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The DeChance Chronicles #1
Heart of a Dragon
Author's Revised EditionDonovan DeChance is a collector of ancient manuscripts and books, a practicing mage, and a private investigator. Over the span of a long life, he has gathered and archived the largest occult library in the world.When a local houngan begins meddling with powers she may not be able to control, a turf war breaks out between the Dragons motorcycle club and the Los Escorpiones street gang—a war that threatens to open portals between worlds and destroy the city in the process.With his lover, Amethyst, his familiar, Cleo – an Egyptian Mau the size of a small bobcat –the dubious aid of a Mexican sorcerer named Martinez and the budding gifts of a young artist named Salvatore, DeChance begins a race against time, magic, and almost certain death.The fate of the city rests on his success, and on the rare talent of a boy who walks in two worlds, and dreams of dragons
222 pages, Paperback
First published February 3, 2011
22 people are currently reading
252 people want to read
About the author
David Niall Wilson
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David Niall Wilson has been writing and publishing horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction since the mid-eighties. An ordained minister, once President of the Horror Writer 's Association and multiple recipient of the Bram Stoker Award. He lives outside Hertford, NC with the love of his life, Patricia Lee Macomber, His children Zane and Katie, occasionally their older siblings, Stephanie, who is in college, and Bill and Zach who are in the Navy, and an ever-changing assortment of pets.
David is CEO and founder of Crossroad Press, a cutting edge digital publishing company specializing in electronic novels, collections, and nonfiction, as well as unabridged audiobooks and print titles.
Join my street team on Facebook to win prizes, discuss my work with others, and get exclusive content and offers
David Niall Wilson has been writing and publishing horror, dark fantasy, and science fiction since the mid-eighties. An ordained minister, once President of the Horror Writer 's Association and multiple recipient of the Bram Stoker Award. He lives outside Hertford, NC with the love of his life, Patricia Lee Macomber, His children Zane and Katie, occasionally their older siblings, Stephanie, who is in college, and Bill and Zach who are in the Navy, and an ever-changing assortment of pets.
David is CEO and founder of Crossroad Press, a cutting edge digital publishing company specializing in electronic novels, collections, and nonfiction, as well as unabridged audiobooks and print titles.
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Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
August 15, 2019
http://booknest.eu/reviews/charles/16...
4/5
Disclaimer: I know the author personally and have done projects with him. I'll try and keep the review as unbiased as possible, though. Still, take my review with a grain of salt and judge for yourself.
THE DECHANCE CHRONICLES follow the adventures of Donovan Dechance, a gentleman wizard who is the most powerful wizard in the West Coast city of San Valencez. He's more or less the opposite of Harry Dresden, being a cultured gentleman scholar that is more like Doctor Strange or Titus Crow than a rough and tumble street mage. Which is ironic because the first plot is about the man attempting to stop a gang war from destroying two feuding gangs.
HEART OF A DRAGON is technically a prequel to the original novel written for White Wolf Publishing's World of Darkness line before David Niall Wilson decided to release the book himself. It doesn't feel like a prequel, though, and more or less jumps you into the story with Dovonan being already a respected member of the mage community. We don't find out his origins and this sense of
mystery carries throughout the book.
The Dragons and Los Escorpiones have long feuded over the Latin district of San Valencez but have previously fought with chains as well as fists versus guns. This changes as they actually move to magic instead of pistols. A bokor, Anya Cabrera, has begun summoning spirits into the bodies of Los Escorpiones in order to turn them into inhumanly fast superhuman killing machines. The gang isn't entirely happy about this but this is their opportunity to finally defeat their rivals for good.
Donovan doesn't have much stake in this game but is brought in by the local hedge wizard, Martinez, to help resolve the issue before it becomes apocalyptic. Martinez has a backup plan, though, and that is to use the power of a young painter to summon the strength of dragons to aid their namesake gang. In a way, Martinez and his student Salvatore are the real protagonists of the book as it is their "brothers" who run the risk of being killed.
