Tag: Fantasy Books

The Dragon Awakes – Night of the Dragon book review

I have to open this review with a massive – MAHOOSIVE – apology. I was on the blog tour for this book a couple of weeks ago and was kindly sent a copy to review and was preparing to begin it and then Boom. The world went to shit, and my brain very quickly followed.

There has been bags of discussion online about the effects of anxiety and what impact the “new normal” (god I hate that phrase, almost as much as I’ve come to hate the word ‘unprecedented’) has on mental health so I’m not going to get into it as I’m sure you’re all trying to manage your own stuff – you don’t need to manage mine too! But, needless to say, reading has not been going well for me the last few weeks.

All those caveats out of the way; we can get down to business and the reason you are here – a better-late-than-never review of the beautiful and glorious Night of the Dragon by Julie Kagawa.

Night of the Dragon

First thing’s first. Night of the Dragon is the final part of the Shadow of the Fox trilogy, so you are likely in one of two camps: You’ve read the first two and been waiting on tender hooks for the conclusion or you’ve not touched the series. In which case GET ON IT.

The Shadow of the Fox trilogy concerns itself with a young half Yokai named Yumeko who inadvertently and tragically finds herself as the protector of the infamous Dragon Scroll – an ancient and mysterious prayer which can summon the Great Immortal Dragon once every 1000 years for a single, world changing wish. Along the way her kindness and innocence attract a band of loyal followers, Okame the disgraced Ronin, Daisuke the minor Royal and expert swordsman, Reika the stern Shrine Attendant and Tatsumi, the brooding half-demon assassin who is tasked with finding the scroll for his own clan’s use.

In the enthralling conclusion, Night of the Dragon, Yumeko and her rag tag group must journey to the territory of the mysterious and illusive Moon clan and stop the Master of Demons from summoning evil and darkness into the world. What they don’t know is that the Master of Demons is not their greatest threat and that there is an even more sinister game at play. One they are not prepared for.

The Story of Yumeko and her friends has kept me gripped from start to finish. Essentially a road trip novel through the sprawling hypnotic land of Iwagoto, the mythology that is built and obstacles that are faced are perfect escapism into a captivating world of fantasy. Yumeko’s naivety is at times a little grating, but never enough to turn you off the story. And this conclusion proves that no one is safe and earns more than a few tears as it ratchets up the consequences of the epic power struggle.

This is a sprawling beautiful, exciting tale with engaging characters and a genuine sense of jeopardy as the heroes fight to prevent their world literally turning into hell. But definitely start with the first one. There is so much depth to this story, it would be a shame to miss any of it.

Don’t mess with the librarians – Book Review of The Library of the Unwritten

Claire is not a Librarian, she’s an ex-human book wrangler. And in Hell’s library that’s an extreme sport.

20200211_085535Hell’s Library is vast; filled with all the books that have been dreamt up but left incomplete or never written. It’s a treasure trove of abandoned possibilities which may yet come to fruition. But every so often the books get restless of waiting and they wake up. Claire’s job is to keep them from escaping before their time and unleashing chaos; a job which has kept her so busy that she’s forgotten that she also protects this pot of powerful imagination from some of the worst denizens across the afterlife dimensions. Demons who would do anything to get their hands in the raw power contained on her shelves.

Such is the set up for The Library of the Unwritten, the first in a new fantasy series by A.J. Hackwick with a sizzling concept.

Claire and her library assistant, ex-muse Brevity, are perfect as the leads supported by nervous newbie demon Leto. Full of doubt, regrets and self-recrimination yet having to find some self-awareness and fight through their own issues to protect the inter-dimensional library system from apocalyptic upheaval.

In fact, Claire and her Library team were so charismatic and engaging that it left other characters in the dust. Ramiel and the hubris of angels was the weak link in the story for me, as I found myself desperate to get past those chapters which didn’t follow Claire. But his arc leaves him in a place that is more promising for future instalments. Hero as well spends much of his development in what feels like a set up for future books, and again one that I’m excited to see the pay off.

Despite the glamourous inter-dimensional hopping through afterlives old and older, it’s the more personal character moments and stories that give this story its heart, and a surprising amount of emotional resonance in a twist which you think you see coming, but then it ducks and weaves through its own narrative self-awareness to become something new. And better.

As a new series it’s a little slow to get going; there’s a lot of complex and very big ideas to establish and explain before the story can really start to run, but once it does find itself it soars, promising a thrilling series ahead. While I may have struggled a little to begin with, by the end I was pre-ordering the next in the series (and rather excited to find it’s out later this year).

And again I’m a sucker for anything to do with rebellious and subversive librarians!

The Library of the Unwritten is published today (11 February 2020) by Titan Books