I don't feel like spending a long time tearing this book apart, so I'll just say it briefly. The writing is just very poor.
"All of a sudden" and its like are overused. The drama is summarized and told rather than shown. The characters are flat and seem to be the author's favorite D&D personas, not real people. Descriptions are filled with mad-lib-esque adjectives of a poor, and often repetitive, nature. Nothing pops.
I'll be honest. I picked it up because of the cover art, and it just wasn't worth it. ( )

It's fine, but could really have used an editing pass for consistency and pacing. There's a lot of minor but noticeable errors, and some events of the story should have been shuffled around to make more sense. But worth reading. ( )

Why can't it ever be easy to rate a book?

When I started on this book, I was less than impressed with it. There are a lot, and I mean a LOT, of missing commata, and the Author is very fond of plastering an adverb onto every word that can even remotely hold it, which is something I find highly annoying. Me being sick at that time probably did not help matters either.

But the second half (coincidentally, when I was feeling better) was much better. The book did not have any really surprising twists or turns, everything was kind of predictable, but I liked the world building, even though it was in parts pretty generic, and the magic system (although system may be a big word for it, since there seems to be only a minimal amount of "system" to it).

The thing I liked best about the book is the cover though. I just love the style. ;-)

I will read the second part of the series and, depending on how much I like it, the remaining parts as well. ( )

Firstly I have to say, I adore these covers, the entire series. Love them to bits. A powerful book of spells has been taken, the scholars studying it slaughtered, and all clues point to someone planning to summon something horrific. To do that, they'll need a power source, a well of magic, but the locations of those have long been lost. A loner mage is sent to return a precious treasure to the Dragons who were the enemy a scant half generation ago, in hopes they can be persuaded to talk peace, in hope that with their long memories they can help locate the magic well, and prevent the summoning. Of course, nothing goes to plan. For a first novel, particularly a self-published one, this is not bad, but it's not spectactular. There's a fairly unique take on magic in these books, but the rest feels a little like pastiche in places. There's the stern dragon riding sirens, bound for life to their sentient, telepathic dragons - Ok, these dragons are the ones in charge, and can talk, but I think we've seen this before, a time or ten. There's the mages who are more interested in political intrigue than being useful. There's Vampyres and Lycans and Dark Elves (ok we don't meet any, but they're mentioned plenty - they're the ones who made the magic wells everyone is looking for). A solid journeyman opening effort, but somehow, it just didn't take hold of me quite enough. ( )

I picked this book up because I loved the cover, my interest was piqued by the blurb, and because I read good things about it. I really wanted to like it, but… at best I came away with mixed feelings. Galley has made use of some truly beautiful prose, but it is unfortunately buried in a hailstorm of adjectives and repetition that tangled the flow rather than moving it along. He tells an interesting story about an unusual character, but… his choice of wording put a distance between me and the characters that was only exacerbated by poor grammar. I read about these people, I didn’t *feel* them, couldn’t become invested in them. They felt shallow. The dialogue was frustratingly weak, and oh, the head-hopping…

The magic seems interesting—and I love the idea of the tattoos investing a person with particular strengths. I like, too, that gaining those marks was not an easy process to endure. There are hints of another, older magic, and I wish that had been explored a little more, just so that I could see that a difference actually existed. Otherwise, not a lot is said about what the magic can or can’t do, even by the end of the book.

We’re served a platter of typical fantasy-fare creatures: vampires/vampyres, werewolves, dragons, elves, trolls, etc. The Sirens—who are nothing at all like traditional sirens—provide a bright spot with their (not uncommon to the genre) bonding with the dragons, which inexorably changes them. They begin developing scales as well as taking on the dragon’s color and personality, except in the case of the king dragon and the queen Siren, and no explanation was offered for that inconsistency. The storm giants? Awesome.

The drug addiction is an unusual subject for fantasy, and the character’s involvement with “nevermar” starts out strongly on both the personal and the social front. We can understand a little about his problem with it, and it promises an obstacle that is difficult to overcome. I enjoyed the idea of a hero with some very real problems, but… but… the drugs weren’t one of them and his crazy uncle wore himself right out. For someone of Farden’s age, education (hello, Written), and experience, he was often extremely stupid and illogical. I want one or the other; the two do not mix well in the same character! About halfway through, more or less, we were suddenly introduced to foul language, which not only didn’t fit the scene(s) well, but served to take me right out of them. Personal preference? To a certain extent, yes, but I thought the use felt first forced, then lazy.

The dream scenes—also interesting, but could pack a little more oomph. There are all kinds of hints, and then an outright realization, but the character does the realizing and I was left scratching my head. Did I miss something? Maybe. Being bludgeoned by adjectives had me skimming.

The author also has a tendency to introduce chapters and sections with a mysterious “someone” that is only identified later in the scene rather than coming out and telling the reader who we’re dealing with. This works occasionally, but after a while it is only annoying. Potentially *good* scenes were overwritten, and I got the distinct impression of a play-by-chat RPG. As a result, the actual plot suffered. The player knew what it was, and the rest of us got yanked from place to place with rarely discernible reason.

And then the wonderful potential that kept sneaking out went all to pieces with the melodramatic—and also illogical—antagonist. I couldn’t help but think of all the badguys faced by Scooby Doo and the gang. And that’s just sad.

The bottom line? In spite of the twitch-inducing problems, I think this could be a really fantastic story if it were put into the hands of a ruthless editor. All of the “good buts” I’ve mentioned could so easily become strong points and turn this book into a “must read.”
( )