Take a photo of a barcode or cover
2.89 AVERAGE
2.89 AVERAGE
challenging
dark
mysterious
tense
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
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Gore, Violence, Excrement, Grief, Murder, War, Injury/Injury detail, Classism
Moderate: Misogyny, Sexism, Vomit
Minor: Biphobia, Child abuse, Infidelity, Rape
Warning: this book includes on-page rape and detailed descriptions of violence. Many characters die.
In the world of Paradise, humans exist alongside dinosaurs. The tame (or, in some cases, relatively tame) dinosaurs are treated much like our pets and livestock. People breed and train dinosaurs for hunting, riding, and fighting.
When I first heard of this book, it was described as Game of Thrones meets Jurassic Park. There are the dinosaurs plus medieval-ish fantasy politics - as far as tone and overall feel goes, it's more like Game of Thrones than Jurassic Park. The four main players are: Karyl Bogomirskiy, a famed dinosaur knight who is one of the few to ride a Tyrannosaurus rex; Rob Korrigan, a minstrel and dinosaur master (trains and cares for fighting dinosaurs and dinosaur mounts); Jaume, famed dinosaur knight and poet, the Imperial Champion of Emperor Felipe, and the fiance of Princess Melodia; and Melodia, who is eager to do important things but seems doomed to waste away in the palace.
This was mostly focused on politics, and unfortunately that politics bored me. I also had a tendency to lose track of what people were doing and why. For example, for a while there I thought Jaume and his soldiers were marching towards the location where Karyl and Rob were training peasants to fight. But no, they were riding towards a completely different area. They didn’t start going towards Karyl and Rob’s location until late in the book (I’m guessing they’ll meet in Book 2?).
It felt like I was supposed to at least be rooting for Jaume, Karyl, Rob, and Melodia, but for the most part I had trouble caring about them. Jaume’s romantic entanglements were exhausting. He was in a relationship with both one of his fellow knights (or not a knight, but at least part of his group? I can’t remember) and Melodia. The problem was that both Melodia and Pere seemed to want Jaume to love them best. Melodia was happy to share Jaume as long as she was more important to him than Pere, and Pere would likely have preferred his relationship with Jaume to be monogamous. Jaume, for his part, seemed to think everything was fine. It bothered me that Milan never really dealt with or resolved these issues, just...made them go away.
Karyl was cardboard, a fallen legendary character who was clearly destined to become legendary again. Rob thought he was awesome, so readers were supposed to think so too. Oh, and Rob. I seriously disliked him. I think he was supposed to be the “loveable rogue” of the bunch, but the more I read about him the more I wanted the author to ditch him. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why one minor female character slept with him. I thought for sure she was a secret spy or enemy, because I couldn’t understand what could possibly be appealing about him. I disliked just about everything about him except his dinosaur mount. One specific thing about him that bothered me was his habit of mentally trying to guess the gender of androgynous urchins. He mentally described one as “it,” before eventually deciding upon “he.” Hello! “They” exists and can be used as a gender neutral pronoun in English. Also, if a character was female and reasonably pretty, he probably leered at her at least once.
Now for Melodia. For most of the book, she had potential. After a while, “potential” seemed to be all she’d ever have. As the story went on and she continued to do nothing much, her horniness and childishness began to bother me more and more. She was so very horny. But only for Jaume! Except when she was mad at him, then she started to consider other options. And when she was mad at him, she was childish enough to not even read his letters. Never mind that she’d have regretted it for the rest of her life if he had died in battle. But as much as I disliked Meloda, she did not deserve what Milan had happen to her near the end of the book. That particular scene killed any desire I had to try the next book in the series. It felt like it happened more for shock value than anything - incredibly lazy writing on Milan’s part.
The world building was intriguing but vague. At first I thought this was an alternate history, but it turned out to actually be a completely different planet/dimension. Dinosaurs either existed there from the start or were transported there from our world and thrived. Humans and several other animals were transported to the world at a later date. Humans live longer and, if injuries don’t immediately kill them, can heal faster, and disease is almost unheard of. How humans and other beings made it to Paradise is never mentioned.
