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Never Steal from Dragons
Just a few simple rules apply:
1. Never Steal from Dragons
2. See Rule #1
3. Never Work for Dragons
In Hub, a city of treachery and deceit, Gelsey, a pixie, is one of the best thieves around. When a smash and grab assignment turns into a job interview with a powerful dragon, Gelsey finds herself a part of a crew including five more of the best criminals Hub has to offer.
Her crew includes Silai, a con artist with a deadly secret. Kelthar, a mage who’s bent on self-destruction. Aikila, a smuggler set on avenging her father's murder. Nyx, a hacker coming off a busted run, and Lorcan, a mercenary whose child is being held hostage. The dragon pulls all their strings, forcing them to accept an impossible job: break into a fortress nobody in all of Hub’s long history has ever cracked. And if they fail, they’ll end up dead one way or another.
"A wild mix of fairy tale and Cyberpunk that hits all the marks of classic crime capers. Reads like Elmore Leonard and Neil Stephenson playing D&D in a pixie-infested bar and having the time of their lives way past last call."
Kat Richardson, Bestselling author of the Greywalker novels
"Dugan weaves an excellent heist story by blending the fantasy, cyberpunk, and even noir genres. The world building is top notch, including the lore which uses familiar creatures, but in new ways. This is the book for you if you enjoy cyberpunk, urban fantasy, heist stories, or any combination thereof!"
Bishop O'Connell Author of American Faerie Tale series and Two-Gun Witch
1. Never Steal from Dragons
2. See Rule #1
3. Never Work for Dragons
In Hub, a city of treachery and deceit, Gelsey, a pixie, is one of the best thieves around. When a smash and grab assignment turns into a job interview with a powerful dragon, Gelsey finds herself a part of a crew including five more of the best criminals Hub has to offer.
Her crew includes Silai, a con artist with a deadly secret. Kelthar, a mage who’s bent on self-destruction. Aikila, a smuggler set on avenging her father's murder. Nyx, a hacker coming off a busted run, and Lorcan, a mercenary whose child is being held hostage. The dragon pulls all their strings, forcing them to accept an impossible job: break into a fortress nobody in all of Hub’s long history has ever cracked. And if they fail, they’ll end up dead one way or another.
"A wild mix of fairy tale and Cyberpunk that hits all the marks of classic crime capers. Reads like Elmore Leonard and Neil Stephenson playing D&D in a pixie-infested bar and having the time of their lives way past last call."
Kat Richardson, Bestselling author of the Greywalker novels
"Dugan weaves an excellent heist story by blending the fantasy, cyberpunk, and even noir genres. The world building is top notch, including the lore which uses familiar creatures, but in new ways. This is the book for you if you enjoy cyberpunk, urban fantasy, heist stories, or any combination thereof!"
Bishop O'Connell Author of American Faerie Tale series and Two-Gun Witch
355 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 4, 2023
6 people are currently reading
30 people want to read
About the author
Patrick Dugan
14 books49 followersPatrick Dugan was born in the far north of New York, where the cold winds blow. This meant lots of time for reading over the long winters. His parents didn’t care what he read as long as he did. This started with a steady diet of comics and science fiction novels, Heinlein being his favorite in those days.
After two degrees and lots of odd jobs ranging from Blockbuster Video manager to Lab Researcher to running a video game arcade, Charlotte, North Carolina beckoned. Packing up his dog sled he headed for warmer climes and a lot less snow. Still a voracious reader, he read all sorts of great books. Rothfuss, Butcher, Duncan, Sanderson, Hobb, Farland and Feist sparked his imagination and he started writing horribly. Bad short stories and worse novels would follow. Thankfully these are nowhere to be found.
A husband and father of two great kids and one opinionated dog, Patrick works as a software engineer by day before his author shifts on nights and weekends. When he’s not writing Patrick enjoys brewing and drinking craft beers, playing anything Blizzard puts out on the PC, watching Science Fiction and Fantasy movies/shows and building things out of wood and metal for use around the house. Patrick’s first novel “Storm Forged” was released by Falstaff Books in May of 2018.
