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2.89 AVERAGE
2.89 AVERAGE
I'm not sure exactly what I wanted out of this book....but I certainly didn't get it. Aside from the dinosaurs, this book was very dull and uninteresting to me.
Strong beginning to a series - good action scenes, interesting characters and relationships, solid world and world building. Definitely looking forward to book 2.
Overall a meh book with a very glaring fauly. Most of the negatives mention in the reviews I could work through to read, but the treatment of the one POV female character was abysmal. Textbook punishment of a woman for being a woman plus a super gross unnecessary rape scene? No thank you.
What can I say about Dinosaur Lords that has not already been said?
Well, let us split into two thought processes: The good and the bad.
First, I enjoyed the dinosaurs selected to be used in this story. Many are to be uncommonly known, but at the same time, easily identified by dinosaur fans. I won't list them here to avoid that fun spoiler, but let us say, if you were slightly miffed about the ways Viloceraptor has been misused in media, the dinosaurs here feel much more accurate for their roles and try to what we think we know of them as animals, if a bit more intelligent. I also enjoyed the political intrigue as it was refreshing from my usual political drama with the change of time period. That being said, the politics are simple and very similar to European politics, and anyone can follow them once you hold in your head who represents whom and what. I am also fond of how LBGTQ "themes" are treated here more like standard everyday behavior by most characters; that being said, it does lead to some of what I did not like.
So second, what I did not like ranging from annoyed to really irked. Most of the characters are not very three dimensional; they seem to have one or two things that make them "different" from the other characters, and this difference is told to us again and again instead of shown to us in their actions and reactions. We are constantly reminded why someone is different in their own way, instead of allowing us to just make the connection ourselves with the characters actions. I also did not like how some traits seemed to be given to characters just to make them "evil." The only characters that seem to not be ok with LGBTQ characters are those that are evil. I don't live for LBGTQ bashing, and cannot say I want one of the heroes to act this way, but by giving this trait expressly to our "villains" and only them is quite flat and makes the LGBTQ characters feel more like plot points than people. In a similar vein, and this is where I will give a warning for dark and dangerous themes, I cannot abide by the rape scene in this book.
Yes, there is a sexual assault, and while I believe most sexual assaults in media are not only overly used, but inappropriately used, the scene in Dinosaur Lords is likely the worst incarnation of this plot device I have seen yet. It is not used to create tension or surprise and anger us; it is simply used to make the "villain" appear more evil. It has no lasting impact that I can detect in this book, maybe later books build on it, and if it were removed in its entirety from the book, nothing would have changed. It is pointless to the plot and characters, and it is just a terrible practice in writing, in my opinion.
That being said, I am still interested to see where this all is going and what the plot grows to coincide with the three POVs we have so far. All expect the assault, in my opinion, being forgivable and fixable in later volumes. I say this book deserves a fair chance, and if you are a dinosaur fan, you may enjoy this book too.
Well, let us split into two thought processes: The good and the bad.
First, I enjoyed the dinosaurs selected to be used in this story. Many are to be uncommonly known, but at the same time, easily identified by dinosaur fans. I won't list them here to avoid that fun spoiler, but let us say, if you were slightly miffed about the ways Viloceraptor has been misused in media, the dinosaurs here feel much more accurate for their roles and try to what we think we know of them as animals, if a bit more intelligent. I also enjoyed the political intrigue as it was refreshing from my usual political drama with the change of time period. That being said, the politics are simple and very similar to European politics, and anyone can follow them once you hold in your head who represents whom and what. I am also fond of how LBGTQ "themes" are treated here more like standard everyday behavior by most characters; that being said, it does lead to some of what I did not like.
So second, what I did not like ranging from annoyed to really irked. Most of the characters are not very three dimensional; they seem to have one or two things that make them "different" from the other characters, and this difference is told to us again and again instead of shown to us in their actions and reactions. We are constantly reminded why someone is different in their own way, instead of allowing us to just make the connection ourselves with the characters actions. I also did not like how some traits seemed to be given to characters just to make them "evil." The only characters that seem to not be ok with LGBTQ characters are those that are evil. I don't live for LBGTQ bashing, and cannot say I want one of the heroes to act this way, but by giving this trait expressly to our "villains" and only them is quite flat and makes the LGBTQ characters feel more like plot points than people. In a similar vein, and this is where I will give a warning for dark and dangerous themes, I cannot abide by the rape scene in this book.
Yes, there is a sexual assault, and while I believe most sexual assaults in media are not only overly used, but inappropriately used, the scene in Dinosaur Lords is likely the worst incarnation of this plot device I have seen yet. It is not used to create tension or surprise and anger us; it is simply used to make the "villain" appear more evil. It has no lasting impact that I can detect in this book, maybe later books build on it, and if it were removed in its entirety from the book, nothing would have changed. It is pointless to the plot and characters, and it is just a terrible practice in writing, in my opinion.
