Tag Archives: Dragons

Dragon Badge

Book Review of Dragon Badge (Lost Dragonslayer, #1), by Scott Moon

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Dragon BadgeIn December 2012, I grabbed a free copy of Dragon Badge, by Scott Moon.

Description from Goodreads:
Street cops face a crime trend no one saw coming. Who could have predicted what a person would do to possess another soul? 

Michael Prim is a cop’s cop, taking down drug dealers, killers, and all kinds of predators, until he realizes a sorcerer has a vendetta against him and is using hellhounds, demons, and soul slaves to exact revenge. 

MICHAEL PRIM 
Michael Prim is a hard charging beat cop soon to be thrust into a world of dark magic. He has always been a bit of a freak: different, strange, and always needing to prove himself. His last memories of his father were of bedtime stories—the mercenary war, dragon slaying, and demon fighting variety. He knows how to come down hard on wife beaters, pedophiles, and cop killing drug lords, but nothing has prepared him for the sorcerer who is coming for his soul. 

KEITH MARIN 
Keith Marin takes a new prostitute under his wing and tries to protect her, because she continually winds up in the gutter raped, tortured, and clutching a strange jar with a preternatural magnetism. He begins a dangerous dance with the sorcerer who has found his way to Blue Point, and discovers people from all walks of life who are slaves to the soul jars and little more than zombies. When two homeless layabouts who frequent his beat turn up driving a BMW, wearing tailored silk suits, and carrying serious firepower, Marin takes his investigation to the next level.

NICOLE SIMMONS 
Nicole Simmons has come out of hiding and reinvented herself—as a rookie cop. She begins to doubt her choice as soon as she is assigned to a training officer who is the archenemy of her kind. She should kill him and disappear again, but she had hoped this time would be different. 

DRAGON BADGE 
Michael Prim does what any good cop would do after discovering a soul reaving sorcerer is hunting on his beat, he goes to war, even as hellhounds and Rashfellen warriors come after him. He gets a little help from his friends—a tough as nails veteran and a zombie like prostitute who holds a soul trapped in a magical jar—but when the apocalypse comes, there is only his most hated enemy, the gang member who murdered his partner, to stand against Travass Isegurad and his demons.

Review:       **Slightly Spoilerish**
I really want to say I enjoy this book more than I did, because in some ways it was really interesting, but I just didn’t. Mechanically, it could have used a copy edit. It was well written (word choice, sentence structure and such) but it was just all over the place, took about an eternity to get to the point, had a painful lack of realistic reactions to events and introduced numerous threads that were never tied into the story in any way.

My biggest issue is with characters lack of reaction to the introduction of the supernatural. For real, a man got trapped in a cage-fight with a demonic warrior with his soul at stake. Basically doesn’t say anything, goes back to work. Man gets transported to another plain of existence and back again. Doesn’t say anything, goes back to work. People are being enslaved to small jars that everyone anomalously seems to understand contain soul. The police treat them like any other addictive substance, no one discusses it and everyone gets on with work. Officers are killed by a hellhound. No one says anything about it. They all go back to work. Man is attacked by a demon. Doesn’t say thing, goes back to work. Sorcerer tries to mentally influence a detective. Detective avoids it, but doesn’t say anything and goes back to work.

The book sets all this up as if this is an otherwise normal world and these things should be freaking people out, but nope. No one seems to be bothered in the least. Half of them seem to know more than they should, but we’re never told why or how and they ALL accept the preternatural with complete ease. It was so far from believable I almost didn’t continue with the book.

Some of the loose ends suggest someone somewhere knows something. For example, at one point one character goes to an interview in which she’s asked what she considers off topic questions about magic and dragon, but it’s never explained and it never comes up outside of the one scene. Similarly, obviously the bad guy knows what’s going on, but it’s never addressed.

