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cynicallyproven's review
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
4.0
myzanm's review
4.0
I love fantasy and I love quirky characters. With both I should love this book, right?
Well, not quite....
The world building was intriguing, but could have had a bit more detail.
The characters were delightfully quirky, which I love. Blaze was just adorable. (And Grlind too.) Griff, I liked best in the beginning for some reason.
My main struggle with this book was the plot. It seemed rather straight forward in the beginning, but got a bit muddled somewhere along the way. This was the main reason why I didn't love it.
Still it was a very good book that reminded me of [b:The Lightning-Struck Heart|24468673|The Lightning-Struck Heart (Tales From Verania, #1)|T.J. Klune|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434402683s/24468673.jpg|44061547]. Both had intriguing worlds and quirky characters out to fulfill some kind of quest.
Well, not quite....
The world building was intriguing, but could have had a bit more detail.
The characters were delightfully quirky, which I love. Blaze was just adorable. (And Grlind too.) Griff, I liked best in the beginning for some reason.
My main struggle with this book was the plot. It seemed rather straight forward in the beginning, but got a bit muddled somewhere along the way. This was the main reason why I didn't love it.
Still it was a very good book that reminded me of [b:The Lightning-Struck Heart|24468673|The Lightning-Struck Heart (Tales From Verania, #1)|T.J. Klune|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1434402683s/24468673.jpg|44061547]. Both had intriguing worlds and quirky characters out to fulfill some kind of quest.
purplemalena's review against another edition
adventurous
mysterious
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
2.75
chloeinbooksland's review against another edition
Oh boy, it was bad: the narrator, the writing, the plot, the characters. The book didn't have one redeeming quality!
rogue_runner's review against another edition
2.0
I was given this book free in exchange for an honest review.
I’ve read a lot of the fantasy genre, but rarely anything self-published, so this was a little bit of a foray into that world. And, Terradin, the land ‘Dragon Dreams’ is set in. Similar to the Inheritance Trilogy (Christopher Palioni) and a little bit like the Last Dragon Chronicles (Chris d’Lacey), a fairly good beginning managed to catch my attention, but it started to wane throughout the book.
The forte of the book is definitely landscape descriptions. Although a little bit stock-fantasy, the descriptions of the forest and various towns and cities are vivid and large-scale. Things fall down when it comes to plot and characterisation however. I found Auri especially dull, and Nachal’s personality never seemed to be properly defined. Dhurmic had more personality, but was childish in his ways around Nachal, and didn’t seem to have any purpose in the book other than for a diversion, and once he joined the ‘group’, comic relief. Liran’s personality switched frequently depending on situation, and seemed to lack consistency, being used most to impart info dumps to Auri. The plot was very linear and lacked at points, with a lot of lulls where the characters did little, and made the book seem quite slow.
It’s written in third person for most of the book, until a somewhat strange (and a bit jarring) blip at the end at the crux of the plot, where the narration suddenly jumps into first person plural ‘we’. This was a bit strange, although I understood where the author was trying to go with it, to infer that Nachal and Auri were at one in one body… but despite this understanding, it felt a bit strange, and I think perhaps could have been handled better through sticking to the third person.
The chapters are relatively short, with lots of nice breaks throughout, which made it easy for me to read inbetween revision. There were a couple of punctuation mistakes, but nothing too jarring. If you’re keen to read on to the next book, there’s also a couple of chapters from the second book added at the end of this one, which is always a nice addition. No map though, sadly.
A good book if you enjoy very high fantasy with elves/dragons/dwarves. However, if you’re used to the genre and are looking for big complicated plots, perhaps go for something else.
I’ve read a lot of the fantasy genre, but rarely anything self-published, so this was a little bit of a foray into that world. And, Terradin, the land ‘Dragon Dreams’ is set in. Similar to the Inheritance Trilogy (Christopher Palioni) and a little bit like the Last Dragon Chronicles (Chris d’Lacey), a fairly good beginning managed to catch my attention, but it started to wane throughout the book.
The forte of the book is definitely landscape descriptions. Although a little bit stock-fantasy, the descriptions of the forest and various towns and cities are vivid and large-scale. Things fall down when it comes to plot and characterisation however. I found Auri especially dull, and Nachal’s personality never seemed to be properly defined. Dhurmic had more personality, but was childish in his ways around Nachal, and didn’t seem to have any purpose in the book other than for a diversion, and once he joined the ‘group’, comic relief. Liran’s personality switched frequently depending on situation, and seemed to lack consistency, being used most to impart info dumps to Auri. The plot was very linear and lacked at points, with a lot of lulls where the characters did little, and made the book seem quite slow.
