So, today's review will be a little bit different - it will be about
Never Deal with Dragons. Now, some of you that really keep up on board games may be thinking to yourself, "hey, I haven't heard of that one." And, those of you that clicked on the link may be going - "wait, that's a book!" Yep. Today I'm going to review a lesser-known eBook that I recently finished (hence the lack of pictures), which was written by a friend of mine (but to be honest, many of the games I review are published by friends of mine, so I think I've learned how to not be too biased).
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| An unrelated dragon (Defenders of the Realm) |
Now, before I continue, there's something that you should be aware of. This book is classified as romance. Yeah - it made me feel slimy, too. That classification does a terrible injustice to the book, as it will immediately make thousands (millions?) of people like me skip it without looking any further. In fact, I bought it to support my friend, and as I was reading through it, I was fully intending to stop and move on as soon as it got all romance-bookish. Fortunately, that didn't really happen. Yes, there is one obligatory sex scene (it's about a page or two), but really, I didn't think that it had any more sex in it than the recent fantasy series that I've read through - it's fairly in line with the Game of Thrones series, the Dresden Files, or the Sword of Truth books when it comes to amount of sex versus cool stuff. (Though, in Never Deal With Dragons, sex is more emotional instead of just straight physical, because it's told from a female perspective.) And, why do I relate it to those books? For a couple of reasons - first, that's what I read, and second, I feel that this should be classified as urban fantasy instead of romance.
Now that I've disclaimed a few times, let me start telling you about the book. In my opinion, it reads very similarly to the Dresden Files, except that it is told from a female perspective (and the female lead is a dragon speaker, and not a wizard). As a guy, it is interesting to read a story that is told from a female perspective, as there are some things that are shared that I would never have thought about, and it gave me a bit more (fictional) insight into a potential female thought process. Yet, the inner monologue wasn't too distracting from the story itself. If you enjoy the first person narrative style of Dresden, and the swirling of tense and breath-catching chapters of Butcher's stories, then you should feel right at home in Never Deal With Dragons.
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| Another unrelated dragon (Dungeon Command) |
Next, I think that Lorenda (the author) has done a
remarkable job in creating a fantasy universe. I really enjoyed when she would include bits of lore about the setting that the story takes place in. These little tidbits helped you feel more immersed in this alternate reality. Here are some basics about the setting of the book. Dragons are real; they were created by a failed lab experiment. The dragons are also intelligent. This combination means that the dragons have essentially taken over the world, and humans either work with them or serve them, depending on the part of the world you live in. The humans that work best with dragons are "dragon speakers" (like the main character), and this language is still relatively young. In addition to these post-apocalyptic features, the author has mixed in some traditional dragon lore (such as hoarding wealth), but has done it in a way that fits in with the rest of the environment - like wealth is hoarded by the dragons owning all of the world's major corporations.
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| One final unrelated dragon (Heroscape) |
Now, since I've not really written book reviews, I don't know how much plot to write about (I don't want to give anything away), but ultimately, the heroine finds herself (completely unprepared) in a major quarrel between dragons, and she must figure out what is going on before things get out of hand. This causes some chapters that are dripping with tension, where I felt like I couldn't put the book down until it had been resolved, as I waited to see what was going to happen next. (I've read enough Game of Thrones books that I no longer take for granted that main characters will make it out alright.)
Overall, I found
Never Deal with Dragons to be a nice, light read that wound up fitting incredibly well within my preferred style of reading (I'm anxiously awaiting the next Dresden book). Plus, it's only about $3 dollars on Amazon - so, ultimately, why not pick it up and see what you think? And, if you do, please leave a comment and let me know what you thought. I think that it was really good, but I wouldn't mind some other opinions.
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