Gilgam has written a saga for a character who should be a Gilgamesh. His hero of multiple volumes is here between the ages of sixteen and seventeen, and already out-performing the warriors and royalty of half a dozen lands.
Their conflicts seem based upon proto-human, Paleolithic, Neolithic, chalcolithic, and Medieval models, up to and including steam-punk sailing ships of iron. In this lobe of the multiverse, all the discrete eras of Earth are in play during our hero's one lifetime. The volume is long but full of convincingly drawn characters who seem predictably intent on slaughtering each other, interspersed with relieving sparks of humor.

I especially enjoyed the use of invented astronomy and alchemy to explain the point of view of of one tribe of seemingly pre-Columbian chronically poisoned serfs living underground. I especially disliked the forest-dwelling peoples' complicated pidgin and having to learn multiple names of important things and places.

We all have memories of a youth where our lives were full of endless possibility and we didn't yet know our own strength. Following the exploits of the explorer blacksmith Kitt will dredge up that past in us.

For the entire first chapter of the book, I had no idea what was going on. The characters names were unpronounceable and the dialogue was confusing at the best of times. Even when the story changed to a more conventional format the story was strange and unusual. Good book for people looking for unconventional stories.

Intricate episodic tales of heroes with special emphasis on metallurgy. In this book (one of the Wandering Blacksmith series), Kitt, who is skilled in the working of Iron, studies under a master in Bronze, a very different metal, much more susceptible to alloying and impurities. In our world, bronze gave way to Iron not so much because Iron is harder, but because of disruption in the Tin trade; Kit wanders through the remains of Copper and Tin mines on his way to finding the truth behind his life. Lots of good reading.