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cakepop_4's review
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
gaulien's review
adventurous
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.75
truthaurdare's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
mysterious
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.25
solseit's review against another edition
4.0
I have not read any book by [a:Anthony Ryan|5804101|Anthony Ryan|https://images.gr-assets.com/authors/1361298283p2/5804101.jpg] but I can say that I am in the Anthony Ryan fan club as of December 12.
This book is just a majestic combination of several fantasy elements in a 16th century setting (primarily for the weapons being used) rather than medieval.
Magic, dragons (and the cover is just an amazing visual of the book and, as for covers, is just a great selling cover for me!), adventure which also includes the Renaissance financing of companies and adventures (such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Saint_George), intrigue - political and otherwise -, cliffhanger and story telling.
I have to admit that the book takes some time to introduce the world, the characters and the interactions; I do not mind them as long as the presentation takes the "right" amount of time. This book took the right amount of time and I loved it. Also, around 40% in, the book takes a very different pace and it is difficult to put down!
I would say there are three story lines that intertwine and I could not stop loving each and everyone of those. Anthony Ryan was actually using cliffhangers in a very addicting manner (at least for me!).
I also loved the characters and I could relate to them which is always an extremely positive element for me. There is a bit of everything, there are good guys, bad guys, idealists, revolutionaries, betrayers, ambitious, family driven, justice driven, insane. Just a bit of everyone and it is perfect!
Another extremely positive aspect is the linearity and clarity of the magic system. Provided that I love magic no matter what, I love a book even more when authors dedicate time and effort to create a magic system that is understandable and clear.
If you love magic and dragons, this is the book for you!
This book is just a majestic combination of several fantasy elements in a 16th century setting (primarily for the weapons being used) rather than medieval.
Magic, dragons (and the cover is just an amazing visual of the book and, as for covers, is just a great selling cover for me!), adventure which also includes the Renaissance financing of companies and adventures (such as https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bank_of_Saint_George), intrigue - political and otherwise -, cliffhanger and story telling.
I have to admit that the book takes some time to introduce the world, the characters and the interactions; I do not mind them as long as the presentation takes the "right" amount of time. This book took the right amount of time and I loved it. Also, around 40% in, the book takes a very different pace and it is difficult to put down!
Spoiler
I had just a moment of concern when the book described an absolute violence in treating dragons. The abuse of animals is something that bothers me significantly (yes, I am one of "those" people) but it got contained quickly, so all in all it was manageable.I would say there are three story lines that intertwine and I could not stop loving each and everyone of those. Anthony Ryan was actually using cliffhangers in a very addicting manner (at least for me!).
I also loved the characters and I could relate to them which is always an extremely positive element for me. There is a bit of everything, there are good guys, bad guys, idealists, revolutionaries, betrayers, ambitious, family driven, justice driven, insane. Just a bit of everyone and it is perfect!
Another extremely positive aspect is the linearity and clarity of the magic system. Provided that I love magic no matter what, I love a book even more when authors dedicate time and effort to create a magic system that is understandable and clear.
If you love magic and dragons, this is the book for you!
patremagne's review against another edition
5.0
http://abitterdraft.com/2017/02/the-waking-fire-by-anthony-ryan.html
Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow series started with a bang, with many genre readers absolutely adoring Blood Song. The followups, however, seemed to be divisive, mostly stemming from the fact that Ryan opted to expand the series to have primary perspectives beyond what made Blood Song so good - Vaelin al Sorna. Hope Killer. Eruhin Makhtar. I was one of the (seemingly) few who still enjoyed its sequel, Tower Lord (haven't read Queen of Fire yet), and when I saw the cover and read the blurb for his latest, The Waking Fire, I couldn't help but be excited. Alchemical powers! Dragons! Pirates! Steamships! Anthony Ryan! As it turns out, I found it leaps and bounds better than Blood Song, and a great start to The Draconis Memoria.
The Ironship Trading Syndicate is dominated by the distribution of "product," or drake blood. The blood of drakes is used to fuel not only the Syndicate's economy, but the powers of those called Blood-blessed, who can drink the various colors of distilled drake blood to gain superhuman abilities. The fact that drake blood is so heavily relied-upon has put the drakes on the road to extinction, and if that happens, the Syndicate will soon find the neighboring Corvantine Empire on their doorstep. A top-secret Syndicate group called Exceptional Initiatives has recently uncovered the possible existence of a new breed of drake - the White - whose power is said to be leagues beyond that of the Reds, Greens, Blues, and Blacks, and they're willing to do anything to find it and exploit it.
