I’m not a big fantasy fan. I tried to read George Martin’s A Game of Thrones and, you know, I just didn’t get it. Medieval fantasy just turns me off but after coming across a James Maxey short story that was excellent I got to reading his blog, which I do regularly enjoy reading when I’m bored at my work. So I thought I’d give his novel Bitterwood a try, which is the first in a trilogy of fantasy novels involving dragons. The words dragons and fantasy don’t make me jump with joy but, hey, I’m almost willing to try anything legal.
The world of the dragon age is one where the dragons are the main sentient species with humans being nothing more than second class citizens. The only reason the king dragon, Albekizan, abides them is because they pay taxes and farm the crops, doing all the dirty work the dragon’s refuse to do themselves, but when his son is slain at the hands of a human called Bitterwood, legendary dragon killer, he declares genocide on the whole human race. Which seemed like a bit of an overreaction.
At first it was difficult to figure out exactly what was happening with so many characters with the same horrible names. One of the major reasons I dislike the fantasy genre are names that are far too long and simply don’t look right on the page, as if they’re just a combination of different letters. At least that”s the way it is to me anyway. There were so many characters doing different things, being involved in their own stories and having differentiating relationships that at several points I was reading for a couple of pages believing that this was a character that I had been reading about before but was actually a totally different one. Eventually this went away as I got to know and even remember the names of some generally interesting characters. The overarching story is one of emotional and political choices with plenty of action in-between. I really did enjoy it but it did take me a while to get into.
I gave it a chance and it drew me in so I’ve ordered the rest in the complete trilogy. I’m glad it is actually complete as there’s nothing worse than having to wait for the rest of a series when it could take years. Or the author could die.
The story at one point becomes something more resembling sci-fi, making the whole dragon age thing a lot more interesting. So even if you don’t like fantasy, like me, you should keep in there as it’s not really fantasy at all when you get down to it.
Well worth a read.
Hehe I am actually the first reply to your incredible post?!?