lischa3000's review
5.0
Surprisingly good book. A story were dragons, religion, politics and life is intertwined in an epic tale.
mal_eficent's review
adventurous
dark
emotional
hopeful
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
I regret reading this, because Lockwood only sent the second book to beta readers in July of this year and I have to now sit and wait for the next one to come out.
I loved this book. The pacing, the setting, the amount of detail in the world building - all of it was exactly my cup of tea. Even Maia, who is undeniably a very self centred, oblivious heroine, was a great character perspective to read from. Plus - dragon rearing. If you like your dragons to be very intelligent animals, this will hopefully be the dragon story for you, and the story itself puts a ton of work into showing how aerie functions season to season.
There were brief lulls in the story and action that focussed more heavily on religion/philosophy, but as the story goes on those moments are used more and more to explain the setting and history of the world than Maia's inner thoughts. Personally I didn't think those moments every overtook the narrative or become a slog to get through.
The only aspect I found strange was the random, single chapter perspective change. Sure, it added a little bit of context for the state of the Dragonry in a different part of the world, but that didn't effect the main narrative at all and could have been left out entirely. I can only assume it's setting up a perspective in book 2.
While I can understand why some people are categorising this as YA: the main character is younger, she's slightly selfish and unaware of it, and some of the conflict she faces seems to be unreasonable sexism. That said, I don't think the narrative itself reads as a YA story. To me this reads like a classic fantasy, coming of age story that was written without an age demographic in mind. There's a decent chunk of gore and described violence in this that, while not 'bad' enough to exclude a YA audience, clearly isn't written for one.
If you enjoy older classic fantasy – like the Belgariad or The Deed of Paksenarrion, or even some of the world themes in the Wheel of Time – but have been wanting a story with a more modern style of prose, I really recommend giving this a try!
I loved this book. The pacing, the setting, the amount of detail in the world building - all of it was exactly my cup of tea. Even Maia, who is undeniably a very self centred, oblivious heroine, was a great character perspective to read from. Plus - dragon rearing. If you like your dragons to be very intelligent animals, this will hopefully be the dragon story for you, and the story itself puts a ton of work into showing how aerie functions season to season.
There were brief lulls in the story and action that focussed more heavily on religion/philosophy, but as the story goes on those moments are used more and more to explain the setting and history of the world than Maia's inner thoughts. Personally I didn't think those moments every overtook the narrative or become a slog to get through.
The only aspect I found strange was the random, single chapter perspective change. Sure, it added a little bit of context for the state of the Dragonry in a different part of the world, but that didn't effect the main narrative at all and could have been left out entirely. I can only assume it's setting up a perspective in book 2.
While I can understand why some people are categorising this as YA: the main character is younger, she's slightly selfish and unaware of it, and some of the conflict she faces seems to be unreasonable sexism. That said, I don't think the narrative itself reads as a YA story. To me this reads like a classic fantasy, coming of age story that was written without an age demographic in mind. There's a decent chunk of gore and described violence in this that, while not 'bad' enough to exclude a YA audience, clearly isn't written for one.
If you enjoy older classic fantasy – like the Belgariad or The Deed of Paksenarrion, or even some of the world themes in the Wheel of Time – but have been wanting a story with a more modern style of prose, I really recommend giving this a try!
Content Warnings
Graphic: Animal death, Gaslighting, Death of parent, Violence, Gore, and Religious bigotry
Moderate: Misogyny, War, and Murder
yasioasasi's review
2.0
DNF. I tried, I really did. This book seemed right up my alley, that alley being dragons. But it was just such a slog, that I only just made it past 50% before giving up.
First of all, the first third of the book is set over the course of just a few days, which drag on interminably. Our protagonist, Maia, is obsessed with getting a dragon baby, or qit. Makes sense; if I lived in an alternate world with dragons, I’d want one too! But Maia is singleminded in her obsession, to the point where I got really frustrated with the absolute lack of anything else in her life/personality/character. Her only other defining characteristic is a scarred (and cliche) past about her last moments with her dead mother, which would be interesting if the author spent more time explaining the details of her death. Its not only the details around Maia’s mother’s death that are vague, there’s also very little detail about the world outside the aerie, the reason why dragons are being purchased and the enemy they’re being used to fight, and a culture which is apparently ok with a priest attempting to abscond with a young woman without her consent. I’m pretty uncomfortable with the way the author makes the priest’s behavior seem par for the course in this fantasy world, especially without providing a backstory or explanation. I didn’t think it was necessary (granted it may have been clear in the latter half of the book) and to me the lecherous behavior of the priest seemed heavy handed. A patriarchal and potentially abusive society shouldn’t be the norm in fantasy books, and when it is portrayed by an author (especially a male author) as a storytelling tool, it deserves an explanation at the very least.