Claydon Torcreek is an unregistered Blood-blessed, making his way in life through thieving and participating in underground fight clubs. When he finds himself on the wrong side of a prison cell, he's offered a chance at freedom through aiding Exceptional Initiatives in their hunt for the White. Lizanne Lethridge is a Blood-blessed spy and assassin in Exceptional Initiatives, and she's been tasked to go behind enemy lines, deep undercover as a servant of an enemy lord who supposedly has knowledge of the White's whereabouts. Finally, Corrick Hilemore is an officer on an Ironship vessel hunting pirates, when an unexpected clash leads him and his crew far beyond pirate-infested waters.
If there's one thing Anthony Ryan does well (there are actually several, but that's not important right now), it's his ability to build a richly-detailed world in a reasonable amount of pages. In all three Ryan novels I've read, I've had the same feeling - that they were the perfect non-tome length, but I still got the feeling of a complete world I could get lost in. Whether it's Clay's insane adventure into uncharted wilderness in search of the White, Lizanne's subterfuge and general badassery behind enemy lines, or Hilemore's thrilling clashes at sea, I was totally and utterly absorbed. Ryan has the viscera of battle, whether at land or at sea, down to a tee.
Something that goes hand-in-hand with the worldbuilding is the pace of the plot. I mentioned that I never felt like I needed more or less pages than what we're given; the plot is (mostly) consistently interesting and well-paced. It didn't matter if I was reading about Lizanne was giving reports to her superior, Madame Bondersil, Clay was sitting watch by the campfire, or Hilemore was running his riflemen through drills - Ryan wrote it so that you can always feel the tension, the uneasiness of the characters that something terrible is just beyond that door, just beyond the light of the campfire, just over that wave.
With three main characters, it's no small feat when there isn't a single one of them that I was disappointed to find at the header of the next chapter. Each was compelling and felt fleshed-out, which is an attribute that extended to even the secondary characters. Braddon Torcreek, Clay's grizzled old uncle and head of the company that is leading the expedition to find the White; Jermayah, the Leonardo da Vinci-like inventor; Mr. Steelfine, the Master-At-Arms of Hilemore's Viable Opportunity, to name a few of the ensemble of interesting secondary characters I was more than keen on following.
All in all, with superb narrative flow, a compelling plot, and excellent characterization, The Waking Fire is an inventive, riveting beginning to a series that's sure to turn heads, and it sits firmly on my shelf of favorites. I eagerly await The Legion of Flame in July 2017.
Note on the audiobook, which I alternated listening/reading in the second half: I generally really enjoy Steven Brand, but some parts felt like he took very, very liberal breaths between phrases in a sentence and it occasionally got jarring. He evened it out toward the end, though.
Anthony Ryan's Raven's Shadow series started with a bang, with many genre readers absolutely adoring Blood Song. The followups, however, seemed to be divisive, mostly stemming from the fact that Ryan opted to expand the series to have primary perspectives beyond what made Blood Song so good - Vaelin al Sorna. Hope Killer. Eruhin Makhtar. I was one of the (seemingly) few who still enjoyed its sequel, Tower Lord (haven't read Queen of Fire yet), and when I saw the cover and read the blurb for his latest, The Waking Fire, I couldn't help but be excited. Alchemical powers! Dragons! Pirates! Steamships! Anthony Ryan! As it turns out, I found it leaps and bounds better than Blood Song, and a great start to The Draconis Memoria.
The Ironship Trading Syndicate is dominated by the distribution of "product," or drake blood. The blood of drakes is used to fuel not only the Syndicate's economy, but the powers of those called Blood-blessed, who can drink the various colors of distilled drake blood to gain superhuman abilities. The fact that drake blood is so heavily relied-upon has put the drakes on the road to extinction, and if that happens, the Syndicate will soon find the neighboring Corvantine Empire on their doorstep. A top-secret Syndicate group called Exceptional Initiatives has recently uncovered the possible existence of a new breed of drake - the White - whose power is said to be leagues beyond that of the Reds, Greens, Blues, and Blacks, and they're willing to do anything to find it and exploit it.
Claydon Torcreek is an unregistered Blood-blessed, making his way in life through thieving and participating in underground fight clubs. When he finds himself on the wrong side of a prison cell, he's offered a chance at freedom through aiding Exceptional Initiatives in their hunt for the White. Lizanne Lethridge is a Blood-blessed spy and assassin in Exceptional Initiatives, and she's been tasked to go behind enemy lines, deep undercover as a servant of an enemy lord who supposedly has knowledge of the White's whereabouts. Finally, Corrick Hilemore is an officer on an Ironship vessel hunting pirates, when an unexpected clash leads him and his crew far beyond pirate-infested waters.
