A review by petra_reads
Greatshadow, by James Maxey
4.0
This was my first ever dragon book, it is also the first book in a four-part series called The Dragon Apocalypse. But it works perfectly fine as a standalone.
Told in first-person, the narrator isn't the protagonist, making this quite an original way of relaying the story. Stagger, the narrator, actually dies right at the start of the story. Following his long-term companion around in ghost-format, Stagger tells the story of Infidel, a super strong female mercenary, and his secret love interest.
I really enjoyed Stagger's perspective. He was funny and endearing although he had basically been a drunk and a scoundrel most of his life.
The plot itself is a fairly typical action-adventure quest featuring a group of incompatible rogues setting off to slay a powerful dragon, [b:Greatshadow|11511696|Greatshadow (Dragon Apocalypse, #1)|James Maxey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1323068557s/11511696.jpg|16447780], the dragon of fire. As I'm generally not a huge fan of fantasy epics, I appreciated that this was fast-paced action and entertainment rather than loads of dry world building. Characters were introduced with sufficient history and they, as well as the setting, were described thoroughly enough to make it easy to imagine the island, the dragons, the immortals, the orcs etc.
The rather mixed bunch of characters surrounding Infidel were all likeable and fun despite the expected tension within their group. I really enjoyed the "romantic" elements of Infidel's story as well although some of it was getting very close to being cheesy. Still, the arc about Stagger and Infidel's relationship, which neither of them had honestly and fully appreciated until Stagger wasn't alive anymore, was an interesting addition to all the sword wielding action. Overall, this was humorous, close to silly at times, but a lot more entertaining and fun than I had expected from my very first dragon fantasy book.
Being honest here, I wouldn't have sat down to read this in book-format. It's just not my thing. But listening to this was phenomenal and so much fun. Jake Urry brought the characters to life in a spectacular fashion. His dragon voices were scary, his portrayal of The Three Goons was wonderful, in particular No Face. I like how Jake makes female characters sound believable and not like cartoon-type characters. There was a large cast of characters involved, but it was always clear who was talking due to Jake Urry's differentiation and tones.
Told in first-person, the narrator isn't the protagonist, making this quite an original way of relaying the story. Stagger, the narrator, actually dies right at the start of the story. Following his long-term companion around in ghost-format, Stagger tells the story of Infidel, a super strong female mercenary, and his secret love interest.
I really enjoyed Stagger's perspective. He was funny and endearing although he had basically been a drunk and a scoundrel most of his life.
The plot itself is a fairly typical action-adventure quest featuring a group of incompatible rogues setting off to slay a powerful dragon, [b:Greatshadow|11511696|Greatshadow (Dragon Apocalypse, #1)|James Maxey|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1323068557s/11511696.jpg|16447780], the dragon of fire. As I'm generally not a huge fan of fantasy epics, I appreciated that this was fast-paced action and entertainment rather than loads of dry world building. Characters were introduced with sufficient history and they, as well as the setting, were described thoroughly enough to make it easy to imagine the island, the dragons, the immortals, the orcs etc.
The rather mixed bunch of characters surrounding Infidel were all likeable and fun despite the expected tension within their group. I really enjoyed the "romantic" elements of Infidel's story as well although some of it was getting very close to being cheesy. Still, the arc about Stagger and Infidel's relationship, which neither of them had honestly and fully appreciated until Stagger wasn't alive anymore, was an interesting addition to all the sword wielding action. Overall, this was humorous, close to silly at times, but a lot more entertaining and fun than I had expected from my very first dragon fantasy book.
Being honest here, I wouldn't have sat down to read this in book-format. It's just not my thing. But listening to this was phenomenal and so much fun. Jake Urry brought the characters to life in a spectacular fashion. His dragon voices were scary, his portrayal of The Three Goons was wonderful, in particular No Face. I like how Jake makes female characters sound believable and not like cartoon-type characters. There was a large cast of characters involved, but it was always clear who was talking due to Jake Urry's differentiation and tones.