It’s written in third person for most of the book, until a somewhat strange (and a bit jarring) blip at the end at the crux of the plot, where the narration suddenly jumps into first person plural ‘we’. This was a bit strange, although I understood where the author was trying to go with it, to infer that Nachal and Auri were at one in one body… but despite this understanding, it felt a bit strange, and I think perhaps could have been handled better through sticking to the third person.
The chapters are relatively short, with lots of nice breaks throughout, which made it easy for me to read inbetween revision. There were a couple of punctuation mistakes, but nothing too jarring. If you’re keen to read on to the next book, there’s also a couple of chapters from the second book added at the end of this one, which is always a nice addition. No map though, sadly.
A good book if you enjoy very high fantasy with elves/dragons/dwarves. However, if you’re used to the genre and are looking for big complicated plots, perhaps go for something else.
maureensbooks89's review against another edition
4.0
In ‘Dragon Dreams’ we follow Nachal and Auri. Nachal is a human boy who grew up with the Dragon King Cerralys. Auri is an elf who grew up with a human man. Since a view months, Nachal is dreaming about Auri. In these dreams Auri has been killed by the rebel dragon Obsidian. Soon Nachal dreams seem to be getting more and more real and he decides to try to find Auri so he can save her.
Meanwhile Auri has a visitor in her little hometown, Liran. Liran is an Elf who was send to get Auri and take her to the home of the elves. Soon after Auri and Liran begin their journey they find themselves drawn to each othet. But Liran is a professional and knows more about Auri’s future than he is telling her. Soon Auri isn’t only traveling to her new home but she also meets Nachal and learns more about her past and her future.
I must say that I really liked ‘Dragon Dreams’. At the beginning I found it a little difficult to get all the different names straight. There are a lot of different characters and the names aren’t very easy. I mean Nachal and Cerralys aren’t names I’ve ever heard before. So sometimes I found myself forgetting which character was who. But soon I decided to write them down in my notebook and that really helped me to keep everybody apart.
What really surprised me in this book was the love triangle between Nachal, Auri and Liran. There really was a lot of chemistry in this book and I loved it. Off course I also had a favorite character in this book. For me it was definitely Liran. I really liked the mysterious and troubled elf. I loved how he tried to stay professional and how we read about his struggle with his feelings. I was really rooting for him.
The only down point for me in this book was that it sometimes moved really fast. You would read about Auri going to meet her father and BOOM they traveled days and where at their next destination. At the beginning I read about Nachal meeting Auri and BOOM they’d met. But still, it didn’t bother me that bad and I still really enjoyed this book.
This book is definitely a nice read for every fantasy and dragon lover out there.
Meanwhile Auri has a visitor in her little hometown, Liran. Liran is an Elf who was send to get Auri and take her to the home of the elves. Soon after Auri and Liran begin their journey they find themselves drawn to each othet. But Liran is a professional and knows more about Auri’s future than he is telling her. Soon Auri isn’t only traveling to her new home but she also meets Nachal and learns more about her past and her future.
I must say that I really liked ‘Dragon Dreams’. At the beginning I found it a little difficult to get all the different names straight. There are a lot of different characters and the names aren’t very easy. I mean Nachal and Cerralys aren’t names I’ve ever heard before. So sometimes I found myself forgetting which character was who. But soon I decided to write them down in my notebook and that really helped me to keep everybody apart.
What really surprised me in this book was the love triangle between Nachal, Auri and Liran. There really was a lot of chemistry in this book and I loved it. Off course I also had a favorite character in this book. For me it was definitely Liran. I really liked the mysterious and troubled elf. I loved how he tried to stay professional and how we read about his struggle with his feelings. I was really rooting for him.
The only down point for me in this book was that it sometimes moved really fast. You would read about Auri going to meet her father and BOOM they traveled days and where at their next destination. At the beginning I read about Nachal meeting Auri and BOOM they’d met. But still, it didn’t bother me that bad and I still really enjoyed this book.
This book is definitely a nice read for every fantasy and dragon lover out there.
littleread1's review against another edition
3.0
I am not sure how to review this. On one hand the story was captivating, and there were many times I found myself smiling while listening. On the other hand there were also many times I found myself rolling my eyes at the things the characters said/did/didn't say. I don't want to ruin anything by spoiling things, so I am going to try and be as vague as possible here ...
First - the story itself. Overall it was a good story, but I never found myself sucked in. There was talk about a past war, and a war brewing, and then all of a sudden (it seems) the war is here now. And these characters are pivotal to one side winning or losing. And there were secrets revealed and quests accomplished, yet at times it all seemed pointless. Like the story would have gotten the same message across if some of it had been cut out.
