attempting obscurity

I was kind of surprised by my reaction to this book. I kind of swung between, "meh," and "Oh!"The Otherworld, Tir na Nog, and Faerie courts seem to be a current popular topic in YA. I've run across quite a few books lately that retread the ground of classic fairy legends, and I've honestly been a bit disappointed at the lack of anything new or innovative. In this book, we're introduced to the Iron Fey, which is a bit akin to the idea of gods of technology, as seen in American Gods. Basically, the Fey exist because of the creativity and imagination of mankind, and when man started working and dreaming metal and machining, the Iron Fey were born. They hid from other Fey because iron is traditionally and well known to be anathema to the Fey.It's an interesting twist on an old story -- anyone with a passing familiarity of fairy legends knows about the winter and summer courts (some legends also speak of autumn and spring courts), and we're familiar with injunctions such as, "Don't drink/ eat anything while you're in faerie," and "Don't listen to faerie music," and, "Don't dance at a faerie ball." All these were given their nod, the faeries were presented as otherwordly, beautiful, and terrible. But it was the Iron Fey that were the most intriguing, and it is the Iron Fey that make me want to keep reading the series -- it's a new twist, a different way of telling and looking at an old, familiar story. Otherwise, the book is average. As far as pacing and plot structure go, it's well done. As far as description and dialogue go, it seems a bit choppy and rough occasionally, but overall is good. Since it's the first in a three-book series, the writing can only go up!