A review by driedfrogpills
Chasing Embers by James Bennett
3.0
Chasing Embers feels like reading three different books in one: you've got the urban fantasy angle, with legendary creatures living alongside an ignorant humanity; you've got the magical past backstory complete with centuries-old grudge match; and you've got the Egyptian/North African history, now with more dragons.
The thing is, just one of these stories would have been cool, and I know this is the first book in a series so there's a lot of world-building that has to go into it. But at times I felt like I was getting whiplash from all the different plot lines and elements. There's a way to do it cleanly in fantasy fiction - I'm just not sure Bennett quite hit the mark.
That said, I liked our mainman dragon Ben. He had a noir detective air to him that for me made me feel his age. Which I can appreciate, dealing with a character that is supposed to be centuries old. A lot of the supporting cast are also equally awesome and complex, and the ending did have some very satisfying parts to it. Though I could have done without the Rose romantic subplot, because their relationship just felt so fake.
The writing could be a little less purple-prosy, but after a while I kind of started ignoring it. And to be honest, I'll probably try to pick up the second book whenever it gets published, because I'm a sucker for dragons.
The thing is, just one of these stories would have been cool, and I know this is the first book in a series so there's a lot of world-building that has to go into it. But at times I felt like I was getting whiplash from all the different plot lines and elements. There's a way to do it cleanly in fantasy fiction - I'm just not sure Bennett quite hit the mark.
That said, I liked our main
The writing could be a little less purple-prosy, but after a while I kind of started ignoring it. And to be honest, I'll probably try to pick up the second book whenever it gets published, because I'm a sucker for dragons.