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3.82 AVERAGE
3.82 AVERAGE
adventurous
emotional
reflective
medium-paced
adventurous
dark
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
No
Fun and engaging, but not super special :)
adventurous
emotional
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
adventurous
emotional
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Complicated
I was really intrigued by the concept and still am curious where the plot goes, but I found myself not enjoying the main character’s perspective or the descriptions of his soul bond with the dragon . It seemed like the remainder of the book would be just focused mostly on him leveling up his powers and I didn’t want to keep reading that. I may try it again in the future.
adventurous
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
adventurous
dark
mysterious
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Plot
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
Complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Ah man, I really wanted to enjoy this book, but it fell so flat for me.
Let me preface this by saying I had no expectations going into this novel.
Jai, our main character, is an orphan of war and personal slave to the Emperor who murdered his father. The empire is Sabine and they are protected by elite warriors who are 'Soulbound' ie. bonded to magical creatures- in this case gryphons. This matters because other people are able to bind dragons but a shortage of dragons means a shortage of people bound to dragons.
The story begins with an attempt at a political alliance gone wrong, when Titus, the heir to the throne of Sabine, murders his betrothed and her family who are the amongst the last Dragon bound population from Dansk. Not only does he kill them, he also commits patricide and then blames the Dansk for the murders.
Fortunately, Jai and Erica- the Dansk princess- are able to escape and set out to do, I'm not sure what. Other than Jai hatching an egg from Erica's dead dragon and giving us Winter- the cutest little dragon sidekick- I can't recall anything else that really happened in the book.
The book had great political intrigue and world building but fell short in the plot progression, pacing and lack of depth of character. The shortcomings of each of these fields, made it really difficult to become invested in the story.
Let me preface this by saying I had no expectations going into this novel.
Jai, our main character, is an orphan of war and personal slave to the Emperor who murdered his father. The empire is Sabine and they are protected by elite warriors who are 'Soulbound' ie. bonded to magical creatures- in this case gryphons. This matters because other people are able to bind dragons but a shortage of dragons means a shortage of people bound to dragons.
The story begins with an attempt at a political alliance gone wrong, when Titus, the heir to the throne of Sabine, murders his betrothed and her family who are the amongst the last Dragon bound population from Dansk. Not only does he kill them, he also commits patricide and then blames the Dansk for the murders.
Fortunately, Jai and Erica- the Dansk princess- are able to escape and set out to do, I'm not sure what. Other than Jai hatching an egg from Erica's dead dragon and giving us Winter- the cutest little dragon sidekick- I can't recall anything else that really happened in the book.
The book had great political intrigue and world building but fell short in the plot progression, pacing and lack of depth of character. The shortcomings of each of these fields, made it really difficult to become invested in the story.
adventurous
challenging
dark
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:
Yes
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:
Complicated
It was a quick easy read, and I was quite interested in the magic concept, but I’m struggling to think of any other positives. (Oh yes, a baby dragon.)
I believe it’s the author’s first book intended for an adult audience, but unfortunately approaching this by randomly describing people’s genitalia and dropping the c* word is an odd choice: I think both these things can be funny and/or effective if used appropriately, but simply dropping them in occasionally is just peculiar. There was no depth of character, the plot twists were visible a long way off, and I wish someone could have taken the writer aside and explained the concept of “show don’t tell”.
I do think this might well have been better as a YA book: the protagonist is a teenager, after all, the plot is extremely straightforward, and there is a cute baby dragon.
I believe it’s the author’s first book intended for an adult audience, but unfortunately approaching this by randomly describing people’s genitalia and dropping the c* word is an odd choice: I think both these things can be funny and/or effective if used appropriately, but simply dropping them in occasionally is just peculiar. There was no depth of character, the plot twists were visible a long way off, and I wish someone could have taken the writer aside and explained the concept of “show don’t tell”.
I do think this might well have been better as a YA book: the protagonist is a teenager, after all, the plot is extremely straightforward, and there is a cute baby dragon.
adventurous
challenging
dark
tense
slow-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
A mix
I found this well-written and engaging. I am really hooked on some of the secondary characters in this, and I'm excited to see how the narrator character will develop in book 2. It definitely gets dark and there are descriptions of torture and appalling treatment of prisoners and slaves. I think it's got shades of the Assassin's Apprentice trilogy about it.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Slavery, Torture, Violence