Books tagged with: dragons

Tome of the Undergates was a fun, bloodthirsty and action packed novel with a young and yet confident voice and Black Halo promises more of the same, picking up where the first book ended. These mismatched and grumpy souls that make up Lenk's rag-tag band manage to get themselves shipwrecked on an i...

Demon Gates is a high fantasy novel by Robert Day. The land of Kil’Tar has a long and bloody history of war between the Kay‘taari and the Ashar’an. Aided by Dragonkind, the Kay’taari have protected the world against the Ashar’an and their demonic followers for many centuries. With demonkind banished...

At the basic level, Marc Turner’s Dragon Hunters is about three things: huge water-dragons, awesome sword-fights, and Machiavellian politics. The second book in Turner’s Chronicles of the Exiles trilogy - although not strictly a sequel to the first When The Heavens Fall - also has a similarly comple...

The fifth book in the dragon series by Stephen Deas, Dragon Queen is certainly value by weight of pages. The previous tale, The Black Mausoleum weighed in at just over three hundred in the mass market paperback, whereas Dragon Queen is twice that and a little more. The first trilogy of Deas’ story i...

Dragon Rider is the second novel is the Prophecy of the Kings series, written by David Burrows. After the climatic cliff hanger at the end of Legacy of the Eldric, we find our intrepid adventurers return to a world that has changed without them. War now threatens the land and Nations who once had st...

Arianus, the World of Air, is composed entirely of porous floating islands, aligned in three basic altitudes. In the Low Realm, the dwarves (called "Gegs", an elven word for "insects") live on the continent Drevlin and cheerfully serve the giant Kicksey-winsey, a city-sized machine that is the sourc...

For some reason the dragon has captured the imagination of each generation. From Smaug in The Hobbit to Disney’s Mulan and recently George RR Martin’s contemporary classic “A Song of Ice and Fire”, each putting their own particular spin on the myth. I must admit that I’m a sucker for a dragon myself...

Pryan, the World of Fire, does not orbit a sun— at least, not in the normal manner. It is a giant stone sphere containing four suns (similar to a Dyson Sphere), and it is always daytime. The "ground" is not the ground at all, but rather moss and the leaves of huge, mile-high trees; most people don't...

The premise of Endangered Creatures is that there is a secret part of London Zoo in Regents Park that the public never get to see. In this hidden area are housed the real endangered creatures; those of mythology, creatures that most people don't even believe exist or believe to have died out centuri...

Eragon is the first volume in the Inheritance Cycle and has been written by Christopher Paolini. Eragon, a 15-year-old boy and lives with his uncle and cousin on a farm near a small village. While hunting in a large range of mountains nearby, Eragon is surprised to see a polished blue stone appear i...

Looking for something different I stumbled on "Grunts!" by Mary Gentle – it's subtitled "A Fantasy With Attitude". It certainly got attitude – the problem is that it doesn't have much else. The basic idea is to tell a fantasy story from the point of view of an Orc. As we all know the Orcs are the lo...

On Abarrach, Xar is attempting to learn the secret of necromancy, but he needs a corpse to test it on. He interrogates the lazar Kleitus about the location of any living Sartan, and Kleitus reveals that Haplo lied to Xar about all the Sartan dying at the hands of the dead; Balthazar and his group re...

Launched on the evening of the 2015 Gemmell Awards at Nine Worlds, Legends 2 is a strange beast. Robert Silverberg edited three volumes of Legends, entitled Legends , Legends 2 and Legends 3 , but this book, published by Newcon Press, introduced by Stan Nicholls and edited by Ian Whates is unconnect...

Back in May last year I reviewed a novel by Peter Koevari, a promising new Indie author who has been creating an epic fantasy series known as Legends of Marithia. This is the second novel in that series and follows straight on from the events of the previous book - Legends of Marithia: Prophecies Aw...

Legends of Marithia is a fantasy novel by Peter Koevari. After her sorceress mother and vampire father are horrifically murdered right in front of her, Kassina makes a pact with the Lord of Darkness Shindar and swears revenge over the lands responsible for her parents demise. With Sindar's help she...

