| Title | : | Dragonseed (Dragon Age, #3) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | 1844167542 |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781844167548 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Mass Market Paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 416 |
| Publication | : | First published January 1, 2009 |
Dragonseed (Dragon Age, #3) Reviews
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Well it is a bittersweet moment. I am happy to have the trilogy finished but at the same time I have no more books to read in probably the most creative world I have explored.
This was easily my least favorite book of the three but still a damn good cap on the series. I thought the last 50 pages or so where a little over the top and didn’t gel with the rest of the books.
I want to give James Maxey mad props as this trilogy goes down with some of the best I have ever read. -
I enjoyed this book. There are a lot of unique and interesting characters. I grew attached to many of them throughout the series. I loved Burke, with his crazy mechanical genius, and Anza the graceful silent warrior, Zeeky the girl who talks to animals and her brother Jeremiah. And Balsaphet was a pleasure to hate. Bitterwood and Jandra were ok, too. Maxey has quite an imagination.
The story gets a bit farfetched as we explore the power of nanotechnology and the full extent of Jazz's power, I added a bit of "willing suspension of disbelief" and enjoyed the ride.
Themes: Power corrupts... revenge obsesses... utopia stagnates
12/9/12
Clean readers: Thinking back; this one, more than the previous two, had some off color language. -
First off I'll say this series needed to be a quartet rather than a trilogy. There was so much in this book that at times it was overwhelming. It could have done with at least one more book to kind of stretch things out.
I genuinely can't stand Shay. I hate him so much that I have no real way to explain it. he was the worst part of this book and completely unnecessary. This book towards the end hurt me and not in a good emotional way. all the second book there was an issue with Jandra dealing with Ven's death and what he did. Instead in this book there isn't a warm reunion between the two. The scene cuts to Shay's perspective when he passes out and then when he wakes up we completely miss anything that jandra and ven would have had and instead we're treated with her and shay having sexy time.
for some reason I also thought that maybe this book was going to tackle some interesting subjects. there was a very brief issue with body dysmorphia when it comes to jandra and how she was raised by dragons. It's so brief it didn't need to be in the book because none of it was explored. There was also a point in the book where we switch to anza's point of view. Nothing is done with this, it's not unique in any sort of way. she's just a normal person. she just can't speak which doesn't make any sense because of how she was raised and treated.
I had thought for a bit that either jandra was going to be left alone romantically or end up with Hex. Again I thought this series with everything up to this point was going to be different but no. We couldn't have an interspecies couple but there certainly was a lot of rape and SA. Granted at least there's none of that in the final novel.
Some small issues: I thought the religious angle was fine. it was kind of interesting to explore that.
There was a lot of weird fetishization of native American culture starting with the second novel. It was still prevalent in the third but I think that's more of a testament to how far we've come with those sort of issues.
There's a lot of minor sexism in the book that really didn't need to be there considering this is supposed to be a thousand years in the future. It didn't feel like the setting was supposed to be a collapsed society. It just felt like generic medieval fantasy world without taking any other advancements the world had into account.
There's also the really creepy implications with the two main female characters Jandra and Anza being teens yet being referred to as women. The only actual woman in the book is jazz and she's made into this sociopath. The others are either teens or literal children.
I'm glad that the series is done though. I don't think I could stand anything after the third book. (I still am going to read the prequel) I just feel so betrayed with Shay ending up with Jandra and we not being allowed to see her interact with her father after he's brought back to life. There are so many missed opportunities in the series that would have been very interesting but instead it just feels like a generic fantasy with a bit of sci-fi thrown in. I don't regret having read the trilogy it was interesting for what it was. -
After the first two books I found this one disappointing. It seemed to me that the author was reaching to finish this volume, especially when he began resorting to adding a flying pig to his cast of characters.
The only thing I really found worthwhile was that Bitterwood was given an acceptable end. -
This was an interesting series, but I wish I'd known that it was a science fiction/fantasy mix before I started reading the first one! There were some fantastical elements that didn't quite go with the story.
On the whole, this trilogy had a dystopian depressive air. -
believable, enjoyable read.
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Gripping, this whole series of books is a joy and perfect for the self imposed exile during covid 19
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It feels a little disappointing and also unfocused as dragon villains gets kind of ignored and only brought back in the final couple of chapters. Also some parts of the story feel kind of rushed.
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Despite the premise being somewhat derivative of Planet of the Apes, this was a decent story. The shame of it is it could have been *great*, like on the level of Weis/Hickman and other fantasy luminaries.