I really enjoyed this book despite, or perhaps because, of the low stakes. This is a war being fought between criminals but their lives are something that Donovan values and doesn't want to see ended any more than "innocent" civilians. I also appreciated Donovan's equal relationship with the local sorceress Amethyst who he partners with and doesn't need to define his romance with. There's no love triangle or 'will they or won't they', they're together and comfortable with a bit of space between them.
The magic in this world is overt and spectacular but not really "throwing fireballs and lightning." Instead, it's more like curses, teleportating rooms, and invoking the power of spirits as well as dreams. I don't think the book gets the terminology right for its Voodoo character very well but it is mitigated somewhat by Donovan being incorrect that Anya Cabrera is a priestess invoking the loa (its significantly more complicated).
In conclusion, I was very entertained by this book and will be picking up further books in the Dechance Chronicles. The books could have had higher emotional stakes for Dovonan, who remains aloof from the story but this is compensated by Martinez's role as the secondary protagonist. I wonder what Tradition Dovonan would have been if this book had been in the World of Darkness.
4/5
Disclaimer: I know the author personally and have done projects with him. I'll try and keep the review as unbiased as possible, though. Still, take my review with a grain of salt and judge for yourself.
THE DECHANCE CHRONICLES follow the adventures of Donovan Dechance, a gentleman wizard who is the most powerful wizard in the West Coast city of San Valencez. He's more or less the opposite of Harry Dresden, being a cultured gentleman scholar that is more like Doctor Strange or Titus Crow than a rough and tumble street mage. Which is ironic because the first plot is about the man attempting to stop a gang war from destroying two feuding gangs.
HEART OF A DRAGON is technically a prequel to the original novel written for White Wolf Publishing's World of Darkness line before David Niall Wilson decided to release the book himself. It doesn't feel like a prequel, though, and more or less jumps you into the story with Dovonan being already a respected member of the mage community. We don't find out his origins and this sense of
mystery carries throughout the book.
The Dragons and Los Escorpiones have long feuded over the Latin district of San Valencez but have previously fought with chains as well as fists versus guns. This changes as they actually move to magic instead of pistols. A bokor, Anya Cabrera, has begun summoning spirits into the bodies of Los Escorpiones in order to turn them into inhumanly fast superhuman killing machines. The gang isn't entirely happy about this but this is their opportunity to finally defeat their rivals for good.
Donovan doesn't have much stake in this game but is brought in by the local hedge wizard, Martinez, to help resolve the issue before it becomes apocalyptic. Martinez has a backup plan, though, and that is to use the power of a young painter to summon the strength of dragons to aid their namesake gang. In a way, Martinez and his student Salvatore are the real protagonists of the book as it is their "brothers" who run the risk of being killed.
I really enjoyed this book despite, or perhaps because, of the low stakes. This is a war being fought between criminals but their lives are something that Donovan values and doesn't want to see ended any more than "innocent" civilians. I also appreciated Donovan's equal relationship with the local sorceress Amethyst who he partners with and doesn't need to define his romance with. There's no love triangle or 'will they or won't they', they're together and comfortable with a bit of space between them.
The magic in this world is overt and spectacular but not really "throwing fireballs and lightning." Instead, it's more like curses, teleportating rooms, and invoking the power of spirits as well as dreams. I don't think the book gets the terminology right for its Voodoo character very well but it is mitigated somewhat by Donovan being incorrect that Anya Cabrera is a priestess invoking the loa (its significantly more complicated).
In conclusion, I was very entertained by this book and will be picking up further books in the Dechance Chronicles. The books could have had higher emotional stakes for Dovonan, who remains aloof from the story but this is compensated by Martinez's role as the secondary protagonist. I wonder what Tradition Dovonan would have been if this book had been in the World of Darkness.
November 13, 2019
I listened to this a while ago and took a bit of time to think over what to say, and I'm still unsure. The plot felt like I'd stepped into the middle of a series and missed the character building. I have so many, many questions that I feel like were left unanswered.
So from what I got, there is a turf war between two rival gangs that seems to be coming to a head, but one of the gangs seem stronger and faster than the other. Someone sends for help and Donovan DeChance comes. Now this is where things got muddy for me. I felt like while the world building was good, it didn't do a great job of explaining everything. As I said, I have so many questions and not enough answers. I also felt like the characters were a little stagnant. They weren't as developed as I like and I found it hard to connect to any of them.
