nyllia's review against another edition
3.0
Encore un livre qui trainait dans ma bibliothèque depuis une éternité. Le début du livre est un peu confus, et moi qui aime la fantasy j'ai été déçue de ne pas avoir plus de descriptions des lieux.
Les personnages sont biens écrits, pas vraiment attachants par contre. Il y a une sorte de distance, une froideur qui fait qu'on ne s'attache pas.
Au niveau de l'histoire, elle met un peu de temps à démarrer, mais dans l'ensemble j'ai apprécié. Moi qui aime les complots, les trahisons, etc... j'ai vraiment bien aimé cet aspect de l'histoire!
Les personnages sont biens écrits, pas vraiment attachants par contre. Il y a une sorte de distance, une froideur qui fait qu'on ne s'attache pas.
Au niveau de l'histoire, elle met un peu de temps à démarrer, mais dans l'ensemble j'ai apprécié. Moi qui aime les complots, les trahisons, etc... j'ai vraiment bien aimé cet aspect de l'histoire!
elizabethbest's review against another edition
3.0
I hated most of the characters, not much happened, and I couldn't get into it. But, I do like dragons. If there was more character development, this could have been a good book.
75891814514's review against another edition
dark
medium-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? Yes
4.0
kristinn's review against another edition
2.0
Where are the dragons? They seem simply to be anonymous mounts that are talked about as if they're mighty beasts.
ciraabi's review against another edition
3.0
I am going to start with what I liked, because there are some aspects to that I found pretty good..
The concept is interesting. Instead of dragons working with humans they are unknowingly enslaved from the moment they are born, and of course this becomes one of the main points of conflict in the story when one gets away. The writing is also good and pacing make for a relatively quick and easy read.
The dragons concept is about where my enjoyment for this book ends. I found myself enjoying the chapters with Snow much more than the others. The re-awakening to need for revenge plotline was much more interesting than the stab at political intrigue. This book also falls rather short on character personality and development.
" 'He's vicious, callous, arrogant, self-obsessed-'
'You could be describing any of us' She smiled slightly."
I feel like the quote wasn't meaning to be intentional, but it really does describe all of the human characters. The royals especially. Everyone is a selfish, scheming, stone cold plotter to get to the top. Except Jehal, who just seems to be a little better at everything to keep him ahead of the rest. Most of the time I would forget who's POV the chapter was supposed to be from until a name was mentioned. Even the dragons, despite being awakened, had little personality beyond being impulsive, impatient, and eating anything close to them. Maybe that is because they are still too "new" after realizing what has been happening to them, but even Snow doesn't have much growth.
A smaller nit pick, and maybe it was the copy I had, but it could have benefitted from having a world map. It makes it harder to get more into the story and world when names are just thrown around without having any real sense where they sit in the world itself other than knowing it's in the mountains or forest.
There are a lot of good tokens and tidbits in this first installment, but the lack of character in world building pulls it down for me. It is the author's first book, so maybe the later ones improve on this, but for now I am left a little torn. Maybe eventually I'll decide to take the plunge and see if the later books are better.
The concept is interesting. Instead of dragons working with humans they are unknowingly enslaved from the moment they are born, and of course this becomes one of the main points of conflict in the story when one gets away. The writing is also good and pacing make for a relatively quick and easy read.
The dragons concept is about where my enjoyment for this book ends. I found myself enjoying the chapters with Snow much more than the others. The re-awakening to need for revenge plotline was much more interesting than the stab at political intrigue. This book also falls rather short on character personality and development.
" 'He's vicious, callous, arrogant, self-obsessed-'
'You could be describing any of us' She smiled slightly."
I feel like the quote wasn't meaning to be intentional, but it really does describe all of the human characters. The royals especially. Everyone is a selfish, scheming, stone cold plotter to get to the top. Except Jehal, who just seems to be a little better at everything to keep him ahead of the rest. Most of the time I would forget who's POV the chapter was supposed to be from until a name was mentioned. Even the dragons, despite being awakened, had little personality beyond being impulsive, impatient, and eating anything close to them. Maybe that is because they are still too "new" after realizing what has been happening to them, but even Snow doesn't have much growth.
A smaller nit pick, and maybe it was the copy I had, but it could have benefitted from having a world map. It makes it harder to get more into the story and world when names are just thrown around without having any real sense where they sit in the world itself other than knowing it's in the mountains or forest.