Dragonseed is the somewhat unsatisifying conclusion to the Dragon Age series: Bitterwood, Dragonforge, Dragonseed. It should go without saying that one needs to read the previous two books before embarking on this one. Without the previous two, most if not all of what goes on in book 3 would be confusing.
The story itself is pretty good, helped by the fact that I'm familiar with the author's penchant for overly long dialogue sequences where the characters expound at length on some personal conflict or self discovery, etc. The dialogue was a bit rough at time, like the author forgot that the humans were a throwback to the middle ages. The story suffered from too many extraneous threads. For example, what was the point of the titular Dragonseed when it and its origin were nowhere near to the central plot? While overall the writing fell between okay and average, I hated HATED the way the villains were handled: there, bad, GONE! Their resolution was very unsatisfying and the ending itself kind of fizzled out, like the author was in a hurry to tie up any/all loose ends.
Truthfully, the writing wasn't completely bad; it just got a little stale at times, a quality that plagued all three books. For instance, finding out that Ragnar was Jandra's brother...eh so what? It was some random factoid that wasn't explored or fleshed out and just served to add pages. In another case, when Hex meets Burke for the first time a good 70% into the book, we're treated to a full-on description of Burke. Why? The reader knows what he looks like, even if Hex doesn't. Another problem was poorly mixed tones - to me, you can't or shouldn't mix cutesy G-rated stuff with scenes of a stack of human heads comprised of men, women, and infants.
So why did I give it 4 stars? Although the writing was not great, the premise was interesting and it was entertaining. A lot of my complaints above come from frustration that this could have been a classic piece of fantasy. This is the reason why I’m having such a hard time writing this review. Part of me liked it and part of me raged at some of the writing foibles. Still I'd recommend it to anyone looking for a sci-fi fantasy story featuring dragons – just don’t set your expectations too high. -
From ISawLightningFall.com
Developing a series is difficult. If you maintain the status quo, audiences will dismiss it as predictable. Over-innovate and they'll claim that you've destroyed all the elements they loved. How ought an author to navigate between this particular rock and hard place? James Maxey offers a good example in Dragonseed, the third installment in the Dragon Age series: Drop a major technological innovation in familiar characters' laps and let them riff off it.
The once-proud dragon kingdom stands perched on the edge of chaos. Its armies were routed while trying to suppress the human uprising at Dragonforge. The heir to its throne has perished by an assassin's blade. And the rebels now possess a weapon long thought lost -- gunpowder. With petty lords peeling their various fiefdoms from the kingdom, the situation looks dire. But Vulpine, a cunning sky-dragon warrior, has his own plans to crush the upstarts and return order to the land. This insurgence is nothing a good blockade and outbreak of disease can't solve, and Vulpine intends to instigate both. Only a new threat seems to be emerging, a charismatic healer drawing dragons and humans alike into his fold, one who claims he can heal every infirmity -- and whose largess may hide darker designs.
Dragonseed maintains Maxey's typical mix of SF and fantasy, as well as addressing familiar themes such as naturalism and faith, the limits of political interventionism, and the danger of demagogy. Also, the novel serves up pleasingly complex battles as snarled as a catnip-spiked ball of yarn tossed into a box full of kittens. It's consistently entertaining stuff. Where the book falls short of Dragonforge (the series' apogee so far) is in a tendency to lose itself in exposition. True, much has transpired in the space of two volumes, but the book stays stuck in past events for a good chunk of its beginning. A minor flaw. Still, I doubt anyone will feel disappointed by the time the final climactic confrontation rolls around. Dragonseed grows into something exciting indeed. -
This book was given to me for free at my request and I provided this voluntary review.
James Maxey brings the Bitterwood trilogy to a smashing conclusion. This novel follows the events of Dragonforge and I would recommend reading that before jumping into Dragonseed.
There are three larger arcs in this novel and each is a slightly different genre:
The Siege of Dragonforge as the dragons try to re-take the city is a low fantasy novel that brilliantly tackles both sides of “Now what?” after a successful coup.
The mysteries of the dragonseed and the miraculous healings that follow give more of a high fantasy flavor.
The third larger quest to restore Jandra’s powers as well as the fallout from the changes that were made to her and Zeke in the previous volume delve firmly into science fiction territory.
The characters we have grown to know and (in some cases) love are back (including a few we thought were dead) and as they wander in and out of each of these larger plots creating a continuity between the different tones. In a less skilled author’s hands this could have gotten unwieldy. Everything comes crashing together in a series of plot twists and climaxes. Characters continue to evolve and develop in unexpected ways that still feel like natural extensions of what they’ve been through. A few new characters are introduced and we come to care for them.