Moonbeams is an alternative reality fantasy novel by Lakisha Spletzer. When 3 clueless college students decide on a night out their fate is sealed, finding a strange flickering light on the way they suddenly find themselves in a very different land, populated by fantastic creatures, magical powers a...

Darci is a fairly regular sixteen year old, living in a country town and plays basketball in her free time with her best friend. Her life is abruptly changed when she is accidentally transported to the strange land of Nahaba by a young apprentice wizard called Taslessian. Within hours of her arrival...

The novel picks up just where Fire Sea left off. Alfred jumps into Death's Gate as Haplo's ship passes through it, and finds himself in a stasis room like the one he woke up in; in fact, he believes he's on Arianus. Tired, he decides to put himself back to sleep... Only to find someone in "his" stas...

The first of Stephen Deas’ dragon series and published in 2009, The Adamantine Palace sets the stage of scheming between the noble factions and royal houses. Prince Jehal, Queen Sheriza, Queen Zafira, Speaker Hyram and others battle for power. Like many fantasy works, Deas’ society does appear top-h...

The fourth of Stephen Deas’ series, published in 2012, The Black Mausoleum picks up the story of Deas’ Dragon Realms sometime after the events of book three, The Order of the Scales .  This is a wise choice as the epic conclusion to the first trilogy of books left such a scattering of story pieces i...

The Dragon and the George is a fantasy novel by the author Gordon R Dickson. Welcome to Gordon R. Dickson's alternate reality. Within that reality, we find ourselves in a medieval landscape balanced between the natural forces of Chance and History. A landscape filled with knights, castles, dragons,...

The Dragon at War is a fantasy novel by the author Gordon R Dickson. Over a century ago, the dragon Gleingul fought and slew a sea serpent in single combat. A genuine David and Goliath moment as sea serpents are more than twice as large as dragons. Ever since, there has been great animosity between...

The Dragon in the Stone is a standalone novel by Allan Scott, published by Orbit in 1991, and one of the better and quieter pieces of mythologically grounded fantasy that came out of British genre publishing in the early nineties. Scott is the rarer of the two halves of his long collaboration with M...

The Dragon Knight is the sequel to the Dragon and the George, by Gordon R Dickson. Fans of the Dragon and the George will enjoy this novel that continues the adventures of Jim and friends in an alternate 14-century reality. The novel begins 5 months after the battle at Loathly Tower. Jim and Angie a...

The Dragon on the Border is a fantasy novel by the author Gordon R Dickson. Jim, the product of a technologically advanced civilization 600 years ahead of the one he now calls home and now minor apprentice in magic has become the target of the Dark Powers in their latest attempt to disrupt the balan...

Over Forty years in the making, China is almost ready to share with the world the greatest Zoo ever conceived. The Great Zoo of China isn't just bigger and better though, it's unique - inhabited by creatures considered the stuff of legends - Dragons. A select group of VIPs and Journalists are invite...

Haplo takes a submersible back to Draknor to retrieve his ship. He finds Samah there— wet, haggard, and lost. The leader of the Council has opened Death's Gate, allowing the dragon-snakes free access to all the four worlds. Haplo decides he is too tired to physically capture Samah and uses his ship...

Like many people who read fantasy my journey into this wonderful genre was largely propelled at a young age by JRR Tolkiens classic "The Hobbit". For me it came from a completely unlikely source too - from my Gran who didn't seem to read much (at least that I noticed), didn't have many books and yet...

The King of the Crags is the follow up to The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas. Prince Jehal is now reaping the fruits of his new found power after murdering, poisoning and backstabbing his way to the top, enjoying the confidence (and Bed) of the new speaker. Those loyal to the old regime are still...

The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun is a previously unknown work written by the late JRR Tolkien over 80 years ago. Edited by his son Christopher, The Legend of Sigurd and Gudrun tells the story of the Norse legend Sigurd the dragon slayer, the revenge of his wife, Gudrun, and the Fall of the Nibelungs....

Legends of Light is a high fantasy saga told as a series of poems, each building upon the last to weave a tale of magic, romance and creatures of the dark. I must admit that I am not really one to read poems, they have never interested me in the slightest and so when I was asked to review this book...

The third of Stephen Deas’ series, published in 2011, The Order of the Scales continues the story of the Dragon Realms. Each book picks up immediately from where the last left off, solving the requisite cliff hanger with yet more twists and turns of scheming between the kings, queens, princes, drago...