The best thing about this book was its cover and the black-and-white artwork at the start of each chapter. The story itself had far fewer dinosaurs and cool dinosaur moments than I was expecting - there was one battle I enjoyed and a fascinating bit involving an enormous dragonfly used like a hunting falcon, but that was basically it. Shiraa, Karyl’s mount, had potential but disappeared early on in the book. It’s likely she’ll show up in the next book but, as I said, the horrible and unnecessary scene with Melodia killed my desire to continue on with this series.
All in all, I really wanted to love this and I’m sad to say I didn’t. Even if that scene with Melodia hadn’t existed, this would never have been more than a so-so read. It was surprisingly boring for something that should have been completely awesome.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
In the world of Paradise, humans exist alongside dinosaurs. The tame (or, in some cases, relatively tame) dinosaurs are treated much like our pets and livestock. People breed and train dinosaurs for hunting, riding, and fighting.
When I first heard of this book, it was described as Game of Thrones meets Jurassic Park. There are the dinosaurs plus medieval-ish fantasy politics - as far as tone and overall feel goes, it's more like Game of Thrones than Jurassic Park. The four main players are: Karyl Bogomirskiy, a famed dinosaur knight who is one of the few to ride a Tyrannosaurus rex; Rob Korrigan, a minstrel and dinosaur master (trains and cares for fighting dinosaurs and dinosaur mounts); Jaume, famed dinosaur knight and poet, the Imperial Champion of Emperor Felipe, and the fiance of Princess Melodia; and Melodia, who is eager to do important things but seems doomed to waste away in the palace.
This was mostly focused on politics, and unfortunately that politics bored me. I also had a tendency to lose track of what people were doing and why. For example, for a while there I thought Jaume and his soldiers were marching towards the location where Karyl and Rob were training peasants to fight. But no, they were riding towards a completely different area. They didn’t start going towards Karyl and Rob’s location until late in the book (I’m guessing they’ll meet in Book 2?).
It felt like I was supposed to at least be rooting for Jaume, Karyl, Rob, and Melodia, but for the most part I had trouble caring about them. Jaume’s romantic entanglements were exhausting. He was in a relationship with both one of his fellow knights (or not a knight, but at least part of his group? I can’t remember) and Melodia. The problem was that both Melodia and Pere seemed to want Jaume to love them best. Melodia was happy to share Jaume as long as she was more important to him than Pere, and Pere would likely have preferred his relationship with Jaume to be monogamous. Jaume, for his part, seemed to think everything was fine. It bothered me that Milan never really dealt with or resolved these issues, just...made them go away.
Karyl was cardboard, a fallen legendary character who was clearly destined to become legendary again. Rob thought he was awesome, so readers were supposed to think so too. Oh, and Rob. I seriously disliked him. I think he was supposed to be the “loveable rogue” of the bunch, but the more I read about him the more I wanted the author to ditch him. I couldn’t for the life of me understand why one minor female character slept with him. I thought for sure she was a secret spy or enemy, because I couldn’t understand what could possibly be appealing about him. I disliked just about everything about him except his dinosaur mount. One specific thing about him that bothered me was his habit of mentally trying to guess the gender of androgynous urchins. He mentally described one as “it,” before eventually deciding upon “he.” Hello! “They” exists and can be used as a gender neutral pronoun in English. Also, if a character was female and reasonably pretty, he probably leered at her at least once.
Now for Melodia. For most of the book, she had potential. After a while, “potential” seemed to be all she’d ever have. As the story went on and she continued to do nothing much, her horniness and childishness began to bother me more and more. She was so very horny. But only for Jaume! Except when she was mad at him, then she started to consider other options. And when she was mad at him, she was childish enough to not even read his letters. Never mind that she’d have regretted it for the rest of her life if he had died in battle. But as much as I disliked Meloda, she did not deserve what Milan had happen to her near the end of the book. That particular scene killed any desire I had to try the next book in the series. It felt like it happened more for shock value than anything - incredibly lazy writing on Milan’s part.