After two degrees and lots of odd jobs ranging from Blockbuster Video manager to Lab Researcher to running a video game arcade, Charlotte, North Carolina beckoned. Packing up his dog sled he headed for warmer climes and a lot less snow. Still a voracious reader, he read all sorts of great books. Rothfuss, Butcher, Duncan, Sanderson, Hobb, Farland and Feist sparked his imagination and he started writing horribly. Bad short stories and worse novels would follow. Thankfully these are nowhere to be found.
A husband and father of two great kids and one opinionated dog, Patrick works as a software engineer by day before his author shifts on nights and weekends. When he’s not writing Patrick enjoys brewing and drinking craft beers, playing anything Blizzard puts out on the PC, watching Science Fiction and Fantasy movies/shows and building things out of wood and metal for use around the house. Patrick’s first novel “Storm Forged” was released by Falstaff Books in May of 2018.
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Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews
March 11, 2023
I just finished this book, and I have to admit that I enjoyed the heck out of it. At first, I wasn’t sure I was going to, but it’s so well-written and interesting, I couldn’t help but enjoy it. The author has a way with words that even if this isn’t your favorite genre, you will love this. And let’s talk about the characters. They are a mixed bag of beings that come together to do a job and end up doing another one together out of necessity. To be honest, I can’t say too much more as I don’t want to spoil some of the twists and turns this takes, but I can say that this was a lot of fun, and I’ll definitely be reading the next one. Highly recommend. I was provided a complimentary copy which I voluntarily reviewed.
May 2, 2023
One of the most impressive things about this book is the way the author created a rich and immersive world full of fascinating characters and magical creatures. From the very first page, I was hooked and transported to a world where dragons and pixies are commonplace which was unlike anything I'd ever read before!
The characters in Never Steal From Dragons are another highlight of the book. Each character is well-developed and has their own unique personality and motivations! It's hard to pick a favorite, but if I had to, I'd say Aikila was mine!
The plot of the book is fast-paced and action-packed, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat. The themes of this book explore the nature of power and the importance of friendship and loyalty.
Overall, Never Steal From Dragons is a must-read for anyone looking for a great adventure story!
The characters in Never Steal From Dragons are another highlight of the book. Each character is well-developed and has their own unique personality and motivations! It's hard to pick a favorite, but if I had to, I'd say Aikila was mine!
The plot of the book is fast-paced and action-packed, with plenty of twists and turns to keep you on the edge of your seat. The themes of this book explore the nature of power and the importance of friendship and loyalty.
Overall, Never Steal From Dragons is a must-read for anyone looking for a great adventure story!
April 17, 2023
The blend of techno-punk and fantasy elements creates a unique and wildly imaginative world that will keep you hooked from beginning to end. One of the standout features of the book is the diverse and unique blend of characters, with Gelsey being a particular favorite.
The characters are loveable, and the story flows seamlessly. There's a little bit of everything for everyone, and you won't be disappointed. The fast pace and non-stop excitement make for a thrilling reading experience.
The short chapters written from different characters' points of view kept me captivated throughout the whole story. Patrick Dugan's pacing is excellent, and his writing is a blast to read. This is definitely an author I will be following and reading again and again.
In conclusion, a well-written and interesting story, diverse and unique characters, and a fast pace make it a thrilling and enjoyable read.
The characters are loveable, and the story flows seamlessly. There's a little bit of everything for everyone, and you won't be disappointed. The fast pace and non-stop excitement make for a thrilling reading experience.
The short chapters written from different characters' points of view kept me captivated throughout the whole story. Patrick Dugan's pacing is excellent, and his writing is a blast to read. This is definitely an author I will be following and reading again and again.
In conclusion, a well-written and interesting story, diverse and unique characters, and a fast pace make it a thrilling and enjoyable read.
