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A review by rays_reads
A Language of Dragons by S.F. Williamson
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
2.0
Overall Rating: 2/5
Original Rating: 2.25/5 (the more I sat on it the angrier I got... fight me)
Ughhhhh the premise was amazing... execution tho? womp womp....
Ripped off V from Vendetta quote and had a white savior ahhh FMC
Also whoever marketed this book needs to be fired.... STAT cuz wtf was this? I was promised so many things yet nothing was delivered....
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Ok so first things first. I'll be going over the mismarketing of the book because if you do read it I don't want you to be diddled like I was...
Enemies-to-lovers: THIS IN FACT WAS A LIE. Enemies, where? Lovers was barely there.... the execution of this love story was just so minimal there wasn't even a proper romance storyline to begin with.... it's more of a "forbidden love" type of troupe tbh but even that wasn't done well... I wish the author spent more time focusing on their romance more than the main character's flaws because throughout the book I'm just wondering like "why did this dude (don't care to remember his name because he was that forgettable) fall for her? she literally the DUMBEST person on the mfing planet."Not to mention the love interest dies in the end.. so like.... why was the love story even there?
Romantasy Genre: This was a lie and I'm not even sure why it's tagged that way on GR.... IT IS A FANTASY with a romance subplot for sure tho... and I will give it to Williamson because the dragon anatomy, hierarchy, and communication style was done pretty well imo... enough to keep me from rating this 1 star.
Dark Academia Setting: Now this I would kinda go 50/50 because we do see Viv (fmc) pursuring the knowledge of dragon linguistics and communication but it's not based on self-discovery and the pursuit of greater knowledge but it's more like because Viv is forced to..... And I'm not the biggest Dark Academia fan but I'm pretty sure this book... doesn't do it well...
Twist, Turns, Betrayals, Secret Identities: None of this was done well. Not. A. Single. One. Every twist, turn, betrayal, and "secret identity" was so fucking predictable it just made it plain boring to read.... every time a reveal came out I was like "oh yay.. already knew that but sure make it dramatic and move df on." I think there was only one reveal that I wasn't able to predict...This involved Gideon... Seeing as how he survived a human farm for dragons is WILD and lowkey I wish we got that as a story instead.... but that is something I didn't predict at all considering he was high in the caste system... But that's not to say that the author didn't introduce shocking reveals... but the ones that were truly shocking kinda was only there to further Viv's internal conflict or to make a character "morally grey" and felt like it came out of the authors ass last minute.
Now moving onto the plot holes and pacing issues. This story has pacing issues... ALOT OF THEM. The author dragged on Viv's inner conflict WAY TOOOOOO LONGGGGGGGGGGGGG... Like I can't tell you how many times I wanted to bang my head against the wall... if I actually did it i would be deceased... in a coma... brain dead.... I felt like a lot of this could've been fixed had the author made the "government bad" and "brainwashed" elements less in your face... Another book that does this, and in amazing way, is Blood Over Bright Haven From the beginning we're introduced to a misogynistic society but we only truly see how corrupt the government is and how brainwashed the character is when she becomes "enlightened" as well. However in this book... the author pretty much shows you that in the beginning and we're forced to suffer through Viv's stupidity and brainwashing from an already "enlightened" viewpoint which is why that ruins the reading experience.... Then we have the plot holes... one of the biggest one stems from the Peace Agreement between the dragons and the humans of Britannia.... You're telling me.. that this wonderous entity that can kill humans on site, is bigger, stronger, faster, smarter being.... IS TREATED LIKE A LOWER CLASS BEING AND THIS IS WHAT THEIR QUEEN AGREED TO???? BSFFR... The dragons worse off than the lowest caste level human and their Queen said "ok" to that??? No. That shit makes no fucking sense.... ESPECIALLY AFTER THEY MASSACURED AN ENTIRE COUNTRY GTFO... That peace agreement shit was so stupid that everyone i ranted too agreed with me about why the dragons would just take that.... makes no fucking sense... and the author doesn't even give a decent explanation as to why the Queen agrees... sighhh...
Last thing I'll mention is Viv's character... I don't wanna be too much of a hater because this is a debut but Viv's character was trash. I hate her. Even after she stopped being stupid... I hate her with every fiber of my being. And she's a typical white savior character... but not even a good one at that..
Keep her away from me. Please and thank you.
Now as to why I didn't rate it 1 star.... It mainly had to do with the dragons... they were the best things about the book... The way the author explains their means of communication, how they raise their young, their anatomy, everything about them was just so fascinating. If this was just an encyclopedia about dragons I would've LOVEDDD it. I even loved the murderous dragons. My fav dragon was Chumana as she seemed to be the only competent character within the book.... But even with dragons being one of the most important parts of the story we don't even get to see them or see them interact with the FMC that much.... The translation/linguistic aspect along with the dragons wasn't enough to let me rate this any higher tho...
