| Title | : | Dragonforge (Dragon Age, #2) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1844165817 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781844165810 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 541 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2008 |
Dragonforge (Dragon Age, #2) Reviews
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Despite problems, I couldn't help but like this book. First, let me get my main gripe out of the way.
In this sequel to Bitterwood where intelligent dragons rule the world there are two humans named Jandra & Pet. Pet, cloistered as a dragon's pet for many years desires Jandra in a big way. Jandra alternates between attraction/repulsion of Pet but privately desires him as well. Pretty routine as far as storybook romances go and nothing shocking in this passage:
"He (Pet) drifted into a fantasy that began with the offer of a cup of warm cider on a cool evening, then moved to a vision of Jandra’s gown and his pants tangled together at the foot of a bed."
Again, nothing really out there until you consider an earlier introductory passage: "A human female sixteen years of age, Jandra had been raised by Vendevorex almost as a daughter." And combine it with "Beside her stood Pet, a human male nearly ten years older."
Maybe it's just my 21st century sensibilities but I couldn't help but cringe every time I read a passage about either of these two longing for the other. At times I wondered if the author forgot the age of his characters:
"Bitterwood sensed that the change in her (Jandra) since last they’d met was more than just a change of wardrobe. He strained to keep up with her. She definitely hadn’t been this strong or fast when they’d first met. Then, she’d been little more than a child in a young woman’s body."
And our hero from the previous book...well, his description says it:
"Bant (Bitterwood) looked nothing like anyone’s hero. His hair was thinning; he was missing quite a few teeth, and, though he was strong and wiry, he wasn’t as tall as a hero should be. His clothes were little more than rags, and twenty years of survival beneath an open sky had left him with a face of wrinkled leather."
When one looks at the cover of the first book, Bitterwood, does that picture match the above description? Maxey doesn't go for the stereotypical good looking or even adult protagonist look. I do wish the author had narrowed the main characters a little - you have Gaxon the dragon, Jandra, Pet, Bitterwood, and Zeeky but none of their point of views were overly compelling reads. I definitely felt like this was a plot driven story.
There was also a discontinuity between the backdrop of Dragonforge and Bitterwood. In the previous book, I got the impression that the "world" was almost like a preserve, e.g. Cynthia, an Atlantean, says she's on an ecological survey. However, in this book, it's almost as if the world is simply a playground for one power-mad Atlantean.
However, despite the plot inconsistencies and at times strained dialog, it wasn't a bad book. It was an enjoyable read moves the story along and I will pick up the third and final book. -
What I like about James Maxey is that he grows as a writer. Not many people can admit that something is wrong with the book and change it like he did. I was a little unprepared for the whole sci-fi world jumping that was brought into this series but then again that just made it even better.
I do have to admit it got a little crazy but in the end it made a lot of sense. I was a little confused about the whole prophets thing and sorta wished there was a middle ground were people did believe in god but weren't crazy. Maybe that'll happen in the third book. -
So sllllooooowwwww
Narrator: 1⭐ ouch. Echoey audio and the differences between characters and their accents is not the best. Makes for a less enjoyable experience. Good pacing and tone though. The women all speak with lisps which is super irritating and the dragons all sound like they’ve got cotton mouth.
Parents: not for under 18 - R rated
Language: very strong (R; Fbombs present)
Violence: R rated gore
Sexual content: lots nudity, descriptive adult content, 18+
The story 3⭐. I have not read the first book but for what you hear, you wouldn’t know this is the second book in a series. Like another reviewer mentioned, this tale is rather wandersome and you don’t really understand why you care about hardly anything happening in this book. The chunk with the Goddess was an entertaining highlight. The dragons are so humanoid that if you removed draconic references you’d swear they were human. The mature content makes this a strongly inappropriate read for those under 18 even though some of that content is laughable enough your eyes might roll out of your skull.
Overall a rather bland and poorly performed book, hopefully book 3 is better?
—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. -
I had requested and received audiobook version of this book for free from the author, in exchange for an unbiased review.
I hadn't read Bitterwood, the first book of this series and had directly started with this second book. Thankfully the book has a lot of backstory provided and I was able to get a grasp on what's happening. Too much isn't lost. This then works alright as a stand-alone. But I would love to go read the first book too, if I get a chance. And then continue with future books of the series.
What I loved about this book is its unique treatment of dragons. It slightly reminded me of Eragon. The relation woven between Dragons and humans and their interaction and battles are all so very intriguing. The writing style is great, plot is solid and the characters are well written. The fantastic story kept me interested throughout and kept coming back everyday to learn what happens next.
