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A review by justgeekingby
Dragonfall by L.R. Lam
3.0
Originally posted on Just Geeking by.
Content warnings:
There are scenes of bigotry, classism and ableism, with victims of the plague afflicted with long-term complications being ostracised. There is a manipulative, abusive relationship with religious ties between a young person and the mentor who rescued them when they were a child.
Additionally, parts of dragons are traded as religious relics.
In Dragonfall by L.R. Lam, a young thief ends up accidentally forming a bond with a dragon. There were many elements of this book that I enjoyed, such as the world-building and the unusual narrative choice of one using first person for Everen and third person for Arcady. However, the pace was just far too slow for me. Arcady is preparing for one last heist to set them up for the life they want when Everen quite literally falls into their life. As they’re stuck with him and Everen is new to town, Arcady takes the initiative, asking Everen to join them for their heist. Most of the book is taken up with Arcady teaching Everen in excruciatingly slow detail how to be a thief. While their relationship develops as alongside his training, Dragonfall is the slowest of slow burns, and it was just too slow for me.
As for the heist itself, I have mixed feelings about it. Lam weaves everything together by the end of the book, and the last twenty percent of the book is brilliant. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that in recent years there’s been an increase in heist fantasy novels, and I’m not sure that this one really needed to be one. There’s enough going on with Everen and Arcady’s storyline, as well as other sub-plots, that this just felt like a bit too much.
Despite not enjoying the way in which Lam has chosen to tell her story, I thoroughly enjoyed the unique world she created. She has created an interesting queer normative world where humans view dragons as gods, completely unaware of the true events of history or that dragons once lived alongside them. The amount of detail that Lam has gone into while creating the dragon species for Dragonfall is fascinating, and her descriptions are gorgeous.
As everything comes neatly together at the end of the novel, Dragonfall proves to be an interesting start to a new series. It just, as I said, took so long to get there. While I think it was worth it in the end, it personally wasn’t my preferred type of book. The book ends on a cliffhanger, which sets up very nicely for the next book. As a result, my attention has been caught enough to ensure I’ll be checking out book two to see what happens next.
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Content warnings:
Spoiler
This book contains scenes of violence, murder and death, including mass murder in the form of a plague. Events from the plague are discussed throughout the book in detail. In some flashback scenes, a sick room and the death of a parent are described in detail. As a result of the plague, characters can become starved for magic and there are scenes of a cannibalistic nature.There are scenes of bigotry, classism and ableism, with victims of the plague afflicted with long-term complications being ostracised. There is a manipulative, abusive relationship with religious ties between a young person and the mentor who rescued them when they were a child.
Additionally, parts of dragons are traded as religious relics.
In Dragonfall by L.R. Lam, a young thief ends up accidentally forming a bond with a dragon. There were many elements of this book that I enjoyed, such as the world-building and the unusual narrative choice of one using first person for Everen and third person for Arcady. However, the pace was just far too slow for me. Arcady is preparing for one last heist to set them up for the life they want when Everen quite literally falls into their life. As they’re stuck with him and Everen is new to town, Arcady takes the initiative, asking Everen to join them for their heist. Most of the book is taken up with Arcady teaching Everen in excruciatingly slow detail how to be a thief. While their relationship develops as alongside his training, Dragonfall is the slowest of slow burns, and it was just too slow for me.
As for the heist itself, I have mixed feelings about it. Lam weaves everything together by the end of the book, and the last twenty percent of the book is brilliant. Yet I can’t shake the feeling that in recent years there’s been an increase in heist fantasy novels, and I’m not sure that this one really needed to be one. There’s enough going on with Everen and Arcady’s storyline, as well as other sub-plots, that this just felt like a bit too much.
Despite not enjoying the way in which Lam has chosen to tell her story, I thoroughly enjoyed the unique world she created. She has created an interesting queer normative world where humans view dragons as gods, completely unaware of the true events of history or that dragons once lived alongside them. The amount of detail that Lam has gone into while creating the dragon species for Dragonfall is fascinating, and her descriptions are gorgeous.
As everything comes neatly together at the end of the novel, Dragonfall proves to be an interesting start to a new series. It just, as I said, took so long to get there. While I think it was worth it in the end, it personally wasn’t my preferred type of book. The book ends on a cliffhanger, which sets up very nicely for the next book. As a result, my attention has been caught enough to ensure I’ll be checking out book two to see what happens next.