Tag Archives: Dragons

Book Review of The Queen’s Wings (The Emerging Queens #1), by Jamie K. Schmidt

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The Queen's Wings

I was granted a copy of Jamie K. Schmidt‘s The Queen’s Wings by the good folks of Netgalley.

Description from Goodreads:
Long ago, the Cult of Humanity sacrificed the Dragon Queen, crippling the breeding process. But now Carolyn hears the voice of that long dead queen telling her that she holds the key to breaking the spell that will free all the female dragons.

FBI dragon Reed’s disdain for humans can’t mask the magnetic attraction he has for Carolyn, but when she tells him she’s going to shift into a dragon he thinks she’s crazy. A female hasn’t been hatched, or shape shifted, in over a thousand years.

He’s proven wrong after Carolyn shifts and is named the new Queen on the block. A never-ending line of suitors forms, but she only wants Reed. Too bad he doesn’t want in on the competition. But when the Cult kidnaps Carolyn to sacrifice her in an effort to make the curse against the female dragons permanent, Reed must face his fears—and feelings, racing to save the woman he realizes he can’t live without.

Review: **slightly spoilerish**
In some moments I think I really liked The Queen’s Wings, then I remember that what I liked was what The Queen’s Wings was trying to be…and largely failing. It was trying to be a snarky paranormal romance WITH DRAGONS and Dragon shifters are my absolute favourite type of shifter. I also love witty heroines with a penchant for sarcastic side commentary and self-mockery (within limits, of course). By all accounts I should have loved this book. But I just didn’t. 

Don’t get me wrong; I liked some aspects of it. I did like Carolyn’s witty comments and willingness to stand up to all the alpha dragons around her. I loved that she occasionally channelled Kaname Chidori and rolled the metaphorical (and literal) newspaper. I liked her obsession with books. Now, there is a hoard I can relate to! I liked the humor. I liked the actual world created here, where dragons and humans have come to some social accord and live together. I liked the way it played with the concept of power, since the female dragons were both revered and victimized. I liked Reed in the last half of the book and I liked Jack and Niall. So, the book wasn’t a total bust. 

However, it also never clicked for me. It didn’t flow smoothly. The writing did. That’s not what I mean. The writing was fine. It was the plot. It just stuttered along, occasionally making leaps and stops. As an example, for 45% of the book Reed was standoffish and even hostile toward Carolyn. Then, in a matter of a paragraph or so, he suddenly got all affectionate. There was nothing to instigate a change in behaviour. It was a TOTAL attitude 180, with no cause. Even worse it was inferred that this might have been some Machiavellian attempt to curry favour and control and that seemed a lot more likely than that he just suddenly decided he liked her. And even though the reader is told it’s not, they even get their happy ending, it didn’t feel natural. Not at all!

I also hated that almost all the other women in the book were villainized. (The few who weren’t were victimized.) It’s like watching any of a 100 Disney movies and finding that anytime you have an older woman in any position of power (the queen, the witch, the sorceress, the step mother, etc) she’s evil. It’s the same old subtle sexist, ‘see, woman can’t be allowed power’ crap we’re fed all the time. Why couldn’t even one of the dragon queens be working toward the good of the species instead of her own comfort? 

I’ll grant that they had a pretty crap deal, but in the end, the ‘evil queens’ felt like a cheap and easy plot device. Especially considering the fact that Carolyn, who was set up as a saviour by being the first female to shift in millennia, actually wasn’t the first and none of her subsequent actions did anything to save the species. Crazy xxx’s did that. Yep, one of the baddies, who is also villainized and supposed to be reviled by the reader, actually brought the females back. (But we’re still left with the impression that she was evil for doing so.)

So in the end, I’ll give this a middling rating. I liked what the book was aiming for, I just ended up not much liking what the book was. On a side note, I find the description wildly inaccurate. 

Fire Rising

Book Review of Donna Grant’s Fire Rising, part one

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Fire RisingI got a copy of Donna Grant‘s Fire Rising from NetGalley. This doesn’t qualify for my Taking Care of My Own Challenge, but since it was short I decided to get it out of the way.