Maxey’s signature blend of humor, action, pathos, characters indulging in philosophical discussions and the unpredictable plots turns are in full force.
The narrator does an excellent job giving voice not just to different characters but multiple species of dragons and making them all sound distinct and recognizable. There were a few times in the recording that you could tell that a line had been re-recorded and spliced in but not to the detriment of listening enjoyment.
This is the conclusion to a trilogy and leaves everything tied up in a satisfying way however Maxey is currently working on a sequel series. It is a great time to enjoy this trilogy to get up to speed before Dragongate comes out. -
a great ending to the human - dragon war, very strong sense of adventure and good use of technology!! The goddess was crazy but the characters in the series were very lovable, especially zeeky and her pig and poor lizard and hexizilian!! thoroughly enjoyed the trilogy.
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This is the third and final book in his "Dragon Age" trilogy. I admit I was quite disappointed with this book - definitely not as good as the previous two. I really liked the idea, but for me, by this book it has all become a bit too 'weird'.
Thought the Harry Potter comments were quite silly, but maybe unnecessary?
I didn't like the cheesy romance with Jandra - this seemed very Hollywood, and didn't really seem to make much sense to me either. It suddenly appeared very quickly and just didn't feel realistic to me - just that the author felt he needed a romance story and put it in as an afterthought. I also disliked the ending, to be honest, as it seemed a bit too cliché. No one dies, everyone gets a happy ending. Hooray.
I did like however, hearing about Blasphet, and also I didn't think that would be the end of Jazz. It was just the rest, really, that felt a little unnecessary and cheesy! A shame as otherwise this series has been quite good and a really unique story. -
Maxey's Dragon Age Trilogy is my first taste of cross genre fiction, and having finished reading Dragonseed I'm left to admire the ingenuity of the author for his weave of multiple plots and characters in this science fiction-fantasy adventure. His crisp prose made for an easy reading and the plot is packed with action. And like most plot driven stories, the characters can go on without needing much rest. There's nothing ordinary about the story events here. Everything is possible, and the power of absolute control is explained through a technology called nanites (nano robots). Sometimes, the stories are a bit far fetched to my taste. But that's how science fiction goes. I'd also point out that the trilogy, or perhaps the author shows disdain over absolute power resting on ONE supreme being, presenting them as power hungry immortals with simplistic ideals. That's how he paints most of the gods (there are many gods here). Dragonseed is a clever formulaic fiction and I like it.
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I really enjoyed this again. As Maxey's Bitterwood is really what opened my eyes to the what could be out there in fantasy/sci-fi. At first I wasn't a huge fan of the whole sciency/Atlantis aspect of the series but it was well done and grew on me.
There are the old characters and a few new ones in here. I wonder if this is the last of the series of if there will be more. There is room for more books, and in a way it seems a little out there. But if it's the end of a series it serves well too. -
found this to be the weakest of the trilogy. Part of the problem (for me) was that there were sooooo many characters, in so many places doing strange things that I couldn't always follow, that I became quite confused.
Description:
After the death ok King Albekizan, Shandrazel and his allies struggle to keep the kingdom intact as the radical human prophet, Ragnar gathers forces to launch a full scale rebellion against the dragons. When all out war erupts, legendary dragon hunter, Bitterwood, must face his own personal demons and choose where his loyalty really lies. -
The war between humans and dragons wages on, but now Jandra and her crew faces a new threat from an old enemy. I'm not quite sure how I feel about the direction this series has taken, which is basically nanotechnology gone wild. It all seems kinda outrageous and maybe even unintentionally comical. It was still pretty entertaining. This doesn't seem to be the end of the series, but if it is then I find this proposed end a bit dissatisfying.
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Oh my goodness... I don't know where to begin.
As I said when I first began this trilogy, it was a little hard to get into; Dragons as sentient beings was a little much. But boy, am I glad I stuck with it. I haven't loved a story this much since I was a kid reading Redwall series.
I don't wanna reveal anything that might spoil this story in the slightest for you.
All I can say is READ IT!!! -
Okay, seriously the only downfall is for any aspiring author. Maxey covers human behavior with such depth and breadth, there isn't anything left to explore! And his imagination regarding this society and how it came to be is INSANE!
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A fantastic read, with many twists and turns both surprising and humorous! The references to our day and age add a further later of intrigue and the mixture of primitive struggles and advanced technology makes this a truly epic tale.
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This book answers more of the quesions that the second book raised...and you learn more about the creation of this unique world, as well as finding more depth to its main characters.
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A good read, definitely need to read all 3 in the series. An interesting take on the future of mankind, advanced technology, and taking things too far. Entertaining!
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love the world building...hate the dialogue
