The Tempered Steel of Antiquity Grey

Coming of age with mechs in a future version of earth. This is very much in the Science Fantasy realm - futuristic but with a plot and style more reminiscent of fantasy. Coming of age is a tricky trope to balance and often ends up with a distinctly YA feel, and on this story it has definitely slid into that kind of characterization for me. The characters are very naïve in there outlook, the main questing party is almost entirely filled with children rather than being balanced out with a decent number of older figures to give more grounding. The prose also leaned heavily into what I would call YA stylings. At the same time, the setting and some of the action (especially the tendency to kill off characters) pushes this in a more adult direction leaving it a bit confused at times as to what the audience really is.

That said, there are a lot of ideas abound here. I like the world building that has been done - the future earth has enough believability whilst still being fantastical. The history presented is intriguing. I do want to find more about the world!