Actually, a lot isn’t addressed. One person is apparently a dragon. It’s hinted at but never addressed. One man is a dragonslayer, but he doesn’t know it and it’s never addressed. Another is a demonslayer, but he doesn’t know it and it’s never addressed. Another seems to have some sort of biblical ability to see things, but it’s never addressed. There are apparently three different realms of existence, this is mentioned in one scene but never addressed. There may be some supernatural task-force, but it only shows up the once and it never addressed. Blue Point (the town) itself might be special in some way. It’s hinted at, but never addressed. There is so much ALMOST here and if it was the book would be great. But almost just doesn’t cut in when it comes to the enjoyment of a story and I finished the book scratching my head.

My second biggest issue is that the book contained a lot of unrelated police procedurals. I liked the Cop characters. I even thought that that aspect of the book was interesting and felt appreciably real, but it in no way progressed the story, In fact, it caused it to really drag. As an example, about 10% in you meet the sorcerer that will be the antagonist. Then he and that aspect of the plot doesn’t show up again until about 60% in. Everything in between is police officers making routine traffic stops and enjoying (or not) their time off. Interesting if it had been another book, but just a disappointing break in tension in this urban fantasy.

It’s all a shame too, because I so wanted to like it. I so wanted to wrap myself in this story and it’s characters, but the story is so buried in itself I could hardly even find it. Close but no cigar, I’m afraid.

darkling drake

Book Review of Darkling Drake, by Tawn Krakowski

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Darkling DrakeI downloaded a copy of Tawn Krakowski‘s book, Darkling Drake from the Amazon freebie list.

Description from Goodreads:
Toni Drake is a loner with a knack for blending in and being nearly invisible to others even when standing right next to them. She turned this natural ability to her advantage by becoming a professional thief, but those talents, and her recent dreams, might be a sign that there is more to Toni than she ever thought possible.

Review: 
I really wanted to like this book, but it was not to be. The writing and I didn’t click (I’ll expand on that in a moment) and I found the main character, Toni Drake, incredibly unlikeable.

She is suicidally mouthy. I hate this in a character. There is a fine line between pleasantly sarcastic and just plain tourettes-level say anything that comes to mind, especially if it’s threatening and self aggrandizing. Once that line is crossed, a character becomes childish and unpleasant.

Drake definitely crossed the line. She just never stopped with her threats and snippy comments, even in the face of ridiculous odds. It’s also unrealistic. Like the time she looked at 8:1 odds (8 of them, 1 of her) and thought, ‘those aren’t good odds, I better go easy on them.’

Similarly, she’s instantly on the attack when she knows nothing of other dragons, their abilities, their politics, etc. Her confidence knew no bounds and lack of knowledge about her foe didn’t slow her down in the slightest. What? Really? It’s too damned much attitude.

The thing is that we’re never told how she became so badass in the first place. It’s just kind of intimated that it’s a natural ability that was helped along by growing up on the street. As such, I could readily believe that unknowingly being a dragon gave her a one-up on other humans and understand her confidence. But the events of the book pit her against other dragons that should be at least equal to her in natural ability and, though they may not have her street smarts, they have the upper hand in having experience with their dragon form from birth. Thus, Drake shouldn’t be able to maintain her über badass position. But it never falters, even when the reader needs it to waver at least a little bit to make her relatable.

What’s more, we were told that she was a fighter, but not a killer. Thus all her bluster about “I will kill you if…” became hollow. Again it made her feel childish, like a kid spouting off at the grown ups in the midst of a temper tantrum.

Now, Drake was a real take-charge kinda gal and I appreciate that. I love that she never sat aside and waited to be rescued, but it too was a bit much. Within moments of finding out she’s a dragon she starts giving orders and saving the day. You’d think she might need a little time to acclimate and that the person with her who’s known he was a dragon his whole life, knows their ways and what to expect, would be in charge for at least a little while.

Nope, Drake never even bat an eyelash. She took to shape shifting, flying, breathing fire, etc as if it’s nothing more unusual than having scrambled eggs for breakfast instead of fried eggs. How believable is that?

I know I’ve used the phrase repeatedly, but Drake is just too much, too much of everything. She’s made out to be the smartest, fastest, sneakiest, snarkiest, wittiest, sexiest, strongest, bravest, most capable in every context. Inexperience or lack of information be damned, even when others present should know more and be better suited for a task than Drake she still took over and saved the day.