At the beginning of Volume II there was a dramatic shift into dragon lore and religion, which might have kept me going, but honestly, I got bored and was tired of Maia’s righteous indignation. Girl, bye.
First of all, the first third of the book is set over the course of just a few days, which drag on interminably. Our protagonist, Maia, is obsessed with getting a dragon baby, or qit. Makes sense; if I lived in an alternate world with dragons, I’d want one too! But Maia is singleminded in her obsession, to the point where I got really frustrated with the absolute lack of anything else in her life/personality/character. Her only other defining characteristic is a scarred (and cliche) past about her last moments with her dead mother, which would be interesting if the author spent more time explaining the details of her death. Its not only the details around Maia’s mother’s death that are vague, there’s also very little detail about the world outside the aerie, the reason why dragons are being purchased and the enemy they’re being used to fight, and a culture which is apparently ok with a priest attempting to abscond with a young woman without her consent. I’m pretty uncomfortable with the way the author makes the priest’s behavior seem par for the course in this fantasy world, especially without providing a backstory or explanation. I didn’t think it was necessary (granted it may have been clear in the latter half of the book) and to me the lecherous behavior of the priest seemed heavy handed. A patriarchal and potentially abusive society shouldn’t be the norm in fantasy books, and when it is portrayed by an author (especially a male author) as a storytelling tool, it deserves an explanation at the very least.
At the beginning of Volume II there was a dramatic shift into dragon lore and religion, which might have kept me going, but honestly, I got bored and was tired of Maia’s righteous indignation. Girl, bye.
donnakaye64's review
4.0
I liked this book because it kept my interest and was very entertaining. It was an interesting look into dragon breeding, dragon riders, and other creatures.
ilasandra's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
inspiring
mysterious
reflective
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
3.0
catbookpurr's review against another edition
adventurous
challenging
dark
emotional
sad
tense
medium-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
5.0
sling's review
2.0
I probably wouldn’t have finished it but for my attempt to finish a book a day over the holidays.
It isn’t that the book didn’t have some merit but there were just too many things going on and a lot of it was tell, not show.
History, religion, politics, family squabbles, murder, portents, omens, curses, ancient cities, everything. There’s even a semi-distant empire that wants to ground outposts under its bootheel!
And I was left with so many questions. Here follow spoilers.
Why, if the settlement is at the forefront of a war, are there so few troops? (One of the things I couldn’t get the sense of was how large the land was - number of towns, villages, how distant things were, how densely or sparsely populated the land is, how big the capital city is.)
Why, if she’s always right, does everyone hate Maia? (Seriously, she should have just been named Mary Sue.)
Why, if actions have consequences, does no one really suffer from a bad decision? (The son gives away the farm - literally. Maia shoots someone in cold blood. Just two examples off the top of my head.)
When Darian runs away, why, if he’s been building up this plan for a while driven by his growing envy and resentment, do we only get two lines of dialogue explaining his feelings? (And a half-hearted paragraph that starts the scene.)
Why, if it’s so important to the book, the title, and the series name, do we only encounter Gertig once and the word Eventide twice? (Should have just named it “The Catalyst Hits in Chapter One.”)
Why were the refugees killed? (Surely there are better ways to show Addai is evil.)
And just generally, why does everyone just run away? (Maia three times, her brother, her father, Ghem)
To sum up, I have spent far too much time thinking about this book and I won’t be reading the next one, unless I’m stuck in Harare airport for 12 hours and it’s the only book available.
It isn’t that the book didn’t have some merit but there were just too many things going on and a lot of it was tell, not show.
History, religion, politics, family squabbles, murder, portents, omens, curses, ancient cities, everything. There’s even a semi-distant empire that wants to ground outposts under its bootheel!
And I was left with so many questions. Here follow spoilers.
Why, if the settlement is at the forefront of a war, are there so few troops? (One of the things I couldn’t get the sense of was how large the land was - number of towns, villages, how distant things were, how densely or sparsely populated the land is, how big the capital city is.)
Why, if she’s always right, does everyone hate Maia? (Seriously, she should have just been named Mary Sue.)
Why, if actions have consequences, does no one really suffer from a bad decision? (The son gives away the farm - literally. Maia shoots someone in cold blood. Just two examples off the top of my head.)
When Darian runs away, why, if he’s been building up this plan for a while driven by his growing envy and resentment, do we only get two lines of dialogue explaining his feelings? (And a half-hearted paragraph that starts the scene.)
Why, if it’s so important to the book, the title, and the series name, do we only encounter Gertig once and the word Eventide twice? (Should have just named it “The Catalyst Hits in Chapter One.”)
Why were the refugees killed? (Surely there are better ways to show Addai is evil.)
And just generally, why does everyone just run away? (Maia three times, her brother, her father, Ghem)
To sum up, I have spent far too much time thinking about this book and I won’t be reading the next one, unless I’m stuck in Harare airport for 12 hours and it’s the only book available.