What lets this book down is the below par narration. The different voices Eric Joseph Chancy tried to use for characters were pretty poor and his delivery felt lacking too. I'm sure he could've done a better job. -
The story continues and isn't too bad. It takes a bit of a twist into the realm of science fiction, which I didn't have a problem with; it did get confusing when I was left hanging without explanations about particulars involving the Atlanteans. I can't go into further detail without spoilers.
The author seemed to have lost his original proofreader because this volume was plagued with many typos and added words-it got to be rather annoying when they continued throughout.
Despite the problems I had with this book, the story was still good and entertaining; plus, I for one found it rather refreshing that this author isn't timid about killing off characters. As long as the story remains good I'll keep reading through the series until its conclusion. -
I felt this one was a bit weaker then the previous book, as I really did not like the direction it was going as I liked the idea of them focusing on how to build a society between the dragons and the humans and the struggles that goes with it. But it just keeps going with the theme of Dragons vs humans.
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This was a good story, but I'm not sure how I feel about the science fiction elements.
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From ISawLightningFall.com
Middle installments of trilogies are tough going. Trapped between initial exposition and the ultimate conclusion, the author must entice his audience without the aid of novelty or resolution. No wonder that so many feel muddled and meandering, a detour from the story's destination rather than a stop along the way. But occasionally you'll happen upon one that consolidates the best parts of its predecessor, dumps its flaws and transforms into a standout novel in its own right. That's exactly what happens with James Maxey's Dragonforge, sequel to Bitterwood.
King Albekizan is dead. The once-mighty dragon lord perished mysteriously when an attempted massacre of incarcerated humans broke out into armed rebellion. Now his once-exiled son Shandrazel is in charge, and he has grand visions of a land where equality reigns, a place where dragons and men can dwell together in harmony. But there are almost as many obstacles to his dream as scales on his hide. The valkyrie legions, female guardians of the dragonic bloodlines, believe such plans endanger their genetic heritage. Ragnar the prophet has begun fomenting resistance among downtrodden humans, amassing war machines with the aid of a Cherokee engineer named Burke. Then there's Blasphet, also known as the Murder God, a dragon dedicated to senseless slaughter who has a coterie of suicidal followers dedicated to following his every whim. And just when you think those might be complications enough, Shandrazel has to deal with that most difficult of foes -- himself. When a realm long ruled by mere might faces strains, lofty ideals can fade like frost under the noonday sun.
Dragonforge improves on its predecessor in most every way. Maxey's mélange of high-fantasy tropes and hard science prove particularly effective. Magic meshes with nanotechnology, siege engines with steampunk, subterranean wyrms with wormholes. "Unique" is a word much bantered about in speculative fiction, but the novel displays a creative vision unlike anything I've ever encountered. It also contains plenty of thematic grit. Characters opine on weighty subjects such as libertarian anarchy and philosophical nihilism. And the actions scenes (of which there are plenty) are so cracking good that I wouldn't be at all surprised to see some Hollywood studio snap up the screen rights. The downside? Well, the prose is a bit rough at points, and fanatical Ragnar is almost a caricature. But these are relatively minor quibbles. Dragonforge burns bright. -
have thoroughly enjoyed reading the 2nd book of this trilogy and am fascinated at the way humans had control of the planet and were supposedly really evolved but got overthrown by the dragons which they themselves had engineered as sport in hunting and that now humans are once again rebelling and trying their utmost to overthrow the dragons rule and might once again be the rulers of the planet with dragons hunted for sport!! the two religious extremist factions are as usual senseless and driven by hate of all things that do not follow their own belief but it seems things never change where humans are concerned, these idiot fanatics always manage to get a great following of people ready to die and kill for their belief!! the dragons in fact made more sense than the humans!! dying to see how this trilogy will end but i am sure that they will never live peacefully side by side respecting one another!!
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I finished this one last month but just haven't gotten around to writing the review.
I liked this one about as much as the previous book.
Setting: We get to see a little more of the world. The lair of the goddess and the Nest were both kind of cool and fun. The whole dimensional travel and stuff just felt a bit weird and out of place (even though this is supposed to be far future) though. Maybe even a bit too convenient.
Plot: There were 2-3 main storylines here. And a couple sub-plots. Nothing too fancy but also not distracting or poorly handled.
Conflict: My biggest problem with this book (and the series) is the super-human-ness of all the characters. But, I know that James is working on this and (probably) fixed it for the next book in the series. The biggest source for conflict in this story is about religion and diety beliefs, and I felt that James took a too simple approach. All rational, thinking characters decried religion; and all lunatics and idiots embraced it. James could have made this much more complex and dirty, I feel.
Character: He does do a great job with creating likable (or hate-able) characters. We meet some new ones and learn fun facts about existing (to the series) ones. This is definitely one of James' strengths as a writer.
Text: James is a competent writer and has lots of intriguing stories in his head. His craft mastery gets better with each book I read of his. -
Dragonforge is the sequel to James Maxey's Bitterwood.