Eventually, I stopped needing to read the actual book. I could just assume ‘Drake will have a master plan that will miraculously work, no matter how many coincidences it requires and all will be well.’ Meh.

Now, about the writing, I’ve encountered this before and have never come up with a way to say it that makes more sense. But the book is just too wordy. Here are some examples:

The other earth dragons, whom he had been forced to flee from with Toni, would never kill their own, no matter the transgression.

I finally decided that I had wasted enough precious time and stalked toward the back door leading to the roof.

Mumbling something into the gag that I had secured over his mouth last night before I turned in, he gazed at me with exhaustion and resignation in his eyes.

She absently tucked a loose strand of her lustrous dark tresses behind one sharply pointed ear, smoothed the wrinkles from her sleek, cerulean tunic, and began to speak, her voice low and smoky.

I gently placed the Book at my feet and ambled over to the papaya grove to collect the fallen fruit so that I would have something to placate my rebelling gut while I examined the tome’s pages.

After my last stop to fuel up with some artery-clogging, grease bombs some local fast food joint called “hamburgers,” I grabbed another vehicle from a nearby BMW dealership for a test drive and drove to my self-imposed rendezvous with my wayward foster father, Charlie.

It’s just too clunky to read smoothly. A lot of the book is like this. Part of the reason is that there are too many adjectives and adverb, both in the dialogue tags (which is largely discouraged in general) but also in the narrative itself, especially since it’s mostly a first person POV. Who says things like, “I called out playfully”  or “I grinned at him mischievously” about their own behaviour? It’s even more notable when one gets into seductively or menacingly. No one describes themselves this way.

There were also a lot of conveniences that cropped up. For example, when Drake wanted to swap cars so they weren’t followed, she found, not one, but three subsequent cars that the owners had left unlocked with the keys in them. Who does that? Similarly, when she needed a place to stay for a night, she happened across an empty rental. Or instructions on how to do something she doesn’t know how to do posted next to the computer she wants to use. As far as I know, being extraordinarily lucky wasn’t meant to be one of her dragon skills.

Then there were things that just didn’t make sense. Like how we’re told that dragons developed a talent for being seen as they want humans to see them. This suggests it’s an illusion. If that’s so, how come they physically transform? That’s no illusion. Plus, when they do transform into their giant dragon forms (where does all that extra mass come from, BTW) they fill rooms but don’t even displace furniture.

Often abilities come and go. Sometimes draconic characters seem able to communicate telepathically, other times they can’t. We’re told late in the book that male dragons aren’t taught to speak telepathically, but Christian does before that and more importantly it suggests that female dragons have to be taught the skill. Certainly, no one taught Drake.

Also, Drake makes a point of never trusting anyone, or caring for anyone or having any real connections. Despite this, someone who should know her better than anyone uses people as leverage to get what they want from her. If they know her so well, why would they think this would work?

Plus, the structure of the plot seems obvious sometimes. For example, at one point Drake storms out of the house for no discernible reason. She suddenly got uncomfortable and bolted. While gone her friends got kidnapped, requiring her to go rescue them and progressing the plot. Her providing the opportunity felt very convenient, almost as convenient as some of her almost miraculous leaps of logic. ‘Someone burned down this castle. As far as I know no one knows I’m a fire dragon, but they must be trying to frame me for it. Why else burn it down?’

Then there is the lack of description of the dragon forms. We’re told they have scales and their colors (Apparently Drake’s are onyx. I know this because it’s mentioned about 1,000 times) and that some have wings. That’s about it. At ~95% Drake mentions trying to impale someone on her horns and I went, “She has horns?” We’re never told what their structure is. This would have been important, especially since they talk in dragon form and I can’t figure out how what I imagine a dragon snout to look like manages that. And if they can talk in that form, how come they need telepathy?

Lastly, a little personally annoyance, the book is chocked full of sexual innuendo, literally from page one. Drake’s constant sexy thoughts (again, tourettes-like) got old fast. Not only because the redundancy of it but because after all the hint, hint, hints there isn’t ever any actual sex. So, what was the point?