Now, I did like enough of it to finish it and I found the world and the idea of the dragons to be fascinating, but I feel like the world building either needs to be expanded on or a prequel of sorts needs to be brought out. I might read the second one in the hopes of understanding everything better, and may even relisten to this to see if I can grasp things better, but I'll have to see.
I also felt like Corey M. Snow didn't perform the book like it needed to be performed. He read the parts well, and had a few tones and voices, but he needed to put more inflections behind the words to better bring the atmosphere to life.
I was given this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.
So from what I got, there is a turf war between two rival gangs that seems to be coming to a head, but one of the gangs seem stronger and faster than the other. Someone sends for help and Donovan DeChance comes. Now this is where things got muddy for me. I felt like while the world building was good, it didn't do a great job of explaining everything. As I said, I have so many questions and not enough answers. I also felt like the characters were a little stagnant. They weren't as developed as I like and I found it hard to connect to any of them.
Now, I did like enough of it to finish it and I found the world and the idea of the dragons to be fascinating, but I feel like the world building either needs to be expanded on or a prequel of sorts needs to be brought out. I might read the second one in the hopes of understanding everything better, and may even relisten to this to see if I can grasp things better, but I'll have to see.
I also felt like Corey M. Snow didn't perform the book like it needed to be performed. He read the parts well, and had a few tones and voices, but he needed to put more inflections behind the words to better bring the atmosphere to life.
I was given this audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review. This in no way affected nor influenced my thoughts.
October 30, 2019
I agree with the average of 3.5-4 stars as in effect it is a comparable yarn to a Dresden Lite. Audiobook provided for honest review and I enjoyed the vibe.
It is the ‘lite’ part that knocks it back as DeChance is an interesting enough character, but lacks a little depth. I’d personally have liked a bit more backstory with him and Amethyst. In concentrating early on with Jake and Snake I felt by the end an opportunity had been missed and one or the other of the bikers would have been preferable.
Martinez was enigmatic, and the most impressive character was Salvatore to my surprise. He seems a little naive, but the articulation of his skillset raised the storyline with its turfwar backdrop. That turfwar seemed to escape the muggles a little easily, but there were some entertaining chase sequences with the familiar stealing the show.
If you like urban fantasy, this is a solid and workmanlike production. It took me a while to connect with the narrator, although I got through the last half pretty quick when it came together at the end with a couple of neat twists and the potential to see the characters again in multiple worlds. Pacy ear fodder.
It is the ‘lite’ part that knocks it back as DeChance is an interesting enough character, but lacks a little depth. I’d personally have liked a bit more backstory with him and Amethyst. In concentrating early on with Jake and Snake I felt by the end an opportunity had been missed and one or the other of the bikers would have been preferable.
Martinez was enigmatic, and the most impressive character was Salvatore to my surprise. He seems a little naive, but the articulation of his skillset raised the storyline with its turfwar backdrop. That turfwar seemed to escape the muggles a little easily, but there were some entertaining chase sequences with the familiar stealing the show.
If you like urban fantasy, this is a solid and workmanlike production. It took me a while to connect with the narrator, although I got through the last half pretty quick when it came together at the end with a couple of neat twists and the potential to see the characters again in multiple worlds. Pacy ear fodder.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 4, 2021
This book felt like I had started in the middle of a series rather than the first book -- and maybe this is a spin-off series or something similar, but I couldn’t find any information on specifics. Anyway, this book is really odd. There’s a really interesting story and the world-building is quite fascinating. The lore of the world and the magic system are intriguing. However, the “main character,” Donovan DeChance, felt more like a back seat passenger to the main plot concerning two biker gangs and their arcane fueled turf war. His role could have easily been replaced with any other secondary character (or a combination of them) and the storyline would have pretty much remained the exact same from start to finish. And his character was flat and really interesting. He could have been killed off at any point in the book and I wouldn’t have felt anything at all.
The narration continued the oddness with Donovan. While the other characters felt alive and were given vivid and unique life through their voices, Donovan was monotone and spoke with almost no expression or emotion. I don’t understand the choice unless it was an attempt to capture the essence of being a “classy” wizard, but to me, the performance fell flat.