Next - the narration. I am super picky about men doing female voices. It is rare to find one that I enjoy. And this narrator is no exception. I think it is just difficult for a man to do a woman's voice without making her sound ... dumb? But fortunately most of this story is male POV, so it isn't often an issue. Though I do have 1 complaint - he often made the male lead sound like he was shouting. I am not sure if it was the voice, the accent, or what. But he did a great job making each and every voice distinct, which is always an amazing feat.
Finally - the characters. While not a romance story IMO, there is still almost a love triangle, which I think muddies up the story some. One man is more of a father type figure and the other is the obvious choice. No it isn't resolved in this story. And I didn't ever really connect with the characters as much as I like. But I did find myself wanting to continue the story, to find out what would happen with them, when they would meet up, and how things would be resolved or not.
Conclusion - While I enjoyed listening to the story, there were some issues that are pet peeves of mine. Of course that is going to affect the overall enjoyment of the story for me. However, I did like it enough to continue on to book 2 right away, and look forward to seeing where things go from here.
First - the story itself. Overall it was a good story, but I never found myself sucked in. There was talk about a past war, and a war brewing, and then all of a sudden (it seems) the war is here now. And these characters are pivotal to one side winning or losing. And there were secrets revealed and quests accomplished, yet at times it all seemed pointless. Like the story would have gotten the same message across if some of it had been cut out.
Next - the narration. I am super picky about men doing female voices. It is rare to find one that I enjoy. And this narrator is no exception. I think it is just difficult for a man to do a woman's voice without making her sound ... dumb? But fortunately most of this story is male POV, so it isn't often an issue. Though I do have 1 complaint - he often made the male lead sound like he was shouting. I am not sure if it was the voice, the accent, or what. But he did a great job making each and every voice distinct, which is always an amazing feat.
Finally - the characters. While not a romance story IMO, there is still almost a love triangle, which I think muddies up the story some. One man is more of a father type figure and the other is the obvious choice. No it isn't resolved in this story. And I didn't ever really connect with the characters as much as I like. But I did find myself wanting to continue the story, to find out what would happen with them, when they would meet up, and how things would be resolved or not.
Conclusion - While I enjoyed listening to the story, there were some issues that are pet peeves of mine. Of course that is going to affect the overall enjoyment of the story for me. However, I did like it enough to continue on to book 2 right away, and look forward to seeing where things go from here.
kasfire's review against another edition
4.0
This first book in the series describes a coming war between two Dragon brothers. Their first war caused a shift in the land, where the land became blighted. The elves are the first to be affected by it, but it is spreading to the rest of the world.
The world's only hope seems to be Auri, an elf that was raised among humans. There is a human man, Nachal, who has a connection with her. He sees her in his dreams, and connects to her soul. Though she does not know this to begin with, the two are forever bound. He must find her and bring her to safety, for if his dreams of her death come true, the land is lost.
I will admit it was very confusing in the beginning. This is because I was not sure what type of being each character was. The dream sequences and character POV switching was weird until you got used to it. The titles, though helpful for the content of the chapter, didn't help with the character switches.
About a quarter of the way through, the book got better. The plot solidified and the characters, though confused themselves, finally started to be fleshed out. The potential love triangle I was hoping would be avoided was (at least for the time being). Almost seems like it would start to form in later books.
I enjoyed the character relationships. The brotherly love between Nachal and Dhurmic, the love between Nachal and his foster father Cerralys, etc.
This novel is filled with hope, despair, love, and numerous twists and turns. Though confusing at first, it was a wild ride from start to finish and I am curious as to what shall happen in book two. Hence why I shall be starting Dragon Ties very shortly.
The world's only hope seems to be Auri, an elf that was raised among humans. There is a human man, Nachal, who has a connection with her. He sees her in his dreams, and connects to her soul. Though she does not know this to begin with, the two are forever bound. He must find her and bring her to safety, for if his dreams of her death come true, the land is lost.
I will admit it was very confusing in the beginning. This is because I was not sure what type of being each character was. The dream sequences and character POV switching was weird until you got used to it. The titles, though helpful for the content of the chapter, didn't help with the character switches.
About a quarter of the way through, the book got better. The plot solidified and the characters, though confused themselves, finally started to be fleshed out. The potential love triangle I was hoping would be avoided was (at least for the time being). Almost seems like it would start to form in later books.
I enjoyed the character relationships. The brotherly love between Nachal and Dhurmic, the love between Nachal and his foster father Cerralys, etc.