That being said, I am still interested to see where this all is going and what the plot grows to coincide with the three POVs we have so far. All expect the assault, in my opinion, being forgivable and fixable in later volumes. I say this book deserves a fair chance, and if you are a dinosaur fan, you may enjoy this book too.
Great fun, dinosaurs, knights, jousting... beautiful women and handsome men.
I liked in particular the conquistador/Spanish empire and the rich forests setting
I liked in particular the conquistador/Spanish empire and the rich forests setting
I mean....its a generic fantasy, but there are dinosaurs. They are integrated very naturally and cleverly, and the worldbuilding is decent, albeit occasionally confusing. I was especially thrown off when dinosaurs were referred to by their "real" names, and then also by their "in book" names. (There is a reason for this, but it is confusing. Especially when alot of the dinosaurs are similar. i.e. various hadrosaurs.)
The problem is that when dinosaurs/battles aren't involved, it tends to drag. Characters seem to be extremely emotional at all times, and sometimes too unemotional. This led to me just being apathetic, as opposed to empathetic to certain characters.
While not the fault of the author, I think there may be issues with the translation that led to confusion, especially with names. (Notably, one character was call Blue Mountain and Montanazul interchangeably within pages seemingly without reason.)
The highest praise I can give is the author's ability to describe battle scenes. There descriptive language had me picturing terrain, movements, units, tactics, and dinosaurs clearly in my mind.
It is good for what it is. I cannot give a higher score even though I like what this is, I know in reality it doesn't stand as well without being carried by a war hadrosaur.
The problem is that when dinosaurs/battles aren't involved, it tends to drag. Characters seem to be extremely emotional at all times, and sometimes too unemotional. This led to me just being apathetic, as opposed to empathetic to certain characters.
While not the fault of the author, I think there may be issues with the translation that led to confusion, especially with names. (Notably, one character was call Blue Mountain and Montanazul interchangeably within pages seemingly without reason.)
The highest praise I can give is the author's ability to describe battle scenes. There descriptive language had me picturing terrain, movements, units, tactics, and dinosaurs clearly in my mind.
It is good for what it is. I cannot give a higher score even though I like what this is, I know in reality it doesn't stand as well without being carried by a war hadrosaur.
Dans cette première partie , l'auteur met en place les complots, les intrigues dont le dénouement explosif aura lieu dans la deuxième partie. C'est assez convenu, et les personnages, malgré leurs qualités ne sauvent pas cette impression tenace d'avoir déjà lu ça. Heureusement, les dinosaures sauvent l'affaire lors de chacune de leurs apparitions, et elles sont très nombreuses.
adventurous
dark
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
… Okay so the premise for this book is late Middle Ages Europe plus dinosaurs so how could I possibly resist.
The book does follow through on the premise: The dinosaurs are dinosaurs, the knights are knights, the world is detailed, and everything ends up either eaten or stabbed or both.
Unfortunately the writing is clunky and the plotting is worse. Who is the protag? Who do I want to win? Right now it’s mostly the dinosaurs. There’s a completely unnecessary rape scene at the end that left a bad taste in my mouth and as much as the author is venting about the problems with feudalism and the nobility…in-universe the solution seems to be “complain but keep your head down because everyone who protests gets killed” which may be accurate but isn’t narratively very satisfying.
I have mixed feelings about this book. First of all, the world building is great! I never felt lost, like in so many books, where it just takes forever to understand the setting. Granted, that's mostly dystopias I have that issue with. Anyway, there's little bits at the beginning of each chapter that talks about a dinosaur, or god, or something important to the world presented as quotes from in universe books. I love everything done with dinosaurs. People joust (and battle) while riding them! There's also little hints of things I want to talk about under a spoiler tag. They aren't really spoilers, but just in case.
Oh, and this book doesn't stick with made up "historical accuracy" nonsense as in Westeros and similar: people can have consensual sex with whoever. One of the main POVs is bi.
So, the not as good. The characters aren't very well written, to be honest. There's three POVs, and they're all pretty flat. Plus, the plot shows up later, and it isn't really wrapped up in any way. Sure, this is going to be a series, but I just felt like it's left wide open.
People can live to 300??? That's just thrown out there. No explanation. History is only 700 years on this world! It's implied this is a terraformed (maybe not) world that people moved to post earth, like, they know about dolphins but think they're myths. This is all the stuff I want to know about!
Plus the WTF epilogue. I have no idea what's going on.
Oh, and this book doesn't stick with made up "historical accuracy" nonsense as in Westeros and similar: people can have consensual sex with whoever. One of the main POVs is bi.
So, the not as good. The characters aren't very well written, to be honest. There's three POVs, and they're all pretty flat. Plus, the plot shows up later, and it isn't really wrapped up in any way. Sure, this is going to be a series, but I just felt like it's left wide open.
Plus the WTF epilogue. I have no idea what's going on.