April 20, 2023
A big thank you to NetGalley and Distracted Dragon Press for the eARC. I am voluntarily reviewing this book. This is the first in a series. Okay, I was confused from the beginning. There were so many different people and new things I had never heard of, it was overwhelming. I skimmed some, thinking it would get easier, but I was just frustrated. I do think that many people will enjoy this book-just unfortunately not me. 2.5 stars
April 9, 2023
This book is a wildly imaginative blend of techno punk and fantasy. I loved the diverse and unique blend of characters (especially Gelsey!), the fast pace, and the non-stop excitement. Like the author's other books, this one is nothing short of FUN!
April 6, 2023
There's a mix of urban fantasy, techno thriller and it works. Fast paced, intriguing and highly entertaining.
This is the first in a series and I think I will read the next books.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
This is the first in a series and I think I will read the next books.
Highly recommended.
Many thanks to the publisher for this arc, all opinions are mine
March 12, 2023
I have an odd affection for cyberpunk (considering I dislike its typical dystopian setting and find a lot of its tropes ridiculous), and am a big fan of both sword-and-sorcery and heists, so this book, in which a mixed group of fantasy characters pull a heist with significant cyberpunk elements, looked like a good fit for me. It largely was, with a couple of reservations.
Reservation one is that the classic Neuromancer style of cyberpunk worked in its own time in part because hardly anyone understood how computers actually worked yet, and it hasn't aged well. Most of the cyberpunk jargon in this book is, frankly, nonsense, and how things work is definitely cinematic rather than realistic. For example, an AI warns the hacker that the tunnel he has into the system he's hacking "will collapse in less than a millisecond," which should take a lot longer than a millisecond to say; he then does several things that should take several seconds and gets communication from a colleague (outside cyberspace, so even if he is impossibly sped up, she isn't) that would take another five seconds or so, and meanwhile the tunnel has still not collapsed. There's a countdown clock at another point that, of course, gets right to the last second before it's beaten (and why have a countdown anyway, rather than just an immediate explosion?) You need to suspend your disbelief pretty hard at times, is what I'm saying, and just go along with the flow. The other related problem is that both the hacking and also the magic are not Sandersonian, meaning that we, the audience, don't know in advance what they can and can't do, so they can do whatever the plot requires them to. The author doesn't abuse this too egregiously, though.
Reservation two is that the pre-publication copy I got via Netgalley presents a remarkably complete set of common copy-editing errors, including not only excess coordinate commas, dangling modifiers, misplaced apostrophes, mispunctuated dialog, inconsistent and incorrect capitalization (such as for the names of the fantasy races and their places of origin), words left out of sentences, homonym substitutions, and missing past perfect tense, but at least one example of practically every other error I've ever seen as well, a total of almost a hundred. I could, if I wanted to, bring out a new edition of my guide for authors on avoiding mechanical errors, illustrated almost entirely from this book. If this is the pre-edited version, I would describe it as "rough, but salvageable with a lot of work by a good editor"; but the author's afterword suggests that it's already had a lot of work by a copy editor, in which case the original version must have been practically unreadable.
Leaving aside these reservations, this is an intricately plotted, fun heist full of noblebright characters from assorted fantasy races. Even though they're the usual ratbag lot of criminals you get in heists and cyberpunk stories, they're all good-hearted, especially the mage, and end up forming a tight team/found family.
We get a fair amount of backstory and a lot of introduction to the characters, because the assembling-the-team part of the heist takes up approximately the first half of the book. I did feel this was perhaps a touch too high a proportion, and I could have done with one fewer character (probably the mastermind, who registered less with me than the others; I had to check back to remind myself who she was). On the whole, though, the character work was good, and I liked spending time with them.
It's set up for sequels, and I think I would read a sequel, even knowing going in that the writing mechanics might be poor and the suspension of disbelief would probably require some work from me. It's for this reason that I'm giving it a place in my Best of the Year recommendation list, albeit firmly in the Bronze tier.