This novel is filled with hope, despair, love, and numerous twists and turns. Though confusing at first, it was a wild ride from start to finish and I am curious as to what shall happen in book two. Hence why I shall be starting Dragon Ties very shortly.
charkar's review against another edition
1.0
A copy of this book was provided by the author in exchange for an honest review
Dragon Dreams doesn’t start out like the first book in a series; the terminology and lack of explanations feels more like jumping into the middle of an ongoing series. It was a little overwhelming to me and it set the tone for the rest of the book: boredom and confusion.
I’m not one who likes information to be dumped all at once, but I also don’t like being kept waiting for answers when it comes to fantasy. It’s a very fine balance and I feel that this didn’t get it quite right. It made a valiant effort, as things did start to be explained in chapter four, but they weren’t the explanations I was after. I wanted to know more about Nachal and why he was having the dreams, and why Auri was so important – not about the dragon war that I hadn’t even registered as important.
Things just felt a little all over the place and unrefined to me. Like the ideas were all there but the execution needed work and things just needed more thought put into them. Everything came across as trying too hard to be high fantasy, when in reality it was falling short. A map or even a glossary would have helped to clear things up and provide a point of reference. Whether I missed out on these features due to reading in e-book form, I don’t know, but context would have greatly improved Dragon Dreams.
I did, however, like the description of people and places. It painted a good picture in my head and was in-depth without becoming Lord of the Rings boring. Although, that being said, the writing style as a whole wasn’t to my taste and I was confused by the way certain things were worded. Some word choices also felt out of place and contradictory to how I perceived characters – they’d come across as shy and timid in their dialogue, yet annoyed in their actions, for example. Sections of dialogue were also unclear and confusing, even when I read them back multiple times. To me, the narration felt jumpy and seemed to flit between the present and exchanges that had happened a few pages back – and that I hadn’t fully absorbed.
As for the dragons, they were… interesting. I’ve read about dragons with the ability to shapeshift and maintain human forms before, in Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, and while not what I look for in dragons, it worked. The dragons in Dragon Dreams, though, seemed to take a back seat and didn’t catch my attention when they were present, mostly because I was very confused about them. I never got a sense that they had been fully explained to me as a reader. When I read the synopsis I was expecting actual dragons, à la Daenerys’ in A Song of Ice and Fire. I would have preferred that, in all honesty.
All in all, this didn’t meet the expectations I had for it and I wound up not enjoying it. The potential was there, but it needs more work and refinement. And also a lot less romance, but that’s just a personal preference.
Dragon Dreams doesn’t start out like the first book in a series; the terminology and lack of explanations feels more like jumping into the middle of an ongoing series. It was a little overwhelming to me and it set the tone for the rest of the book: boredom and confusion.
I’m not one who likes information to be dumped all at once, but I also don’t like being kept waiting for answers when it comes to fantasy. It’s a very fine balance and I feel that this didn’t get it quite right. It made a valiant effort, as things did start to be explained in chapter four, but they weren’t the explanations I was after. I wanted to know more about Nachal and why he was having the dreams, and why Auri was so important – not about the dragon war that I hadn’t even registered as important.
Things just felt a little all over the place and unrefined to me. Like the ideas were all there but the execution needed work and things just needed more thought put into them. Everything came across as trying too hard to be high fantasy, when in reality it was falling short. A map or even a glossary would have helped to clear things up and provide a point of reference. Whether I missed out on these features due to reading in e-book form, I don’t know, but context would have greatly improved Dragon Dreams.
I did, however, like the description of people and places. It painted a good picture in my head and was in-depth without becoming Lord of the Rings boring. Although, that being said, the writing style as a whole wasn’t to my taste and I was confused by the way certain things were worded. Some word choices also felt out of place and contradictory to how I perceived characters – they’d come across as shy and timid in their dialogue, yet annoyed in their actions, for example. Sections of dialogue were also unclear and confusing, even when I read them back multiple times. To me, the narration felt jumpy and seemed to flit between the present and exchanges that had happened a few pages back – and that I hadn’t fully absorbed.
As for the dragons, they were… interesting. I’ve read about dragons with the ability to shapeshift and maintain human forms before, in Seraphina by Rachel Hartman, and while not what I look for in dragons, it worked. The dragons in Dragon Dreams, though, seemed to take a back seat and didn’t catch my attention when they were present, mostly because I was very confused about them. I never got a sense that they had been fully explained to me as a reader. When I read the synopsis I was expecting actual dragons, à la Daenerys’ in A Song of Ice and Fire. I would have preferred that, in all honesty.
All in all, this didn’t meet the expectations I had for it and I wound up not enjoying it. The potential was there, but it needs more work and refinement. And also a lot less romance, but that’s just a personal preference.
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