The world building was intriguing but vague. At first I thought this was an alternate history, but it turned out to actually be a completely different planet/dimension. Dinosaurs either existed there from the start or were transported there from our world and thrived. Humans and several other animals were transported to the world at a later date. Humans live longer and, if injuries don’t immediately kill them, can heal faster, and disease is almost unheard of. How humans and other beings made it to Paradise is never mentioned.
The best thing about this book was its cover and the black-and-white artwork at the start of each chapter. The story itself had far fewer dinosaurs and cool dinosaur moments than I was expecting - there was one battle I enjoyed and a fascinating bit involving an enormous dragonfly used like a hunting falcon, but that was basically it. Shiraa, Karyl’s mount, had potential but disappeared early on in the book. It’s likely she’ll show up in the next book but, as I said, the horrible and unnecessary scene with Melodia killed my desire to continue on with this series.
All in all, I really wanted to love this and I’m sad to say I didn’t. Even if that scene with Melodia hadn’t existed, this would never have been more than a so-so read. It was surprisingly boring for something that should have been completely awesome.
(Original review posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.)
DNF at about 40%. I had really high hopes when I bought this book considering I read reviews that said it was like A Game of Thrones but with dinosaurs. This book didn't have much of a plot, I didn't care for any of the characters and I really couldn't tell who this story was about.
adventurous
challenging
slow-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:
Complicated
Solid Game Of Thrones-esque story. Lots of intrigue, lots of politics, the battles are pretty robust but there aren't many. The biggest problem is how deep into its own terminology the book gets that you just have to wait for it to eventually explain itself. That's good for some, annoying for others. I thought it was good enough to hold attention despite it. Probably going to mean the sequel is absolutely buck wild.
I'm going to preface this with a warning. A rape scene occurs within this book. If things like that bother you, please be advised that a main character is raped within the course of the book. Other rapes also occur, but are not described past being stated as having been committed. It's also a pointless scene, considering it only further villainizes someone you already know if a villain at that point in the book. Even though it was only a page and a half of stupid and pointless, it's soured my outlook on this book quite a bit. I'm really tired of the rape story arch. I'm sure she'll probably gut the guy in a later book, but it really pissed me off that it needed to happen at all. I hope the editors are fucking ashamed of themselves for leaving that in. Not only could it not have happened, it would have added to potential suspense if she had been missing when the villain appeared to commit the deed. Literally, that scene was only there for shock value and it pisses me off.
I've given this book 3 stars. Overall, I felt it was enjoyable, but it was pretty slow at times and, as the above paragraph would indicate, this book could have used a good editor to cut out the shock value bits that were unnecessary.
Overall, the world is pretty solid in it's concept. If you like Game of Thrones, you'll probably like this book. The battle scene at the beginning of the book is a little hard to grasp, but the later war scenes are far more legible. I feel like giving the dinosaurs nicknames instead of sticking to commonly known names was a little annoying, but I can see how it would be clunky to constantly refer to dinosaurs by their latin names. I think they're implying that somehow the world was rebooted once it fell into ruin by people who lived on the moon, but the details are too vague and the grey angels don't make a whole lot of sense yet. Still, despite that potential sci-fi origin, this book is squarely placed in the fantasy fiction genre.
Honestly, I thought the dinosaur riding aspect was handled pretty well. I was expecting some pterodactyl riders, but it appears all the dinosaurs that are ridden - at least up to this point - are all squarely land-based. I did like the prospect of gargantuan sea monsters coming out of nowhere to eat people off boats, of course, but no one's managed to ride one of those yet.
Overall, I'm not sure where the plot is going in terms of the long range goals. I actually liked most of the main characters, barring the villain of course who I rather wanted to hit in the teeth. There were bisexual characters all over this book, though no active romances with bisexuals to speak of as they are all warriors in a band of dinosaur knights and often die. I really liked Jaume, who is a main character, either bisexual or pansexual, and a really interesting male love interest for Melodía, another of my favorites. I also loved that a recurring character who you get to read from the perspective of is a carnivorous dinosaur named Shiraa. (Forgive me, I forget what variety she was, but she was within the Tyrannosaur sized range of dangerous.) Overall, I wish the characters grew more than they did. Melodia was starting to grow by the end of the book, but everybody just kind of kept playing that same melody the whole story long, never changing or really learning. Still, they have good foundations, which made them bearable to read from the perspectives of.
