It is the year 1878, and in the heart of America’s untamed new frontier lurks a dark force as ancient as time, buried deep inside the earth, awaiting its return to power.
Evil men are exploiting the riches of the West in order to bring that awakening about, using strange machinery and fantastic devices to further their ends.
Only two men, warriors from two different cultures can stand together to defeat them and save the world from the terror of the Faceless.
Gunslinger Gabriel Tyler and Indian shaman Jonathan Fivehawk have tracked the evil rail baron Robur Drache, to Winterville, high in the snow-covered mountains of the north.
In his service to the Faceless, Drache has a legion of immigrant workers constructing a railroad which seems to have no start and no destination…
While Tyler wonders after Drache’s plan, Fivehawk is distracted by his own concerns; somewhere nearby is Eyes-Like-Amber, his sister, abducted by Drache’s outriders for reasons unknown. Meanwhile, a young Chinese girl named Yu Lim is also investigating Drache’s intents, with a duty of her own to follow.
BOOK THREE IN THE SUNDOWNERS SERIES.
AUTHOR’S NOTES:
The third book in the Sundowners series introduces the character of Yu Lim, a Chinese girl with her connection the unfolding events of the saga; in this story, Fivehawk deals with some startling discoveries when he finally tracks down his kidnapped sister.
Once more, I used some typical Western props, such as a railroad and an snowbound setting, but with an unusual twist. This book sets up the situations for the last part of the plot arc, and places Tyler and Fivehawk up against their most fearsome enemy to date – the monstrous Iron Dragon.
Spoiler Warning! The notes and annotations below give away key story points from Iron Dragon.
* The Chinese girl Yu Lim was introduced here because I felt I needed a female lead for one of the stories; her name actually means “jade sword”, which is the weapon she carries in the novel.
*Yu Lim’s pal Sing Lung is actually martial arts superstar Jackie Chan; Sing Lung is Chan’s Cantonese name – and his movie Shanghai Noon is another great Far East-meets-Wild West story…
* More hypothetical movie casting; my description to for Yu Lim was for a cross between the character of Mulan and the martial artist/actress Michelle Yeoh.
* At several points in the book, Yu Lim spouts actual bits of ancient Chinese wisdom.
* Amber was originally going to blind herself with a severed electrical cable at the climax of the fight in the Terminus, but Scholastic’s editors felt the scene was too graphic, so in the final version she knocks herself out instead – but an earlier reference to the cable is still in the text.
* More tips of the hat to some of my favourite movies in the dialogue includes echoes of lines from Tron, The Matrix and Star Wars…
