It was a mistake for me to enter the draw for this book. I should know better. I think the thought process was a combination of 'Hey, I liked Iron Man' and 'Well, I'll never win anyway'. Well, I did win, but had I been thinking I would have known that 'Hey I liked this movie' in no way means I might like the novel based on the screenplay of the sequel.

I don't envy Mr. Irvine's job in having to write a novel based on a movie and as far as adaptations of that type go I'm sure he did a fine job, but I'm not going to be able to finish this book. The PoV was distracting, I thought it was wordy and repetitive.... I'm not the right audience for it and will stick with the movie.

The mistake here was mine in entering the giveaway so I'm not going to pick how many stars I want to give it. That wouldn't be fair all things considered. I'm also willing to give my copy of the book to someone who thinks they might be a more appropriate audience for it. Message me privately if that person is you.

Ehh. A so-so novelization for a so-so movie. I haven't read Levine's other works so I can't compare this with his other writing, but it was obvious to me he was hamstrung by the existing script. He did manage to get some character development in there -- there's mention of Happy's feelings about Pepper that wasn't in the movie, although I don't know if that's because Levine added it or because it was in the version of the script he was given -- but overall this is skippable. ( )

Somewhere between the movies and the comics, not a very well fleshed out movie adaption, nor did it add a lot of back-story which might have helped it. See the movie don't bother with the book. ( )

Not my cup of tea. I enjoyed the movie and thought the movie-to-novel would be better than the usual novel-to-movie. The author managed to get all the information and plot points into the novelization, but it just didn't do anything for me. I'll be passing this book on to someone who will enjoy it better (though I'm not sure who that will be).

What have they done? And can Iron Man himself hold those responsible accountable? A shot to the cranium with a repulsor ray is certainly in order for them.
There's really only one place to begin with this review and that is the unforgivable editing that was inconceivably bad and left me in disgust. On page 70 we are introduced to Natalie Rushman where she steps into the ring with Happy and nothing transpires according to the text other than her flipping the gloves back to Happy. Later in the novel on page 82...

"...Pepper had been ever so slightly suspicious of Natalie Rushman since she had let slip that loaded comment in Tony's gym, which had led to her demolition of Happy Hogan."

Whoa, hold on a minute there! If Tony Stark's soon to be assistant had just beaten up Happy, who is an ex champion boxer, don't you think that would be integral to the story on pages 70 & 71 when the scene took place? Apparently not. I'm assuming it's poor editing as I recall seeing a few spelling errors one of which was "though" when it should have read "through" but I'll be damned if I'm rereading this trash just to find the page number as evidence.
The action sequences in this novel where just too campy for my liking with silly humor thrown in when the tension should have been rising. One example of that would be at the race in Monaco when Ivan starts destroying everything and Pepper, caught up in the fray, spits out a mouthful of seat cushion. Ha frickin' ha.
I actually feel sorry for those people who are reading an Iron Man novel for the first time and if you are one of those I can assure you that this is not the norm for an Iron Man novel. Greg Cox wrote two wonderful Iron Man novels 'Iron Man: Operation A.I.M.' and 'Iron Man: Armor Trap' which are far superior to this one in every way.
I also feel sorry for Alexander Irvine who is a well known name in the fantasy/sci-fi universe. He surely done his best in writing this novel but he was working from a screenplay and only the quality of his storytelling kept this book out of my hall of shame.
Needless to say I will not be checking out the movie which is a huge shame as I'm a Marvel addict but sometimes you just have to let your pocket do the talking. Unfortunately, it matters little as there is already an Iron Man 3 on the horizon and this franchise will make a fortune regardless of how shitty their tie-in novels are. ( )