If not for all that innuendo I’d suggest this book might be attractive to young readers. They probably wouldn’t cringe as much at Drake’s baseless crowing. Me it drove crazy and I’m glad to be done with her.

Games of Fate

Book Review of Games of Fate (Fate ~ Fire ~ Shifter ~ Dragon #1), Kris Austen Radcliffe

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Games of Fate

I grabbed a copy of Kris Austen Radcliffe’s  Games of Fate from the Amazon free list. 

Description from Goodreads:
Rysa Torres’s stumbles through life an overwhelmed young woman fighting against her attention deficit disorder. She can’t get a handle on the world, no matter how she tries.

But when monsters activate a part of her she didn’t know she had, Rysa becomes the Fate at the center of an epic battle against a terrifying future—and a world consumed by fire.

When Ladon and his companion beast, Dragon, find Rysa, they see only the potential hell a young Fate might unleash into their lives. But Ladon quickly realizes Rysa is much more than the daughter of an old enemy—she is his key to forgiveness.

With the threat of a burning future distorting Rysa’s Fate abilities, she sees only two options: End her own life, or watch Ladon, the only man to see beyond her attention issues and love her for who she is, die. Will they accept the only future they see, or will they find the strength to break the bonds of fate?

Review:
I only occasionally use star ratings on this blog, essentially only when I can make a point with them. As I can now. I really want to give this book a low 2 star rating, because I really didn’t enjoy it. But I’ll drag it up to a 3 because a large part of what I disliked is the result of me not being the proper demographic for the book. Plus, the writing is honestly fine. (Though the book did feel overly long, some passages seemed to drag and deus ex machina solutions are never good, IMO.)

Before I get into the review, I’m going to talk a bit about myself. This is to centre me as a reviewer so others can understand where I’m coming from in my review…what type of reader I am. This should help others in deciding if my review would be pertinent to them or not. For those much like me, I hope it will be, but it probably won’t be for a lot of others.

I’ve not read a lot of New Adult books. Of the few I have read I found that they tend to encompass all the worst (most annoying) traits of Young Adult literature, except the heroine is in college instead of high school and they include sex, or worse, a lot of angst about if they should be having sex.

The thing is that I’m a woman in my mid-thirties who has been married for a dozen years. I can no longer relate to this whole internal agony over such a decision. It’s not that I don’t respect it as an important one, but whole plots that hinge on or are simply cluttered with an endless litany of yes, no, yes, no, maybe, I want, I don’t want, I crave, I don’t crave, I cry, I push him away, I pull him near, I give in, I regret, I make a big deal of my own decision, etc drives me away as a reader. So, from the get go, I’m always a little wary picking up a NA book. I always hope for the best. Why else would I bother? But I’m more often than not disappointed.

Despite my misgivings about it being NA, I had such high hopes for this book. It has dragons in it! Yes, fates too and they’re cool…but DRAGONS, my favorite mythical beast.

The plot is basically that a new Fate is born and a human/dragon pair rescue and fall in love with her. There’s a bit more to it, but not much.  The vast majority of the 300+ pages is dedicated to worshipping Rysa.

Now, I understand that the target audience is women in their early twenties who are likely in the stage of life when they are looking for someone to make them feel special. However, I eventually started gagging on all of Ladon’s obsessive appreciation of her and how he wanted to protect her, coddle her, make her happy, bla, bla, bla.

It’s not that I mind it in and of itself, but it was ennnnddddllllesssss. And being coupled with Rysa’s cliché, no man looks at ME that way, no one’s ever told ME that I was pretty, I’m ugly, awkward, a spaz, etc pushed it into annoying overdrive.

Then there was the ex-boyfriend issue. Apparently, he was a selfish and unconcerned lover, as many young college-aged men are wont to be. But is bad sex really worth counselling, low self-esteem and a hesitancy to trust any other men? Seems a little extreme. The guy certainly deserved to be slapped something fierce, but it hardly equates to grievous harm.

