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danbee88's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
5.0
kevin_dis's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
3.0
sharwen's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
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
jokeater's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
inspiring
mysterious
sad
tense
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
5.0
aneve's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
tense
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.25
jimber101's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
emotional
funny
mysterious
sad
tense
fast-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? It's complicated
4.5
max341q132543253's review against another edition
2.0
Struggling to keep reading at 37%.
It's not a bad book at all, it's just that it's not especially interesting and it doesn't flow very well, at least not for me. None of the 3 POV characters seem compelling or mysterious or creative or likable to me. The best of them is Lizanne, who is at least competent but not really likable. Clay, the thug, is at first presented as a super badass but then relegated to clueless noob, because apparently the scum you run into in a crime-ridden poor neighbourhood are nowhere near as tough and scummy as ... the scum running professional, corporate expeditions into dragon country? Why wouldn't they be? Don't starving people living in filth and squalor have every motivation to be terrible to each other? And Hilemore the naval officer is very wooden and dull, and ... I literally just hovered my hands over the keyboard trying to think of something to say about him but don't care even that much. He's just a morally decent officer trying to do his job reasonably, he has no mission or conflict or passion.
All three plotlines occur separately from each other for at least 37%, and according to other reviews for the first 50%. Each chapter is a decent length and admittedly a fair bit happens in them, but no interesting mysteries have been set up so it feels tiring to bear them all in mind with no connections and no interest in how they may eventually connect.
Nothing about the world is especially interesting to me either. The premise that a steampunk world runs on dragon's blood isn't bad and is what got me interested in this series (that and the author's reasonable popularity), but it's just kinda "there". There's nothing to it beyond that simple sentence. What's the hook to get my interest in it, beyond the obvious interest in dragons and steampunk in themselves?
Are the dragons super fearsome?
No, they're seen as something like broncos.
Are they super magical and wise and ancient-seeming?
They are technically magical but it's sort of just encoded in their blood, they're just wild animals with "precious bodily fluids", they don't have mysterious wisdom of the ancients or anything.
Is anything emphasized about how steampunk civ depends on wild creatures, any kind of thematic exploration of using nature to power machines?
Not in the first 37% that I could see.
Basically everything about the world is pragmatic and practical and no-nonsense. No olde-tymey mystery, not even much sense of early modern period excitement at new ideas. The emotional tone of the book is IMO about right for a job interview at a midrange tech company.
But my least favourite part of this book is definitely the writing style. At first I appreciated how dense and clever it was, with lots of infodumping sprinkled fairly seamlessly into the narration of what the POV character's thinking and feeling, but I'm finding it more and more tiring as the pages pile up. To be honest, I don't read epic fantasy to work my brain hard, I just want a somewhat silly adventure I can binge on for hours at a time, feeling like I'm in a far off realm different from everyday life. Now, in my defense, I've read the first 3 books of Malazan and the first half or so of Jenn Lyon's Chorus of Dragons and found them perfectly readable and flowing just fine (though I didn't like them for other reasons), but I can't read this book for more than half an hour without getting mentally tired. It's getting so that some POV characters don't show up to me for days and by then I've forgotten what they're even doing.
Having written all that, I think I'll make that DNF official.
It's not a bad book at all, it's just that it's not especially interesting and it doesn't flow very well, at least not for me. None of the 3 POV characters seem compelling or mysterious or creative or likable to me. The best of them is Lizanne, who is at least competent but not really likable. Clay, the thug, is at first presented as a super badass but then relegated to clueless noob, because apparently the scum you run into in a crime-ridden poor neighbourhood are nowhere near as tough and scummy as ... the scum running professional, corporate expeditions into dragon country? Why wouldn't they be? Don't starving people living in filth and squalor have every motivation to be terrible to each other? And Hilemore the naval officer is very wooden and dull, and ... I literally just hovered my hands over the keyboard trying to think of something to say about him but don't care even that much. He's just a morally decent officer trying to do his job reasonably, he has no mission or conflict or passion.