There are a lot of good tokens and tidbits in this first installment, but the lack of character in world building pulls it down for me. It is the author's first book, so maybe the later ones improve on this, but for now I am left a little torn. Maybe eventually I'll decide to take the plunge and see if the later books are better.
cupiscent's review against another edition
3.0
For a novel that seemed to be very straightforward, run-of-the-mill fantasy, this had some interesting stand-out points. It's peopled with magnificently unlikable characters - selfish, arrogant schemers all - who nevertheless are dynamic and driven enough to really grab and keep your attention. Still, I stand by my check-in musings: that this is a sort of fantasy version of Dangerous Liaisons, where you're supposed to be so bothered by the unchecked privilege and self-centredness of the royalty that you're amenable to the notion of revolution. The fact that in this case the revolution is dragons just adds to the fun, really.
But I couldn't really say I enjoyed it a lot. The writing skips along easily, but isn't beautiful. And none of the characters, because of their myriad and wallowed-in flaws, really demands I follow them onwards. I'm mildly interested in seeing Jehal get his come-uppance, but not enough to spend more time with his smug twerpery. And the big question of "Can mankind survive the uprising of the dragons?" isn't really compelling: I sort of don't care if they do.
But I couldn't really say I enjoyed it a lot. The writing skips along easily, but isn't beautiful. And none of the characters, because of their myriad and wallowed-in flaws, really demands I follow them onwards. I'm mildly interested in seeing Jehal get his come-uppance, but not enough to spend more time with his smug twerpery. And the big question of "Can mankind survive the uprising of the dragons?" isn't really compelling: I sort of don't care if they do.
woodge's review against another edition
3.0
The dragons in this book are not cuddly creatures. In fact, they think of humans as bite-sized snacks most of the time. But still, they are in service to the various dragon kings and queens that populate this tale only because they've been drugged since birth and taught to obey their dragon riders. But if a dragon were to say, go off its meds...? That would be bad. Much of the book has various nobles of the realms jockeying for power and being treacherous. Some other characters are just trying to stay alive. There's also a tribe of people outside of the dragon realms that are interesting in that they have their own magics and potions and are just trying to finagle a viable dragon egg. I hope to learn more about them later in this trilogy. My biggest complaint with this book is that there's no clear protagonist to root for. There are a few interesting characters to follow although we really don't know that much about them. And Jehal, one of the dragon princes, is fun only because he's so selfish, devious, and dangerous. I found that as I continued reading the story, it became more and more interesting especially with regard to the dragons themselves. I enjoyed the story but I'm hoping the second book will include more action and less intrigue. (3.5 stars)
tachyondecay's review against another edition
2.0
I can’t tell if this is a compliment or criticism, so I’ll just put it out here and let you decide: I spent most of this book trying to cast different actors from Game of Thrones to play the characters in this book. The similarities are just so glaring—not that I’m saying The Adamantine Palace is in any way derivative of A Song of Ice and Fire. Its world and plot and characters are entirely its own, and Stephen Deas definitely has some interesting ideas cooking here. But the overall tenor of the work, from the multiple kings and queens, the dragons, the scheming maester-like alchemists, and the use of multiple POVs and tendency for characters to keep killing each other off … all of that makes this feel along the same lines of Game of Thrones. I feel like this is exactly the kind of book series an opportunistic network that wanted to jump on the Game of Thrones trend might option and then do a terrible job adapting.
If you like more “traditional” high fantasy, this book will appeal. As previously mentioned, the book follows nobility in the throes of unceasing intrigue. The nobility and their knights ride dragons, kept tame by the potions of the alchemists. During The Adamantine Palace, certain nobles conspire with and against each other (allegiances shift really fast) in the weeks leading up to the election of a new Speaker, who is kind of like the Secretary of the UN, if the Secretary of the UN had a small military force and a massive palace and tortured people. So, you know, exactly like the Secretary.
I feel like a really awful person. I keep saying I want to read more traditional high fantasy, and then I rip into the books for being too traditional and not doing enough to circumvent, subvert, or otherwise play with the tropes of high fantasy. Why do I do this to myself? Shadow Prowler is another recent example, and although I think I liked The Adamantine Palace better on the whole, I have similar complaints. By and large, Deas reaches in the Fantasy Tropes Grab Bag, pulls up a handful of good ones, and puts them to work. But one reason I’m not a huge fan of uninnovative traditional fantasy is simply because it’s lazy. With a generation or two of readers raised in this tradition, authors don’t have to spell things out. They just say, “dragon” or “knight” or “castle” and let us do the rest. I get the sense there is a rich and interesting society in this world, but Deas spends very little time explaining it. We get vague allusions to wars of succession, etc., but no fulfilling background.
