Reviews

Dragon Den by Kriss Dean

novelnourishmentofficial's review against another edition

 Thank you Yggdrasil Press and NetGalley for providing me the Advanced Reader copy of Dragon Den by Kriss Dean. First, I'd like to state upfront that I decided to DNF this book at 67%. I accepted this book because of the inspirations by The Fast and the Furious, Fourth Wing, and How to Train your Dragon.

Synopsis: In an urban fantasy world, Markus Fredriksen, a determined young man (19 year old) with dreams of becoming a dragon rider, faces disappointment when he fails to tame any dragons at Draglid Military Academy. However, his fate takes a sudden turn when the commandant offers him a unique  opportunity: to infiltrate a clan controlling the Dragon Den, notorious for hijacking semi-trucks laden with valuable obsidian. Eager to redeem himself and fulfill this ambition, Marcus accepts the challenge. As he ventures into the dangerous underworld, he encounters unexpected hurdles. Amidst his mission, he finds himself drawn to the clan leader's daughter, complicating matters further. As Markus navigates a world of deception and danger, he must confront his own desires and loyalties to fulfill his dreams and emerge victorious.

Now, onto my thoughts....surprise. I have thoughts.

It is truly disheartening to receive a piece of literature for free and feel compelled to give it a low rating. While I sympathize with Dean as a debut author, as a passionate reader, I believe in giving honest feedback to uphold the integrity of literature. Offering constructive criticism can aid bot the author and publisher in refining the text before it's finalized, ensuring a better reading experience for all.

This book was described as a "fast paced, action packed romantic urban fantasy INSPIRED by The Fast and the Furious, perfect for adult fans of How to Train Your Dragon." immediately caught my attention. With "inspired" capitalized for a specific reason IW ill discuss later in this review, I was intrigued from the start. Being a fan of both The Fast and the Furious and dragon-themed books, the combination of the two in a single novel excited me, and I eagerly seized the opportunity.

What caught me off guard, however, was the author's approach of essentially mirroring every scene from The Fast and the Furious in a play-by-play fashion, capturing each detail meticulously. To illustrate, please see examples below...

Dom, The Fast and Furious 2001 "It's not how you stand by your car...it's how you race your car."
Tobias, Dragon Den 2024 "It doesn't matter how you stand, it matters how you race."

Brian, The Fast and the Furious 2001 "But if I win, I take the cash, and I take the respect. To some people, that's more important.
Marcus, Dragon Den 2024 "And if I win, you can have your two grand buy-in back. I'd rather have your respect. For some people, it's worth a lot."

Dom, The Fast and the Furious 2001 "Cause he kept me out of handcuffs. He didn't just run back to the fort. The buster brought me back"
Tobias, Dragon Den 2024 "Because this funking first-year old on his fucking Graytail saved my ass while you were busy getting shit-faced"

Letty, Fast and Furious 2001 "You look a bit tired. I think you should go upstairs and give me a massage."
Carina, Dragon Den 2024 "You do look tired. Let's go to my room, and you can give me a massage."

These are just a few examples that closely resemble verbatim scenes from the film. While drawing inspiration from a movie is one thig, replicating it in a play-by-play fashion crosses the content into plagiarism territory. The plot closely followed the movie's storyline. To me, it seemed though the author had the movie playing and paused to craft the next scene in the book. This seems to be more of a fanfiction novel that is treading dangerously close to copyrighted material, and I sincerely hope that editors and publishers address this before its release. The similarities are striking and need significant adjustments to ensure originality and avoid legal complications.

For someone like myself, a fan who has watched The Fast and the Furious over two dozen times since 2001, the blatant replication of scenes was evident. Unfortunately, this aspect alone marred the reading experience for me. Despite my attempt to continue, the quality of the prose did not improve. It's evident that this book requires extensive editing and substantial improvements in the writing style.

Additionally, the book touches on several social issues, which were somewhat confusing. Throughout the story, various wars were referenced, making it difficult to pinpoint the era in which the narrative is set. Given the presence of dragons and magic, one might assume a futuristic setting (also tagged at Sci-Fi & fantasy) perhaps in the year 2500+. This leads me to question whether racism would still be a prevalent issue in such a distant future. I found somewhat jarring for the author to include a brief moment in a scene while the mention of the female character being black and her safety being uncertain is noted, the narrative fails to delve deeper into the issue, leaving readers puzzled about the intended message. The confusion is compounded by the character's brother, who appears to be thriving and swimming in respect in his underground group, not to mention our MMC wanting to earn his respect, which adds complexity to the portrayal of social dynamics within the story.

The lack of world-building in the book is striking - it's particularly nonexistent. As for the characters, there's a glaring absence of development. Readers are thrust into pre-established friendships and relationships, not to mention in the middle of a school year with no background story and context, making it challenging to follow from the start. It isn't until around the 60% mark that we start to receive some background information on certain characters, which feels like a significant delay in getting to know them.

What did I like? Anything involving dragons gets an immediate thumbs up from me. The concept of riders communicating with dragons telepathically is always fascinating. I find the idea of riding dragons exhilarating and it never fails to thrill me. Combining one of my favorite movies with dragon lore was an exciting concept. Specifically, I found Loki to be a standout character - sweet, and apparently quite charming.

In conclusion, I'm hesitant to critique someone's debut novel so harshly. However, the quality of writing and lack of composition suggests more of a first draft in need of thorough editing. At its current state, the book feels more like a fanfiction with potential copyright concerns.