In the Labyrinth, Marit and Hugh venture out to try and find Alfred. He turns out to be the prisoner of a Labyrinth dragon, which are almost the equal of the dragon-snakes in cruelty and savagery. With the help of the Cursed Blade, they drive it off and rescue Alfred. On Abarrach, Haplo is dying. He...

The Silver Cage is an alternate reality fantasy novel by Mik Wilkens. I must admit that it took me quite a while to get into this book, the writing is of a very good standard but the pace a little pedestrian for my taste, there is nothing wrong with having a gentle pace to a novel and the prose is g...

Book six of the Memory of Flames series picks up right from the moment book five – Dragon Queen ends. This time we’re in the ruined aftermath of Zafir’s ride to destroy the city of Dhar Thosis and Baros Tsen T’Varr is contemplating the ruination of his plans. This is not a book to read without the r...

Who is Charlie Keeper, a young adult fantasy novel written and self published by Marcus Alexander with original Artwork by Lobak Oren. This novel has created such a stir that Graffiti artists, including the Corrupt Government Crew have previously tagged Charlie Keeper inspired characters around Lond...

It’s a bleak start to Den Patrick’s latest fantasy adventure and the first instalment of his Ashen Torment trilogy. It’s been a tough year in the village of Cinderfell and Blacksmith Marek is struggling to make ends meet for him and his two children. But feeding his family isn’t his only problem. Hi...

The Ruin of Kings is the debut of Jenn Lyons, it's an impressive way to make an entrance. The beginning of epic fantasy series A Chorus of Dragons, the book has just been optioned to be turned into a TV series. Growing up in the slums of the city Suur, Kihrin learns to entertain with music while als...

Once a noble lord, after a failure on the field of battle, Silas Bershad "The Flawless" was stripped of all titles and forced into the life of a dragonslayer, moving from one perilous hunt to the next. Stalking dragons and collecting their valuable oil, his only escape seems to be death. But death h...

Dragons get a bad press. They may have been known to ransack a few villages and eat people, but if they were left alone, they would not bother you. They are, of course, extinct now. If one or two of them remained where would they hide? Somewhere remote enough to be away from crowds carrying pitchfor...

In Science Fiction and  Fantasy,  I have visited a multitude of different worlds. In some  cases,  it feels like all the people on the planet ha ve  similar  sensibilities, but how is this possible ?  Even within our own country you get people from the North who are different from the South,  never...

I love 2000AD, it is a fantastic serial comic that is filled with some of my favourite characters. Judge Dredd is omnipresent, but there are other characters that I picture when I think of opening a new issue; ABC Warriors, Rogue Trooper and of course, Slaine. Slaine felt a little different as it wa...

I love fantasy novels, especially when an author takes the genre in a different direction.  Together We Burn by Isabel Ibanez is a fantasy book unlike the others. The difference is that this fantasy world is based on Latin culture and the dragons are hunted and caught. Once captured this menace is n...

I love an Arthurian Legend retelling, Perilous Times by Thomas D Lee is not even the first one that I have read this year, but it shows how flexible authors can be with Old King Arty. Lee does not retell the tales of yore but extrapolates into the present and the future. When Arthur was buried, he w...

The tale is often told from the perspective of the victor, distorting the truth to make them look better. In an epic poem like Beowulf, it all points to one man being the hero, but what if there is more to the story. Shield Maiden by Sharon Emmerichs retells the final part of Beowulf’s life from the...

I love Fantasy and read enough to know that there are so many layers to the genre; from high to low, from Tolkien, through the Golden Age to modern darker fantasy. The genre twists and turns through the ages. A lot of modern Fantasy is shorter and darker, and I miss a stonking big slice of High Fant...

What is the fantasy genre? It is not just one thing. You can have elves and orcs battling against the backdrop of high wizardry, but you can also write something simpler. Low fantasy is getting so low that it starts to feel like alternative medieval history. Like why write about real history when yo...

I love programming because I find it the opposite of magic. I find it logic. I know that if I tackle a problem using certain rules I will finally get it to work. When I show a person the finalised product, they often comment that it seems like magic, but it is not. It is just hardwork, processing an...