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A review by somedaysitsharder
Dragon Soul by Danielle Bennett, Jaida Jones
2.0
After devouring the first two books in the series, I was, to my disappointment, more or less bored to tears by this one. It took me months to read whereas I finished the first two in mere days.
My main issue with this book was that simply nothing happens for large stretches of it and the rest of it is perfectly predictable. The set of characters isn't bad - I don't mind Rook as a narrator as much as other people seem to - and the story itself could be worse, but this book felt like it was droning on forever. Lots of people run around looking for pieces of dragon. This sounds like it could be exciting enough, but it isn't because for all the interesting characters (gosh, I loved Malahide from start to finish), most of their journeys are spent not talking to each other.
Whereas Havemercy and Shadow Magic come to life through the dynamics between their characters, in Dragon Soul Rook and Thom spend the majority of their search brooding in silence and contemplating each other and their situation. Except sometimes Rook says mean things and Thom takes it all in silence and doesn't say anything. The same basically applies to Malahide, Madoka and Badger. And when they finally all meet, which you know will happen from the start because it's clear they're all after the same thing, conversation is sort of inhibited by language barriers and the fact that they all don't trust each other. ...which amounts to "a bit meh" for me, personally.
On a plot level, I also didn't feel like much was a stake for me to care about. Rook's personal investment in the quest was leaving me rather cold because while I can stand him well enough, I don't actually like him to a point where I sympathize. Malahide's ambition was muted enough and she didn't seem invested in it beyond not wanting to fail her boss, and Madoka, in all fairness, didn't really seem to know what she was doing or why most of the time. As did Thom, who rarely and barely contributed. It left me wondering why any of them would bother and why I would even care what happens to the dragon soul. I wasn't given the impression that the fate of countries and their shaky peace was at stake, as was the case in the first two books, where you really felt like the characters were working to achieve something important.
The final showdown comes and goes without redeeming any of it because by the time things start to happen, I just want it to be over already.
So yeah. I'm sort of disappointed I didn't enjoy it more. Maybe I'll like the next one better.
My main issue with this book was that simply nothing happens for large stretches of it and the rest of it is perfectly predictable. The set of characters isn't bad - I don't mind Rook as a narrator as much as other people seem to - and the story itself could be worse, but this book felt like it was droning on forever. Lots of people run around looking for pieces of dragon. This sounds like it could be exciting enough, but it isn't because for all the interesting characters (gosh, I loved Malahide from start to finish), most of their journeys are spent not talking to each other.
Whereas Havemercy and Shadow Magic come to life through the dynamics between their characters, in Dragon Soul Rook and Thom spend the majority of their search brooding in silence and contemplating each other and their situation. Except sometimes Rook says mean things and Thom takes it all in silence and doesn't say anything. The same basically applies to Malahide, Madoka and Badger. And when they finally all meet, which you know will happen from the start because it's clear they're all after the same thing, conversation is sort of inhibited by language barriers and the fact that they all don't trust each other. ...which amounts to "a bit meh" for me, personally.
On a plot level, I also didn't feel like much was a stake for me to care about. Rook's personal investment in the quest was leaving me rather cold because while I can stand him well enough, I don't actually like him to a point where I sympathize. Malahide's ambition was muted enough and she didn't seem invested in it beyond not wanting to fail her boss, and Madoka, in all fairness, didn't really seem to know what she was doing or why most of the time. As did Thom, who rarely and barely contributed. It left me wondering why any of them would bother and why I would even care what happens to the dragon soul. I wasn't given the impression that the fate of countries and their shaky peace was at stake, as was the case in the first two books, where you really felt like the characters were working to achieve something important.
The final showdown comes and goes without redeeming any of it because by the time things start to happen, I just want it to be over already.
So yeah. I'm sort of disappointed I didn't enjoy it more. Maybe I'll like the next one better.