It is the rarest of second installations in a trilogy, in that each character has their own self contained arc and the book can be enjoyed as a self contained volume. Orson Scott Card read this book first and enjoyed it so much he went back and thoroughly enjoyed the first volume as well.
If you did successfully read Bitterwood first know that the characters you know and love that survived the first book (and even a few that seemingly didn't!) are back and we get to expand the scope of the world, delve into back stories, learn starting revelations but more importantly see them grow and change in satisfying and sometimes hair-pulling ways. New characters, settings and revelations are put into action and Maxey throws things at you from out of the blue that have been carefully telegraphed from the first book.
Dragonforge contains actions, interesting and even genre bending twists and turns, philosophical musings, wry humor and more than once had me yelling at the book in excitement.
This stands as a strong second part of one of my favorite trilogies and I highly recommend it to anyone who is a genre fan that wants to try something new, different and entertaining. -
This book had the unfortunate position of being the fifth fantasy book I read during a fantasy binge that I was on. I'm normally not a big fantasy reader, so by this one, I was burned out on fantasy. The point being that I might have liked it more if I wasn't in a hurry to get it over and done with.
You could argue that this book isn't even fantasy (more like science fiction) since it takes place in the future and involves very unfantasy-like plot lines with nano technology and genetic modification. But really, that was my main problem with this book. For me, it just felt like Maxey was branching too far out from his original idea. I wish he had stuck to dragons. Dragons taking over the world I can swallow. A thousand-year-old woman who lives in an underground cave from which she controls the minute actions of the humans living above her using advanced technology that the rest of mankind has forgotten about - too far out there for me. -
This is a follow on from book 1, "Bitterwood". I felt that this one was a lot better - the timeline was more consistent and less confusing, and it explained in further detail about the history of the humans and dragons which I found really interesting. I also enjoyed the dragons (though maybe not so much the Romeo and Juliet love story!).
I did wonder, though, that if all the females have to live together in the Nest, why is the Queen allowed to live in the palace? Why is she different?
I will definitely be reading book 3, as the conclusion of this book is quite a cliff-hanger and very dramatic! - it will be really exciting to see what happens now. -
This book took me forever to read, not because it wasn’t good, I just didn’t have any time to read. It made it a little difficult to keep some of the minor characters straight.
I really enjoyed this story! I almost don’t know who to root for, especially when it’s told from Jandra’s point of view. Like real life, there are good guys on both sides. Like real life, characters change.
A middle books in a series, this book has a lot of untied ends, and I just can’t wait to find out what happens next.
According to Amazon.com Dragonseed comes out July 6, 2009. -
A sequel to Bitterwood, this book is far better than it's predecessor by miles. Not that Bitterwood was bad, it was just average.
Dragonforge was captivating and creative. Though I guessed a few of the plot twists, there were an equal number that were a shock. Maxey also does a fantastic exploration and elaboration of the world of The Dragon Age. This is one of the strong points of the book. The imagination and description of how the world came to be is simply fantastic.
Also, Blasphet is awesome. -
Still just as intricately done as "Bitterwood!" Characters make major changes or stay the same, but it always feels right. Maxey unerringly builds the story so when things happen that you didn't see coming, you feel like, maybe not that you should have known, but that there really wasn't any other way it was going to happen.
Have you seriously not read the Dragon Age novels? Hi! Go get "Bitterwood" right NOW! These are NOT your typical dragon stories! -
Better than most middle books of trilogies I've read. Maxey delivers fast-paced hijinks with dragons and massive battles and , but also depicts a society coming apart at the seams at the same time it's trying to remake itself, and the pain and hate and suffering that such conflicts can cause (leaving our protagonists in a . Fun and thought-provoking, quite an achievement.
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4.5 stars
Dragonforge is a cross fiction novel, filled to the brim with action and character development that has gripped me to the end. Science fiction and fantasy, its story is woven tightly with firm plausibility, I just couldn't find faults to doubt its world. I love the punchy prose as well. -
Decent enough book, I did grow wearisome of the religion bashing after a point, and some of the reveals I smelled a mile away given the things that went on in Bitterwood. I'm hoping the third book washes away some of the disappointment this one left me with.
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A gripping novel from start to finish!
Following 'Bitterwood', the ideal world envisioned by Shandrazel is harder to put into practice than at first imagined. A very real account of the struggles of peace, war and diplomacy in a magical context! -
I LOVE this series.
The mark of a superbly-written story: able to draw the reader in and make them feel like they know the characters and are living the same story as they are reading.
And that twist at the end... fabulous. -
The second book showed more of the science-fiction aspect of this interesting fantasy world this author created...as well as raising more questions about the world and its organisims living in it.