Yet it’s not as if this book is devoid of exposition. There is plenty of it, spread across far too many POVs. Indeed, The Adamantine Palace jumps from character to character even more than Game of Thrones does! With each new chapter, I kept thinking, “Ugh, not another perspective!” Don’t get me wrong: I love, love, love books that show me characters on either side, protagonists and antagonists, perpetrators and victims of schemes, etc. That’s all well and good. But there is a limit, and Deas exceeds it.
Worse still, some of the POVs seem utterly unnecessary. He introduces a few characters only to unceremoniously kill them off (or they disappear, presumably killed) after one or two chapters. What, exactly, was their point? I don’t object to the killing of main characters, but the issue here is that they didn’t have time to become established as main characters. Meanwhile, characters who were previously side characters suddenly get promoted to main characters, and—look, do you know how hard it is for me to redraw my Fantasy Character Org Chart for a book every time someone dies? I need to stop working in permanent marker….
Once the ink is dry, though, and we have a fairly stable cast, what then of the story, the plot, all those intrigues? Well, I do love the dragons. My only complaint is that Deas drops his bombshell a little too far into the novel—I kept reading, because I could see hints along the lines of what he eventually reveals, but he plays it almost a little too coy. Still, once we learn the Truth About Dragons and get more scenes with the vengeful Snow, the book picks up pace. I also love how very few people actually understand the scope of this problem; most of the nobility who are even aware of the issue think it’s simply a case of a missing or kidnapped dragon. This feels very realistic to me (insofar as a fantasy book can be realistic), and it’s also something that can be difficult for an author to achieve. Balancing the need for characters to have imperfect information while also letting the audience in on the joke can be a delicate act, but Deas does it well.
Unfortunately, the dragon plot gets sidelined by political machinations that are not as exciting or well-thought-out as their author might think they are. For one, Prince Jehal switches sides more the narrator of Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold”, to the point where I don’t think even he knows whose side he’s on. I think he’s just an overconfident, scheming psychopath amidst a bunch of overconfident, scheming sociopaths. This could have made for a good character study, except that we get treated to one too many chapters in which Jehal cackles over this or that scheme while the narrator explains to us precisely what’s going to happen next. The same goes for many of the other POV characters wrapped up in this plot. I just want to get back to the dragons.
Because, at the end of the day, I care about the dragons more than I do about these people. The dragons have my sympathy. These kings and queens? Not so much. Deas gives me little reason to cheer for any of these human characters; they’re all pretty despicable, and none of them sound like they’re going to do a better job running this land than any others. (It’s important to note that we get precious little face time with anyone who isn’t nobility, and the one sell-sword POV character is on Team Dragons. So that tells you a lot about the moral fibre of these rulers right there.)
Machinations in medieval-inspired fantasies should be like the medieval machinations that inspired them. There’s a reason why A Song of Ice and Fire steals so much from the Wars of the Roses. While it’s true that people changed sides during such conflicts, there was much more going on. I find such epic conflicts interesting because, when you read about them, you learn about what’s at stake, as well as the family politics behind the story. That isn’t present here. There are vague references to a war or two, as I mentioned above, and some allusions to pacts made long ago—and that’s about it. The Adamantine Palace is adrift in its timeline, providing little in the way or weight of history to anchor it.
I would really like to recommend this, if only because Deas does some interesting things with dragons. But it overreaches, overpromises, and does not end up delivering the depth of politics, characterization, or worldbuilding I’m looking for in my high fantasy. Am I overly critical and picky? Probably. But that doesn’t make me wrong!
If you like more “traditional” high fantasy, this book will appeal. As previously mentioned, the book follows nobility in the throes of unceasing intrigue. The nobility and their knights ride dragons, kept tame by the potions of the alchemists. During The Adamantine Palace, certain nobles conspire with and against each other (allegiances shift really fast) in the weeks leading up to the election of a new Speaker, who is kind of like the Secretary of the UN, if the Secretary of the UN had a small military force and a massive palace and tortured people. So, you know, exactly like the Secretary.