Description from Amazon:
Sammi’s world has been blown to bits—literally. With her pub up in flames, she escapes to Dreagan, the only place she will be safe. Her plan is to recover quickly and leave quietly. What she doesn’t count on is meeting the dangerously desirable and enigmatic Tristan…

Tristan is instantly drawn to the woman seeking refuge at the Manor. Dazzled by her stunning beauty and intrigued by her silence about her past, Tristan knows he will not be able to let this woman go, no matter what the cost. And when Sammi slips away from Dreagan, Tristan is compelled to follow…

 Review:
Ok, I have to admit to a foul up when requesting this book. I saw the big old number 1 on the cover and erroneously believed it to be the first in a series. I WAS WRONG! A) It’s part one of a four part serial (that’s what the number one refers to), so it’s not even a complete book. The complete book is due out in June 2014. B) It’s part of the Dark Kings series, which is a spin off the Dark Warriors series, and the Dark Warriors series is a continuation of the Dark Sword series. (Yea, that took a little investigating.) Sooooo, maybe I shouldn’t feel bad about the fact that I was so lost.

But even though the cover and write up probably could have been clearer about its placement within an extensive preexisting world (dozens of books), I can’t really blame it for my mistake. I’ll admit there were a lot of characters I obviously should have known and didn’t, as well as a whole society and species who’s specifics I also didn’t know. (Seriously, I never even got a description of a dragon out of the deal!) This effected my enjoyment, obviously. However, I decided to try and review it without consideration for this fact. Because, again, not the books fault.

The thing is, even if I allow for not knowing the history I still wasn’t particularly impressed. Everything moved incredibly fast. I mean so fast I never had time to develop a connection with ANY of the characters, or become invested in the outcomes of events, or basically care about anything. It almost felt more like an outline of a story than a truly fleshed out one.

Then there was the romance. It’s just as fast as everything else. It’s your basic PNR, ‘he laid eyes on her and lightning went through his body’ kind of thing with no depth of any sort. So, again, there was nothing there to make me care about it.

Now, I adore dragon shifters. They’re one of my favourites varieties. I liked that the characters had obvious Scottish brogues and the actual mechanical writing/editing was fine. But I feel like this book depends heavily on a readers familiarity with and love of PNR tropes to satisfy them, i.e. if readers always love insta-love, they’ll like it here too, no explanation therefore needed. Or readers always love a arrogant, protective man, so they’ll recognise those traits here and love Tristan for it without too much description. Well, while I recognise those tropes, I don’t love them and I don’t think their identifiability exonerates the author of the responsibly of providing clarifying information. All in all, I finished feeling pretty apathetic about the book. I didn’t hate it, but I’m not rushing out for the rest of the series either.

Touched By Venom

Book Review of Dragon Temple Saga (#1-2), by Janine Cross

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Touched by VenomI picked up all three of Janine Cross‘ Dragon Temple Saga books from my local library.

Description of Touched by Venom:
Like her half-breed mother, young Zarq Darquel can’t always hold her tongue. A peasant on a large dragon estate, she goes unnoticed by the Dragon Temple-until she captures the attention of a dragonmaster. Her clan is plunged into destitution, her sister Waivia sold into slavery, and her mother lost to madness. Desperate to find Waivia, Zarq and her delirious mother flee. Zarq then develops a taste for the highly addictive venom of the dragons she has been taught to revere-and with it, she imbibes their memories and a glimpse of a plot for social revolution. But to achieve it, she must defy not just sexual taboos and patriarchal society, but the Emperor who rules her nation.

Review:
Good lord, this one keeps you wanting. It’s beautifully written, seriously intense, harrowing, with amazing world-building and an admirable, strong heroine. But it moves at the speed of molasses. I mean, it’s slooooow.

Seriously, the first 50% of the book covers Zarq’s life as a 9-year-old. The next 40% is age 10-17 and a whole heck of a lot of hard living and sacrifice. The next 8% shows her coming to grips with her situation and in the last 2% something finally happens. Yep, all that social revolution stuff hinted at in the book blurb happens in the last pages…THE LAST PAGES…and then, and THEN holy hotcakes, Batman, it’s a big ol’, rage-inducing cliffhanger. Grrrr!!

