Reviews with content warning for Sexism - The Black Coast

Growing up, one of the stories my mum would tell me was of Anne McCaffrey’s white dragon, a special dragon that hatched and imprinted on a young boy who hadn’t expected such an honour. It’s why, when I first encountered Norbert in Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone, I told Mum that she had to read it, because it had a dragon! I had that exact same feeling in The Black Coast, when an undergrown dragon is dropped (almost literally) into a character’s lap. Mum would’ve loved it.

Mike Brooks’ dragons are far more varied than most. Not only do the dragons come in different colours, but there are huge herbivores with tree-trunk legs and smaller carnivores with wicked razor claws, as well as the usual fire-breathing beasts of legend. This, and the fact they’re mostly feathered, suggests that ‘dragon’ might be an in-universe term for 'dinosaur’. (Which doesn’t make it any less magical that they can be tamed and ridden by humans.)

If you wanted to boil The Black Coast down to a ten-second elevator pitch, you could start with 'fantasy but with dinosaurs’, though it wouldn’t do the writing justice. Mike Brooks provides something for almost any kind of fantasy fan: there’s castles and honour for Robin Hobb fans, a criminal underworld for lovers of Locke Lamora and perspective-hopping plus a willingness to kill off important characters if you haven’t had enough of that in A Song of Ice and Fire.

Despite keeping a lot of different balls in the air, Mike Brooks manages to bring almost all the subplots to a satisfying place, while still leaving tantalising glimpses of what’s to come. The world and characters feel alive and the reader gets the sense that Mike Brooks knows what he’s building up to. The handling of perspective characters working against the heroes was particularly effective, with a special shoutout to Rikkut Fireheart for being extremely unpleasant, misguided but somehow still compelling.

I’d thoroughly recommend The Black Coast to fantasy fans, and will definitely be following up on the rest of the series.

Content Warnings

jupiter2932's review against another edition

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adventurous medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

Content Warnings

annailles's review

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adventurous hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

4.75

Content Warnings

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