Reservation one is that the classic Neuromancer style of cyberpunk worked in its own time in part because hardly anyone understood how computers actually worked yet, and it hasn't aged well. Most of the cyberpunk jargon in this book is, frankly, nonsense, and how things work is definitely cinematic rather than realistic. For example, an AI warns the hacker that the tunnel he has into the system he's hacking "will collapse in less than a millisecond," which should take a lot longer than a millisecond to say; he then does several things that should take several seconds and gets communication from a colleague (outside cyberspace, so even if he is impossibly sped up, she isn't) that would take another five seconds or so, and meanwhile the tunnel has still not collapsed. There's a countdown clock at another point that, of course, gets right to the last second before it's beaten (and why have a countdown anyway, rather than just an immediate explosion?) You need to suspend your disbelief pretty hard at times, is what I'm saying, and just go along with the flow. The other related problem is that both the hacking and also the magic are not Sandersonian, meaning that we, the audience, don't know in advance what they can and can't do, so they can do whatever the plot requires them to. The author doesn't abuse this too egregiously, though.
Reservation two is that the pre-publication copy I got via Netgalley presents a remarkably complete set of common copy-editing errors, including not only excess coordinate commas, dangling modifiers, misplaced apostrophes, mispunctuated dialog, inconsistent and incorrect capitalization (such as for the names of the fantasy races and their places of origin), words left out of sentences, homonym substitutions, and missing past perfect tense, but at least one example of practically every other error I've ever seen as well, a total of almost a hundred. I could, if I wanted to, bring out a new edition of my guide for authors on avoiding mechanical errors, illustrated almost entirely from this book. If this is the pre-edited version, I would describe it as "rough, but salvageable with a lot of work by a good editor"; but the author's afterword suggests that it's already had a lot of work by a copy editor, in which case the original version must have been practically unreadable.
Leaving aside these reservations, this is an intricately plotted, fun heist full of noblebright characters from assorted fantasy races. Even though they're the usual ratbag lot of criminals you get in heists and cyberpunk stories, they're all good-hearted, especially the mage, and end up forming a tight team/found family.
We get a fair amount of backstory and a lot of introduction to the characters, because the assembling-the-team part of the heist takes up approximately the first half of the book. I did feel this was perhaps a touch too high a proportion, and I could have done with one fewer character (probably the mastermind, who registered less with me than the others; I had to check back to remind myself who she was). On the whole, though, the character work was good, and I liked spending time with them.
It's set up for sequels, and I think I would read a sequel, even knowing going in that the writing mechanics might be poor and the suspension of disbelief would probably require some work from me. It's for this reason that I'm giving it a place in my Best of the Year recommendation list, albeit firmly in the Bronze tier.
May 3, 2023
Patrick Dugan has a fun heist tale set after magical creatures left Earth. The elite, of course, are Dragons . The main rule is Never Steal from Dragons (ebook fromDistracted Dragon Press) . Gelsey, a pixie, has no choice. A dragon wants a team of thieves to do an impossible heist and steal back a formula for making gold from a rival Dragon clan. Along for the ride are a grifter Silai who can mimic others; Kelthar, a mage slowly drinking himself to death; Nyx, a hacker who is in prison; Aikila a smuggler with a grudge about Dragons; and Lorcan, a mercenary fighter trying to earn enough money to help his sick daughter. Together they attempted an impossible heist, but the dragon was lying to them. Great introduction to a fun universe and fun characters.
April 5, 2023
I loved the writing style! Short chapters written from characters point of view. Held me captive through the whole story! Definitely an author to follow and read again and again!!
February 3, 2024
Fun, mostly cozy. A few parts may not make much sense without some familiarity with William Gibson though.
March 8, 2024
Never Steal from Dragons. When I saw the title, I thought that was self explanatory, and thought of Middle Earth. This story, is not in that storied land. Far from it. Dugan has create a unique world where Dragons range from the very young and small, to the great and large. A society where Dragons fill many of the lower positions, and all of the ones on top. The characters are a rag tag bunch from many different races and outlooks. The conversations are always lively. The story is fast paced and fun. The ending was a surprise and well worth the read. If there is ever a second entry in this world, I'll be there with bells on my feet waiting for the pixie to call me to action.
Displaying 1 - 11 of 11 reviews