I have all three books in this series and spent most of this book thinking I wouldn’t bother with the second and third. I mean, even though it really is an astonishing piece of writing, it’s also a major downer. As an example, at one point, the fallout of the actions of one 9-year-old boy destroys the lives and livelihoods of an entire village, with devastating, irreversible, long-lasting effects. Honestly, what do you do with that? This is not a book to pick up for the feel-good factor. There isn’t any.

But that last 10% gives me hope that the plot might FINALLY be picking up, and I’ll see where book two goes. Ms. Cross can string a tale, she can weave atmosphere, she can bring you to tears—laughter maybe not so much, but heart-rending agony, sure—and she can create a believable fantasy world. Worth reading.

shadowed by wings

Description of Shadowed by Wings:

The Dragon Temple Saga continues as Zarq Darquel embarks on a trial by fire, defying Dragon Temple scripture by undergoing the rigorous training of an apprentice dragonmaster, while desperately searching for the doctrine that allows women permission to participate in the battles at Arena.

Yet Zarq’s difficulties pale in comparison to her craving for the hallucinogenic dragon venom, and her desire to understand the dragons themselves-both of which make her a vessel to receive the ancestral memories of the great beasts. And now, eager for the knowledge only Zarq can uncover, Temple has her imprisoned and subjected to starvation and torture-all to make her reveal the dragons’ deepest secrets…

Review:

I wasn’t sure I was going to bother reviewing the second and third books in this series. I just wasn’t sure what I’d say. I liked the book? I hated the book? These books left me reeling, cringing, demoralised, and strangely vitalised at the same time? How does one express that?

In reading others’ reviews, I sense I’m not the only person struggling to find the appropriate balance. I see a lot of middling reviews, indicative of a lot of emotionally confused readers. I can completely relate. That’s where this book shoves its reader, right into the middle on ‘how should I feel about that?’ The problem is that while it’s occasionally obvious, a lot of time it isn’t. Not because the things that happen aren’t horrid and denounceable in the extreme, but because so many really, really bad things happen that some bad things just don’t seem to rise to the level of atrocity anymore (even though in isolation, that would definitely be). It’s rare for a book to transport a reader there.

A major theme of this book (these books) is the abuse of the powerless by the powerful and its amazing ability to remain socially invisible to otherwise good people. As an outsider, it’s hard to imagine how it’s rationalised, but it is… every day. Here, it’s just made a little more obvious. We deal with a strict caste system, a violent patriarchy that allows women NO influence in their own lives, slavery, the marginalization of a native populace by a conquering people and the resulting institutionalised racism, economic entrapment, social stigmatisation, a dangerous and far-reaching religious organisation, and a ruling class that can no longer understand their duty, blinded as they are by their perceived superiority. This leaves a lot of powerless people, many powerless on numerous fronts, and a myriad of ways for victims to be victimised…traumatised.

In the middle of all this is Zarq, a young, powerless woman who trips along and, by dint of simply surviving the MANY horrors of her own life and being the right person in the right place at the right time, manages to almost accidentally start a revolution. (Ah, the transformative power of even one person willing to sacrifice their all for the greater good!) And she does survive and witness horrors. Thus, the reader deals with them too. Beyond just the basic hardships of poverty and austerity (she spent ten years in a remote convent as a child), there are kidnappings, rapes, battles, betrayal, attempted assassinations, loss, and pitifully few moments of relief. It’s all hard on the readers’ psyche.

The book also treats sex as amazingly mutable. I actually really liked this about it, but we all know sex can tie people in knots faster than just about anything. We deal with consensual and non-consensual (a lot of the latter, though blessedly vague on details) sex of both the hetero- and homosexual (both M & F) variety (In fact, this is the clearest case of institutionalised rape I’ve ever seen in a book), incest, pedophilia, and even bestiality (though there’s no interspecies penis/vagina contact). I can readily imagine a whole host of readers being put off by any one of those, let alone all of them in one text.

So, in the end, I’m left wondering what I thought of Shadowed by Wings. I certainly didn’t enjoy reading it, but having finished it, I’m really glad to have read it. I recommend others do the same.