next point about what the merchant interludes have brought up, the worldbuilding of the story. I really do like it but..The world building in the first book felt natural and not just shoehorned it, the second book expanded on it but focusing more on mage stuff and politics. I liked the shift in focus in a way but then it felt like the worldbuilding was being put off to the side later on.

Probably because of the plot.. I won't go into spoilers but I felt like the plot just got weaker after the second book with the battles just dragging out when that plotline could have been built on slower and had Blacknail return to the roots of fighting creatures an etc. while tension was built up.
I haven't really caught up fully, only the mid way through 3 so I'll review more in depth later but I still like the stories despite it's faults. It contrasts nicely in comparison to Wandering Inn which drags on with worldbuilding. I'd say it's one of the better web serials despite its prose, and the author is improving I think.

I'd rate it 3.5/5 right now because I'm not really liking where it's heading where I'm at and it sort of feels like the author forgot what they've foreshadowed earlier. I'll come back an edit later so it could go up or down.

 

I'm a bit further in than when I previously reviewed, and I'm going to have to downgrade.

I'm now up to 7-4, and the quality of the writing is grating. It feels like a chore to read. The sentences are dry. The sentences is slightly more complex now, but I just don't want to carry on reading it.

I stopped reading because I went to bed, and I have started reading other things in that time, rather than going back to this.

It's still better than a lot of original fiction online, but it's not something I'd rec. Downgraded to 3/5

 

This is on hiatus while the author edits (seems like it's going to be abandoned honestly). I kept up with it every few weeks and the writing minimally improved dialogue-wise but mostly the plot got more engaging, so I liked it well enough and found it interesting.

Spoiler

I was really disappointed by the epilogue in particular as it showed the story's weakness when p.o.v switches happened, felt like a sour note to end on. It should've at least been the other captain of Blacknail not Geralhd.

 

After reading further I'd agree with everyone rating this around the 3.5 mark. Novelty wore off fast and the setting was never developed to the depth I was hoping for.

I'd say it's worth reading for maybe the first two main arcs/books, until they leave the city.

 

I just came across this story earlier last week, while making my way through Royal Road.

Early on, Blacknail's speech can be grating. He is the cheerful idiot stereotype, with the non-human quirks thrown in. Thankfully (in my opinion), that changes fairly early on.

The first book is my favorite by a fair amount, although I did enjoy the rest. I think that there was a lot of depth lost, and the writing got a little repetitive.

I'd give this a 3.5, rounded up to a 4.

 

Is this still on hiatus or did he finish the edits and get back to it?

 

Still on Hiatus, according to one of the author’s most recent updates (over 12 months ago, iirc).