Well... Overall it wasn't a bad debut but it could've been a lot better with more time and edits... I'll be getting rid of my copy and I won't be reading the second book (if there is one) unless someone who rated the first one low says the second is better. And by better I'm talking a 4.5 or higher...
Original Rating: 2.25/5 (the more I sat on it the angrier I got... fight me)
Ughhhhh the premise was amazing... execution tho? womp womp....
Ripped off V from Vendetta quote and had a white savior ahhh FMC
Also whoever marketed this book needs to be fired.... STAT cuz wtf was this? I was promised so many things yet nothing was delivered....
------------------------------------
Ok so first things first. I'll be going over the mismarketing of the book because if you do read it I don't want you to be diddled like I was...
Enemies-to-lovers: THIS IN FACT WAS A LIE. Enemies, where? Lovers was barely there.... the execution of this love story was just so minimal there wasn't even a proper romance storyline to begin with.... it's more of a "forbidden love" type of troupe tbh but even that wasn't done well... I wish the author spent more time focusing on their romance more than the main character's flaws because throughout the book I'm just wondering like "why did this dude (don't care to remember his name because he was that forgettable) fall for her? she literally the DUMBEST person on the mfing planet."
Romantasy Genre: This was a lie and I'm not even sure why it's tagged that way on GR.... IT IS A FANTASY with a romance subplot for sure tho... and I will give it to Williamson because the dragon anatomy, hierarchy, and communication style was done pretty well imo... enough to keep me from rating this 1 star.
Dark Academia Setting: Now this I would kinda go 50/50 because we do see Viv (fmc) pursuring the knowledge of dragon linguistics and communication but it's not based on self-discovery and the pursuit of greater knowledge but it's more like because Viv is forced to..... And I'm not the biggest Dark Academia fan but I'm pretty sure this book... doesn't do it well...
Twist, Turns, Betrayals, Secret Identities: None of this was done well. Not. A. Single. One. Every twist, turn, betrayal, and "secret identity" was so fucking predictable it just made it plain boring to read.... every time a reveal came out I was like "oh yay.. already knew that but sure make it dramatic and move df on." I think there was only one reveal that I wasn't able to predict...
Now moving onto the plot holes and pacing issues. This story has pacing issues... ALOT OF THEM. The author dragged on Viv's inner conflict WAY TOOOOOO LONGGGGGGGGGGGGG... Like I can't tell you how many times I wanted to bang my head against the wall... if I actually did it i would be deceased... in a coma... brain dead.... I felt like a lot of this could've been fixed had the author made the "government bad" and "brainwashed" elements less in your face... Another book that does this, and in amazing way, is Blood Over Bright Haven From the beginning we're introduced to a misogynistic society but we only truly see how corrupt the government is and how brainwashed the character is when she becomes "enlightened" as well. However in this book... the author pretty much shows you that in the beginning and we're forced to suffer through Viv's stupidity and brainwashing from an already "enlightened" viewpoint which is why that ruins the reading experience.... Then we have the plot holes... one of the biggest one stems from the Peace Agreement between the dragons and the humans of Britannia.... You're telling me.. that this wonderous entity that can kill humans on site, is bigger, stronger, faster, smarter being.... IS TREATED LIKE A LOWER CLASS BEING AND THIS IS WHAT THEIR QUEEN AGREED TO???? BSFFR... The dragons worse off than the lowest caste level human and their Queen said "ok" to that??? No. That shit makes no fucking sense.... ESPECIALLY AFTER THEY MASSACURED AN ENTIRE COUNTRY GTFO... That peace agreement shit was so stupid that everyone i ranted too agreed with me about why the dragons would just take that.... makes no fucking sense... and the author doesn't even give a decent explanation as to why the Queen agrees... sighhh...
Last thing I'll mention is Viv's character... I don't wanna be too much of a hater because this is a debut but Viv's character was trash. I hate her. Even after she stopped being stupid... I hate her with every fiber of my being. And she's a typical white savior character... but not even a good one at that..
Keep her away from me. Please and thank you.
Now as to why I didn't rate it 1 star.... It mainly had to do with the dragons... they were the best things about the book... The way the author explains their means of communication, how they raise their young, their anatomy, everything about them was just so fascinating. If this was just an encyclopedia about dragons I would've LOVEDDD it. I even loved the murderous dragons. My fav dragon was Chumana as she seemed to be the only competent character within the book.... But even with dragons being one of the most important parts of the story we don't even get to see them or see them interact with the FMC that much.... The translation/linguistic aspect along with the dragons wasn't enough to let me rate this any higher tho...
Well... Overall it wasn't a bad debut but it could've been a lot better with more time and edits... I'll be getting rid of my copy and I won't be reading the second book (if there is one) unless someone who rated the first one low says the second is better. And by better I'm talking a 4.5 or higher...