![]() The first book was great but this one was awesome, could not put it down. If you like any of these things, you will like this book, and I eagerly look forward to my next adventure with the Elysium’s crew. To conclude, Dragon Road has cool battle scenes and political intrigue and ancient cults and living spirit engines, and there’s even a touch of romance thrown in for good measure – basically, all the elements that make a series pitched as “Final Fantasy meets Star Wars” a really fun read. The crew of the Elysium are a close, oddly-matched, and colorful cast of engineers, pilots, and warriors, and our POV characters (Aimee, an adventurous portal mage, and Elias, a villain turned hero) are uniquely talented badasses who often go up against threats that would eviscerate lesser heroes. It takes just the right amount of time to unspool. The plot of Dragon Road was twisty enough to keep me guessing, but straightforward enough that I was never confused. In an SFF market where sequels endlessly set up the next book rather than telling a complete story, a sequel that is largely self-contained is a welcome change. While readers who have read Skyfarer will have a deeper understanding of the characters and enjoy seeing them change and grow, Dragon Road actually works as a standalone story that doesn’t require extensive recall or knowledge of the first book. It’s remarkable how well this sequel stands on its own. Joseph Brassey’s first book, Skyfarer, is among my favorite debuts of the past few years (for me, it was like Final Fantasy XII in book form) and while I will recommend Skyfarer without reservation (seriously, if you haven’t read it, go read it!) you … don’t actually need to read it to enjoy Dragon Road. From a technical perspective, the pace was again excellent, the plot engaging and original, and – aside from my usual complaint that such books can never be long enough – Dragon Road was a brilliant, satisfying follow-up to a stellar debut novel. The plot tended more toward political intrigue than combat and adventure, but neatly avoided losing the reader’s interest by maintaining the balance between action and exposition.īrassey’s influences are clear but I don’t feel that this detracts at all from the storytelling – rather that the author is engaging in a subtle conversation with the reader about shared pop culture experiences and tipping his hat respectfully at those who have shaped his work along the way. We travel with the crew of the Elysium, observing Aimee’s growing skill and Elias’s struggle for self-knowledge, and meet new characters that easily hold their own against those more familiar. The first few chapters of Dragon Road that I’d read at the end of Skyfarer made waiting for this book much harder than I wanted it to be. And because of that experience and the resultant expectations, I was really worried that the second book just would not be on the same level. As soon as I finished it, I wanted to pick it up and start reading it again. I only read Skyfarer back in February of this year, and as my review illustrates, I loved it.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |