Iron Heroes is a variant Dungeon & Dragons player's handbook. While the traditional D&D settings offer several different styles of play, it does not work for several classic fantasy settings.
Settings like Conan the Barbarian, Sinbad the Sailor, or The Lankhmar tales of Fafhrd & the Gray Mouser, where the heroes rely on wits and steel to survive against monsters and evil wizards. That's what Iron Heroes provides, a setting where the fighter is king and magic is rare.
The classes in this book are based on fighting;
Armiger: Knight in Armor, Hunter: Tracking and tactics, Barbarian: Raging warrior, Archer: Master of the Bow, Executioner: Assassin, Man-at-Arms: Basic Warrior, Weapon Master: Master of one weapon, Thief: Dirty Fighter, Harrier: Mobile fighter.
This book modifies several rules;
Skill Groups: Spend 1 rank in a group to get 1 rank in all skills in that group
Feat Mastery: Feats that get stronger with additional levels
It also introduces several new rules;
Armor providing damage resistance
Base Defense Score for when you are caught with your chain mail down
Reserve Hit Points to heal your self in a world without Clerics.
While it would be tricky to play these classes in a normal D&D game, there are several new ideas here that can be adapted. Or if you just want to try a different style without having to learn an entirely new system, then this book may be for you.
This book is an excellent example of how the rules of D&D can be adapted to a setting. The rules can be adapted to fit several TV & Movie settings as well, it would work for everything from Buffy the Vampire Slayer to the Lord of the Rings.
Overall, a very good book!