If she’d been raped or abused I could see it, but being so emotionally damaged over something so slight makes her seem very, very weak. It makes it feel like she has no emotional armour or resilience, which is one of the most important parts of a heroine’s strength. I simply don’t like to waste my time with female leads of the victim variety and a woman who is so easily injured and has NO CONTROL OVER ANYTHING, even what’s in her own head is nothing but a victim. She’s no fun to spend time with or root for.

Additionally, there is no downtime in the book. It’s run, cry, confusion, on a constant stream. It’s too much. The only exceptions are when Rysa repeatedly just lets bad things happen to her because she suddenly and inexplicably can’t think straight, or can’t remember, or can’t control herself, or someone else can control her mind. Victim. Victim. Victim. Blerg.

Irritating me more even than all that, was the subtext of her sexuality.  Whenever she was conscious she pushed Landon away, but whenever she was unconscious, she was literally crawling all over him, rubbing, kissing and seducing him. As if to suggest that any “good girl” couldn’t possibly also be sexually forward and secure in her own desires. In order to be that, she has to be unconscious and devoid of responsibility.

I mean she had to be punished with bad sex and emotional damage for daring to have sex in the past! If I really wanted to drag this point out, I could break the events down further to show how they reinforce this same idea. For example, the one time she pseudo-initiates sex, it is immediately followed with tears, fear and guilt because some horrible realisation crashes down on her as a direct result of allowing herself to “impulsively have sex with Ladon.” However, the one time her frail sensibilities are essentially overwhelmed by his intense passion they get their happy night together.

This is a trope I see a lot of and HATE. I’m not a prude but I must ask, is this really the message we want to still be sending young women approaching their own sexual maturity? That in order to enjoy, or even personally want sex they have to abdicate all responsibility for it and they’ll be (deservingly) punished if they don’t? I’d hoped we’d grown beyond that.

There was also the small matter of the insta-love, or at least baseless love. Since the action essentially never stops, there is no point at which the characters could slow down and have a conversation. They were never given the chance to get to know one another, so what was their love based on? I especially felt this lack of development in Ladon/Dragon’s extreme loyalty and dedication to her and her safety and happiness.

Now I can’t blame all of my dislike on being too old to appreciate the genre tropes. And honestly, that’s most of what I dealt with here. I also spent a lot of time gagging on the incredibly descriptive, purple prose used to describe Rysa’s experiences or visions. And while I understood that she was tied to chaos, I was quickly annoyed with the pages and pages of confusion and discordant havoc. There were a lot of times that I simply couldn’t understand what was supposed to be happening or had simply reached my limit of ‘it’s all crazy and unexplainable because of her ADHD.’

Speaking of her ADHD, I thought that it was over emphasised, even before she went all Fate, vision-laden über ADHD. It just felt like one more way to weaken her so that Landon could more fully protect her.

The book also has the same problem a lot of such books have. Rysa is essentially psychic, but for more than half the book she somehow still manages to misread every obvious signals Ladon throws her. And there are a lot of really obvious ones and very very few contradictory ones. The man wants her with every fiber of his being, practically from the moment he meets her and he’s pretty clear on that. But still Rysa, who can see the past, the present and the future and knows they’ll end up together in some way at some point continues to think of herself as nothing but an unwanted burden to him. Um…either she’s REALLY dumb, which we’re told she’s not or this is a giant fault line in the plot to keep the angst high and the story rolling along.

Lastly, I was left wondering about all the characters who were introduced and then dropped. What happened to Gavin, Marcus and Harold? They all just kind of disappeared.

I did like that there is an effortless gay couple. By effortless, I mean that no big deal was made of it. It was as unworthy of extra attention as any het relationship and I appreciated that. I know that mentioning it at all counters that same easy existence, but I can’t compliment it if I don’t and I’d like to see more such inclusions in fiction, which requires that people make it known that they like finding it.

All in all, not a winner for me personally. But I’m owning up to the fact that it really might be me, not the book that was the problem…Or, at least, the pairing of me and this book. I know a lot of people really like the heavy-handed romances. To each their own.