If there's one thing Anthony Ryan does well (there are actually several, but that's not important right now), it's his ability to build a richly-detailed world in a reasonable amount of pages. In all three Ryan novels I've read, I've had the same feeling - that they were the perfect non-tome length, but I still got the feeling of a complete world I could get lost in. Whether it's Clay's insane adventure into uncharted wilderness in search of the White, Lizanne's subterfuge and general badassery behind enemy lines, or Hilemore's thrilling clashes at sea, I was totally and utterly absorbed. Ryan has the viscera of battle, whether at land or at sea, down to a tee.
Something that goes hand-in-hand with the worldbuilding is the pace of the plot. I mentioned that I never felt like I needed more or less pages than what we're given; the plot is (mostly) consistently interesting and well-paced. It didn't matter if I was reading about Lizanne was giving reports to her superior, Madame Bondersil, Clay was sitting watch by the campfire, or Hilemore was running his riflemen through drills - Ryan wrote it so that you can always feel the tension, the uneasiness of the characters that something terrible is just beyond that door, just beyond the light of the campfire, just over that wave.
With three main characters, it's no small feat when there isn't a single one of them that I was disappointed to find at the header of the next chapter. Each was compelling and felt fleshed-out, which is an attribute that extended to even the secondary characters. Braddon Torcreek, Clay's grizzled old uncle and head of the company that is leading the expedition to find the White; Jermayah, the Leonardo da Vinci-like inventor; Mr. Steelfine, the Master-At-Arms of Hilemore's Viable Opportunity, to name a few of the ensemble of interesting secondary characters I was more than keen on following.
All in all, with superb narrative flow, a compelling plot, and excellent characterization, The Waking Fire is an inventive, riveting beginning to a series that's sure to turn heads, and it sits firmly on my shelf of favorites. I eagerly await The Legion of Flame in July 2017.
Note on the audiobook, which I alternated listening/reading in the second half: I generally really enjoy Steven Brand, but some parts felt like he took very, very liberal breaths between phrases in a sentence and it occasionally got jarring. He evened it out toward the end, though.
cekisha's review
5.0
I finally managed to finish this beast of 600 pages and I'm glad I did!
The author's writing is complex, rich and filled with interesting twists and turns.
I think the most interesting thing about the book is definitely its steampunk world that revolves around the exploitation of drakes aka dragons. The reasons why drakes are sought after lies in their blood, but not many people can use it and those that can are called the Blood-blessed. Drakes are differentiated one from another according to the color:
Blue for the mind.
Green for the body.
Red for the fire.
Black for the push.
However, these dangerous but very profitable creatures are becoming rare due to the never-ending hunting, and since greedy humans haven't had much success in breeding them, it is obvious that something needs to be done.
That's when the legend of the White Drake comes in and various secret organizations and corporations join a battle of getting a piece of it. I immediately associated the White Drake with [b:Moby-Dick or, The Whale|153747|Moby-Dick or, The Whale|Herman Melville|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1327940656s/153747.jpg|2409320] which is not far from the truth - in a way they both represent the overwhelming power of the nature and ancient times that keep resisting the man's need to conquer and rule. However, you could say that in [b:The Waking Fire|25972177|The Waking Fire (The Draconis Memoria, #1)|Anthony Ryan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456221270s/25972177.jpg|45880091] the White Drake's power goes even deeper and can be compared to the God's.
As for the characters, they are well developed and likeable imo. There are three major POVs and it is obvious that their fates are all gonna get intertwined. I couldn't help but compare Clay to Taniel, Braddon to Tamas and Silverpin to Ka'Poel from [b:Promise of Blood|15790883|Promise of Blood (Powder Mage, #1)|Brian McClellan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1350337505s/15790883.jpg|21512438]. Clay is a young and brave but still hormone-fueled young man just as Taniel is; while Silverpin is a mute "savage" with a mysterious past. On the other hand, the female characters from [b:The Waking Fire|25972177|The Waking Fire (The Draconis Memoria, #1)|Anthony Ryan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456221270s/25972177.jpg|45880091] are better written and do not appear as one-dimensional as the ones from the Powder Mage series. My favorite character is Lizanne - she is a badass and does not bullshit around!
The only part of the book that I found underwhelming was the Hilemore's POVs - not because I disliked him as a character, since I found him really interesting, it was because I found the war tactics, artillery and ship mechanical descriptions hard to understand. However, that can be attributed to my disinterest in the topic rather than the author's inability to write well. I must admit I wish the author had switched these parts with any additional info about drakes but then this book wouldn't be part of a steampunk genre I guess.
All in all, a great 5-star read and I can't wait for the sequel [b:The Legion of Flame|25972194|The Legion of Flame (The Draconis Memoria, #2)|Anthony Ryan|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1488225264s/25972194.jpg|45880124] which comes out in a few months!