Iron Truth
Fresh and surprising on every level, IRON TRUTH is an epic science fiction adventure with a twist of cosmic horror, bursting with staggering world-building, unremitting action and memorable characters.
When miners on a remote colony dig too deep, the golden age of space exploration comes to a bloody end. A corruption springs from Xanthe’s alien soil, possessing every mind it touches.
Embroiled in civil war, the galactic community spirals into panic, and the Primaterre Protectorate seizes control. In order to preserve Earth, its surface is quarantined, and all further deep space colonisation is outlawed.
Aboard one of the last colony ships, junior botanist Joy Somerset slumbers in cryostasis, unaware of war and corruption. Expecting the clear skies of a garden colony, she instead wakes stranded on Cato – a planet whose menacing sands seem to share a hunger with the crazed locals – and Joy faces mortal peril at every turn.
Commander Cassimer, troubled by a past of epic proportions, is a Primaterre veteran dedicated to fighting the corruption. Now he leads Scathach Banneret Company’s elite strike team on a mission to recover a clandestine starship lost on Cato. On this storm-lashed world, surrounded by shadow and ruin, Cassimer faces not only failure, but the loss of what little sanity he has.
Joy and Cassimer must trust each other long enough to uncover Cato's dark secret and work together to survive deranged cultists, terrorist rebels, and the IRON TRUTH.
-Goodreads
Title: Iron Truth
Series: Primaterre #1
Author: S.A. Tholin
Page Count: 591
Genre: Science Fiction
Rating: 5.0/5.0
Date Read: March 15th, 2025
Opening
Iron Truth by S.A. Tholin has been on my radar for years now. I honestly didn't know much about it when I first added it to my want to read list on Goodreads. I just remember there was quite a bit of buzz for it.
Fast forward a couple of years and our Buddy Read group selected it as our March read. As I worked on lining up my monthly TBR to accommodate, I realized Iron Truth was actually the inaugural winner of the SPSFC competition. That should have gotten me excited to read it, but I honestly don't have the best track record with competition winning books.
Pacing
The pacing with Iron Truth was really good. I will admit that even though this book comes in just under 600 pages, it was a bit of a marathon read. It never felt like I was slogging through the book but I'm constantly watching the percentage read indicator on my Kindle and this read goes of very slowly.
I thought about that a bit more trying to figure out how to describe that and I came up with this. The fact is many of my visual reads have numerous pages with shorter sentences and paragraphs on them which helps that number go up fairly quickly. Iron Truth is dense. Meaning most pages are packed full. I still found a way to get this done in just about two weeks.
World Building
The world building was also top notch in my opinion. I loved the world put together by Tholin in this first book. Early on I was vibing with this read as it felt like a Warhammer 40,000 story but with more meaningful and rich character relationships. I think this is mostly because of the planet this story takes place on as well as how the soldier armors are described. I couldn't help but visualize space marine and terminator type armors.
Beyond that, the various aspects such as the planet, the tech, the politics and the characters are given in just the right amount of detail for me to utterly click with this read. I'm not a big fan of authors that give what can be an overly abundant amount of details where I just find myself getting lost in what is happening. I never felt that way with Iron Truth. I often find myself getting lost in the story and feeling like I am there. Whether it's on a ship, in duct work, a field habitat or a dark creepy underground rail line, I was there for it all.
Character Development
The character development was just as strong as the other two categories. There are a lot of characters in book one. Luckily that number does narrow considerably when thinking of just our main or core characters. That allows us to see growth from each of those characters as well as how they interact with some of the other supporting characters along the way.
As I said the main crew of Joy, Cassimer, Hopewell and Lucklaw are get a lot of spotlight and growth. But beyond that even the environment as a character was something to see materialize throughout this story. I made some observations early on and voiced my hopes on where somethings may go and I'm happy to see even if not exactly what I thought, it did become very important to the story.
Closing
In closing, it should be clear that I really loved this read. I've already scoped out the series and see there are some more dense reads ahead of me. I might have to split some of the larger ones in half and read over two months. It will just depend what other reading obligations I have month to month this year. But rest assured I will be continuing to read the Primaterre series.
As far as recommendations go, I would certainly add this to any reading fan of Science Fiction especially those that like their stories on the darker side where hope is just a sparkle on the horizon. Even though I talk about the density of this read, please don't let that discourage you as I feel it's well worth the read.
Scoring
Pacing 5.0 / 5.0
Worldbuilding 5.0 / 5.0
Character Development 5.0 / 5.0