All three plotlines occur separately from each other for at least 37%, and according to other reviews for the first 50%. Each chapter is a decent length and admittedly a fair bit happens in them, but no interesting mysteries have been set up so it feels tiring to bear them all in mind with no connections and no interest in how they may eventually connect.
Nothing about the world is especially interesting to me either. The premise that a steampunk world runs on dragon's blood isn't bad and is what got me interested in this series (that and the author's reasonable popularity), but it's just kinda "there". There's nothing to it beyond that simple sentence. What's the hook to get my interest in it, beyond the obvious interest in dragons and steampunk in themselves?
Are the dragons super fearsome?
No, they're seen as something like broncos.
Are they super magical and wise and ancient-seeming?
They are technically magical but it's sort of just encoded in their blood, they're just wild animals with "precious bodily fluids", they don't have mysterious wisdom of the ancients or anything.
Is anything emphasized about how steampunk civ depends on wild creatures, any kind of thematic exploration of using nature to power machines?
Not in the first 37% that I could see.
Basically everything about the world is pragmatic and practical and no-nonsense. No olde-tymey mystery, not even much sense of early modern period excitement at new ideas. The emotional tone of the book is IMO about right for a job interview at a midrange tech company.
But my least favourite part of this book is definitely the writing style. At first I appreciated how dense and clever it was, with lots of infodumping sprinkled fairly seamlessly into the narration of what the POV character's thinking and feeling, but I'm finding it more and more tiring as the pages pile up. To be honest, I don't read epic fantasy to work my brain hard, I just want a somewhat silly adventure I can binge on for hours at a time, feeling like I'm in a far off realm different from everyday life. Now, in my defense, I've read the first 3 books of Malazan and the first half or so of Jenn Lyon's Chorus of Dragons and found them perfectly readable and flowing just fine (though I didn't like them for other reasons), but I can't read this book for more than half an hour without getting mentally tired. It's getting so that some POV characters don't show up to me for days and by then I've forgotten what they're even doing.
Having written all that, I think I'll make that DNF official.
strawberrie_jam's review against another edition
4.0
Very cool magic system. Very suspenseful; I kept wanting to know what was going to happen next. The jumps between POVs were kind of irritating but all of the different storylines were good. Did not like the battle with the Corvantine as it was very reminiscient of WWI (in a very disturbing way). There are multiple things I'm quite confused about. Although I did enjoy this book, I think just this one was enough so I don't think I'll be reading the sequels (I just feel like it's going to take ages to resolve all the issues and I don't care enough to put that much time in). Also it kind of reminded me of 'The Bone Ships' by R.J. Barker.
kensingtonska's review against another edition
adventurous
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? No
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
0.5
This is the only book I've read in the series and I don't intend to finish it.
Their are three man characters in this book. The MAIN character, female James Bond, and the boat guy. An entire third of this book is dedicated to the boat guy and his sections are entirely inconsequential to the plot. I would recommend skipping them.
The magic system is just a shallow rehash of mistborn but with drakes.
Very few of the characters are logical in their choices and frequently make actions that are contrary to their established expertise for the sake of plot.
If you like drakes and don't think they get enough representation in fantasy then you might have a good time. If you need narrative coherence then probably skip it. If you like author's who pad out their plots to meet word count then this book is for you.
Their are three man characters in this book. The MAIN character, female James Bond, and the boat guy. An entire third of this book is dedicated to the boat guy and his sections are entirely inconsequential to the plot. I would recommend skipping them.
The magic system is just a shallow rehash of mistborn but with drakes.
Very few of the characters are logical in their choices and frequently make actions that are contrary to their established expertise for the sake of plot.
If you like drakes and don't think they get enough representation in fantasy then you might have a good time. If you need narrative coherence then probably skip it. If you like author's who pad out their plots to meet word count then this book is for you.