Once again, I want to express my gratitude to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with this free ARC. However, I cannot in good conscience recommend this book without emphasizing the need for further editing and a comprehensive copyright scan. Regrettably, I believe the manuscript is not yet ready for publication. 

booksinreallife's review

adventurous fast-paced

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

3.0

Interesting concept, felt like the world, backstories of characters needed to be flushed out/explained. 

jadavis95's review

adventurous medium-paced

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

3.0

pslili1998's review against another edition

adventurous fast-paced

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

2.0

Thanks to NetGalley and Yggdrasil press for providing the arc in exchange for an non biased review. 

This book gets promoted for fans from fast and the furious, fourth wing and Sarah j. Maas. So as I started I imagined Dwayne “the rock” Johnson riding a dragon while drifting through Seattle. The book feels very fast paced and touches multiple subjects that are important in the modern world like sexuality, racism and finding out where you belong. But because of the fast pacing it felt a bit rushed and thus so making the writing feel easy/sloppy/juvenile at times. 

I realized as I was reading this that I’m just not a really big fan of fantasy stories that play out in the modern world. It makes them at least in this case feel a bit awkward. 

The dialogue that was supposed to be banter didn’t really resonate with me. I think if I was a 15 year old boy it would have matched better. 

I mean I really contemplated dnf’ing when the mmc was talking about girly shit to clean up with after having seks with his love interest.

rays_of_sunshine_08's review against another edition

tense fast-paced

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

2.5

 

Thank you netgalley and Yggdrasil Press for an arc of Dragon Den in exchange for an honest review. The book follows our protagonist, Markus, after he is given a once in a life-time second chance to fufil his dream of being a dragon-rider after his dreams were crushed due to his failed attempt to break a dragon.

11/05/2024
⭐️⭐️⭐️/5
 
Listen, this book wasn't bad. In fact, it was an easy read, and there were moments were I found myself really enjoying it, and I would definitely read a sequel if it is written. However, there were a few things that I found could be done better.

The most prominent thing for me was the lack of world-building, which felt basically non-existent. We were given practically zero information about the world, its history and the history of dragon riders and the tradition to "break" a dragon. I also think we could have been given more information about the clans, and their various dynamics.

Alongside this, I felt like we weren't given enough information about the characters. Most of the side characters seemed extremely one dimensional, and the main character's story felt so abrupt that I didn't totally get his story at first. I am a sucker for a non-linear timeline, for being shoved right into the thick of the action, but I just didn't feel like I could root for a protagonist whose world and motivations I didn't understand.

Which brings me to possibly my least favourite part of the book; the love story. It was implied that Markus had liked Amira for a long time, but for the first 70% of the book, there was absolutely no chemistry between them, and it all felt a little too "insta-love"y for me. However, after Amira and Markus's first date, it seemed to improve.

My last critique is on some of the descriptive language, which felt very repetitive, which made it boring to read. By the third time Amira was described with her "vanilla flavoured lotion," I had had enough.

Anyways, as I said before, there were moments where I thoroughly enjoyed the book...

The dragon racing scene was amazingly written, and my favourite part of the entire book was the dragon fight. It felt unique to the book, less surface-level telling and more descriptive showing then the rest of the book. It also made use of its own story, rather than drawing straight from its inspirations (Fast & Furious and HTTYD)

FINAL THOUGHTS: 

This book is an easy read, and I'd never expect a debut novel to be perfect. With some fleshing out, nuance added and perhaps some distance from the inspiration, but rather its own story, this book could have been really good.

 

toriana's review

adventurous relaxing 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? Yes

3.5

Thanks Nerdfam for the ARC! 

I think this book had great potential and is a solid first book. It’s definitely cliché in parts and needed at least 150 pages more to develop everything, including the worldbuilding (is this scifi? What do you mean ww7? Why not more details?) but it’s a fast and fun read. For fans of fast and furious and how to train your dragon who want a short, fast and not too deep fantasy/scifi book series. 

elle_laine's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious tense medium-paced

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

3.0

Dragons. School. A mystery. Second-chances. Markus is a student at a school that teaches their students how to train dragons and cultivate the bond between dragon and dragon rider. When it is time for Markus to capture a dragon to make his own, he fails. Miserably. But before he can leave in defeat, he is offered a riderless dragon in return for completing a mission. Simple, right? But the mission is anything but, and Markus finds himself wrapped up in intrigue, lies, and maybe even love.

This was a fun read at times, but at other times, I was a little confused by the plot. I loved the unique names that the characters got, and the whole idea behind the book was captivating, just not brought out enough in the short 180 pages of this book. The ending did leave the reader on a cliff-hanger, meaning that there is room for a sequel, but I don’t think I will be reading it if it does come out. This story was not developed enough to draw me in fully.

For anyone who loves How to Train Your Dragon and other dragon-focused books, definitely check this one out! It just wasn’t for me.

Thank you Yggdrasil Press for an ebook version of this book in exchange for a review! All thoughts here are my own.

eastofreality's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious tense fast-paced

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

4.0

jashanac's review against another edition

I mean I kind of thought the premise indicated it might be ridiculous, and it wasn't even that it was ridiculous but I just was not vibing with the writing. I freaking love Fast & the Furious though!!!!

amyashby's review against another edition

mysterious tense fast-paced

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

2.0

Thank you to Netgalley for sending an e-ARC of Dragon Den. 

This little novella sounded so cool! Fast & Furious meets Fourth Wing. Unfortunately, Dragon Den fell very flat for me. I didn't find myself connecting to any of the characters and I wasn't finding myself interested in any of the plot points and I felt as if I was being dumped into different locations; the plot points didn't flow into one another. I feel like the idea was amazing, but the execution was subpar.