I feel like a really awful person. I keep saying I want to read more traditional high fantasy, and then I rip into the books for being too traditional and not doing enough to circumvent, subvert, or otherwise play with the tropes of high fantasy. Why do I do this to myself? Shadow Prowler is another recent example, and although I think I liked The Adamantine Palace better on the whole, I have similar complaints. By and large, Deas reaches in the Fantasy Tropes Grab Bag, pulls up a handful of good ones, and puts them to work. But one reason I’m not a huge fan of uninnovative traditional fantasy is simply because it’s lazy. With a generation or two of readers raised in this tradition, authors don’t have to spell things out. They just say, “dragon” or “knight” or “castle” and let us do the rest. I get the sense there is a rich and interesting society in this world, but Deas spends very little time explaining it. We get vague allusions to wars of succession, etc., but no fulfilling background.
Yet it’s not as if this book is devoid of exposition. There is plenty of it, spread across far too many POVs. Indeed, The Adamantine Palace jumps from character to character even more than Game of Thrones does! With each new chapter, I kept thinking, “Ugh, not another perspective!” Don’t get me wrong: I love, love, love books that show me characters on either side, protagonists and antagonists, perpetrators and victims of schemes, etc. That’s all well and good. But there is a limit, and Deas exceeds it.
Worse still, some of the POVs seem utterly unnecessary. He introduces a few characters only to unceremoniously kill them off (or they disappear, presumably killed) after one or two chapters. What, exactly, was their point? I don’t object to the killing of main characters, but the issue here is that they didn’t have time to become established as main characters. Meanwhile, characters who were previously side characters suddenly get promoted to main characters, and—look, do you know how hard it is for me to redraw my Fantasy Character Org Chart for a book every time someone dies? I need to stop working in permanent marker….
Once the ink is dry, though, and we have a fairly stable cast, what then of the story, the plot, all those intrigues? Well, I do love the dragons. My only complaint is that Deas drops his bombshell a little too far into the novel—I kept reading, because I could see hints along the lines of what he eventually reveals, but he plays it almost a little too coy. Still, once we learn the Truth About Dragons and get more scenes with the vengeful Snow, the book picks up pace. I also love how very few people actually understand the scope of this problem; most of the nobility who are even aware of the issue think it’s simply a case of a missing or kidnapped dragon. This feels very realistic to me (insofar as a fantasy book can be realistic), and it’s also something that can be difficult for an author to achieve. Balancing the need for characters to have imperfect information while also letting the audience in on the joke can be a delicate act, but Deas does it well.
Unfortunately, the dragon plot gets sidelined by political machinations that are not as exciting or well-thought-out as their author might think they are. For one, Prince Jehal switches sides more the narrator of Katy Perry’s “Hot N Cold”, to the point where I don’t think even he knows whose side he’s on. I think he’s just an overconfident, scheming psychopath amidst a bunch of overconfident, scheming sociopaths. This could have made for a good character study, except that we get treated to one too many chapters in which Jehal cackles over this or that scheme while the narrator explains to us precisely what’s going to happen next. The same goes for many of the other POV characters wrapped up in this plot. I just want to get back to the dragons.
Because, at the end of the day, I care about the dragons more than I do about these people. The dragons have my sympathy. These kings and queens? Not so much. Deas gives me little reason to cheer for any of these human characters; they’re all pretty despicable, and none of them sound like they’re going to do a better job running this land than any others. (It’s important to note that we get precious little face time with anyone who isn’t nobility, and the one sell-sword POV character is on Team Dragons. So that tells you a lot about the moral fibre of these rulers right there.)
Machinations in medieval-inspired fantasies should be like the medieval machinations that inspired them. There’s a reason why A Song of Ice and Fire steals so much from the Wars of the Roses. While it’s true that people changed sides during such conflicts, there was much more going on. I find such epic conflicts interesting because, when you read about them, you learn about what’s at stake, as well as the family politics behind the story. That isn’t present here. There are vague references to a war or two, as I mentioned above, and some allusions to pacts made long ago—and that’s about it. The Adamantine Palace is adrift in its timeline, providing little in the way or weight of history to anchor it.
I would really like to recommend this, if only because Deas does some interesting things with dragons. But it overreaches, overpromises, and does not end up delivering the depth of politics, characterization, or worldbuilding I’m looking for in my high fantasy. Am I overly critical and picky? Probably. But that doesn’t make me wrong!
cleverbaggins's review against another edition
1.0
This was defintiely not for me. The dragons are nothing but giant beasts to be used how the rich see fit. No personality. The rest of the death and politics werent enough to make it enjoyable at all