I will say the art is fucking spectacular. I love the styling of the dinosaurs, both the one on the cover and the ones on the chapter heads. Bravo,
This is very much an adult book, so I don't really recommend it to readers who aren't accustomed to sex scenes, gore, and cursing. It's a little more vulgar than A Song of Ice and Fire in those aspects, though I did appreciate the sex scene being better written than any of the ones in George R. R. Martin's books. (Seriously. They're awkward.)
I've given this book 3 stars. Overall, I felt it was enjoyable, but it was pretty slow at times and, as the above paragraph would indicate, this book could have used a good editor to cut out the shock value bits that were unnecessary.
Overall, the world is pretty solid in it's concept. If you like Game of Thrones, you'll probably like this book. The battle scene at the beginning of the book is a little hard to grasp, but the later war scenes are far more legible. I feel like giving the dinosaurs nicknames instead of sticking to commonly known names was a little annoying, but I can see how it would be clunky to constantly refer to dinosaurs by their latin names. I think they're implying that somehow the world was rebooted once it fell into ruin by people who lived on the moon, but the details are too vague and the grey angels don't make a whole lot of sense yet. Still, despite that potential sci-fi origin, this book is squarely placed in the fantasy fiction genre.
Honestly, I thought the dinosaur riding aspect was handled pretty well. I was expecting some pterodactyl riders, but it appears all the dinosaurs that are ridden - at least up to this point - are all squarely land-based. I did like the prospect of gargantuan sea monsters coming out of nowhere to eat people off boats, of course, but no one's managed to ride one of those yet.
Overall, I'm not sure where the plot is going in terms of the long range goals. I actually liked most of the main characters, barring the villain of course who I rather wanted to hit in the teeth. There were bisexual characters all over this book, though no active romances with bisexuals to speak of as they are all warriors in a band of dinosaur knights and often die. I really liked Jaume, who is a main character, either bisexual or pansexual, and a really interesting male love interest for Melodía, another of my favorites. I also loved that a recurring character who you get to read from the perspective of is a carnivorous dinosaur named Shiraa. (Forgive me, I forget what variety she was, but she was within the Tyrannosaur sized range of dangerous.) Overall, I wish the characters grew more than they did. Melodia was starting to grow by the end of the book, but everybody just kind of kept playing that same melody the whole story long, never changing or really learning. Still, they have good foundations, which made them bearable to read from the perspectives of.
I will say the art is fucking spectacular. I love the styling of the dinosaurs, both the one on the cover and the ones on the chapter heads. Bravo,
This is very much an adult book, so I don't really recommend it to readers who aren't accustomed to sex scenes, gore, and cursing. It's a little more vulgar than A Song of Ice and Fire in those aspects, though I did appreciate the sex scene being better written than any of the ones in George R. R. Martin's books. (Seriously. They're awkward.)
I would rate this book at a 3.6 - 3.8. It started off weak, became stronger in the rising action, stumbled a little and then finished strong leaving you wanting the next book.
adventurous
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
DO NOT waste your time if you love good fantasy! Sure, the world is cool and obviously [in case you missed it being shoved down your throat] there are dinosaurs. Beyond that it is one of the worst books I have ever read. The presentation is great, but when the story is full of a boring love story and politics that don't even arouse the slightest intrigue it is hard to trudge along and ignore. I made it 300 pages into this book and simply stopped, it is awful.
“There’s nothing more dangerous than one who lives as if already dead.”
This one was for the most part just a disappointment. I didn't expect it to be good, but I expected at least the dinosaur bits to be nice. But no. Not really.
This one was for the most part just a disappointment. I didn't expect it to be good, but I expected at least the dinosaur bits to be nice. But no. Not really.