Overall, I liked the basic elements of the story, but not the overall implementation. In all fairness, I am not an urban fantasy fan but agreed to listen to and fairly review the novel. It may be that a listener really into the genre may be more forgiving of some missing details and odd characterization. In my opinion, the plot itself could easily have been a standalone novel, excluded DeChance, and been a pretty entertaining story set in a fascinating, fantasy world. However, the disjointed combination was confusing and hindered both the narrative and narration.
The narration continued the oddness with Donovan. While the other characters felt alive and were given vivid and unique life through their voices, Donovan was monotone and spoke with almost no expression or emotion. I don’t understand the choice unless it was an attempt to capture the essence of being a “classy” wizard, but to me, the performance fell flat.
Overall, I liked the basic elements of the story, but not the overall implementation. In all fairness, I am not an urban fantasy fan but agreed to listen to and fairly review the novel. It may be that a listener really into the genre may be more forgiving of some missing details and odd characterization. In my opinion, the plot itself could easily have been a standalone novel, excluded DeChance, and been a pretty entertaining story set in a fascinating, fantasy world. However, the disjointed combination was confusing and hindered both the narrative and narration.
May 22, 2019
Worlds within worlds within the multiverse is one way of looking at the world of Donovan DeChance. He is amasses information, arcane and otherwise, and disseminates it discreetly for the benefit of others. He is old, but how old, is a mystery.
HEART OF A DRAGON is an eclectic mix of art, motorcycle gangs, and magic, with just enough voodoo thrown in to keep things interesting. This is not the first book by David Niall Wilson that I've read. A hallmark of his writing is the way he uses words to play music you can hear in your head. Whether it's rumbling drums or something more melodious, it is inevitable that music will be stuck in your head as you read. In this book, along with music, there is drawing and painting written to force you to see the finished art, to feel high emotion of the viewer.
After reading HEART OF A DRAGON, I would very much like to visit San Valencez, California to see the Barrio, to see Santini Park, and become a part of the magic world of Donovan DeChance.
HEART OF A DRAGON is an eclectic mix of art, motorcycle gangs, and magic, with just enough voodoo thrown in to keep things interesting. This is not the first book by David Niall Wilson that I've read. A hallmark of his writing is the way he uses words to play music you can hear in your head. Whether it's rumbling drums or something more melodious, it is inevitable that music will be stuck in your head as you read. In this book, along with music, there is drawing and painting written to force you to see the finished art, to feel high emotion of the viewer.
After reading HEART OF A DRAGON, I would very much like to visit San Valencez, California to see the Barrio, to see Santini Park, and become a part of the magic world of Donovan DeChance.
January 31, 2019
This is a really interesting story with several characters I really want to know more about.
For some reason it gives me a bit of a Diana Tregarde vibe, not really sure why.
You may wonder why only 3 stars if I like it that much. You're right in that.
After being sucked into a super exciting story, it kinda got.... Definitely not boring but a bit repetitive.
I also felt somewhat disconnected from the characters.
However the imagination and storytelling more than makes up for these points.
For some reason it gives me a bit of a Diana Tregarde vibe, not really sure why.
You may wonder why only 3 stars if I like it that much. You're right in that.
After being sucked into a super exciting story, it kinda got.... Definitely not boring but a bit repetitive.
I also felt somewhat disconnected from the characters.
However the imagination and storytelling more than makes up for these points.
March 5, 2021
This is essentially an urban fantasy but, unlike most urban fantasy, features a male protagonist with a female love interest with whom the protagonist has a pre-existing, ongoing relationship. There is not a love triangle in sight. It's not terrible, but it's nothing to write home about, so to speak. According to the descriptive standards of Goodreads star ratings, "it was okay".
There was a bit too much exposition at times. There was a bit too much expository dialog at times. Some descriptions went on for just a little too long, and in at least one case still resulted in me not having a great mental picture of the scene. The magic "system", such as it was, basically consisted of a bunch of occasions where a character happened to have some minor deus ex machina on hand to address the need of the moment.
The ideas behind the plot were interesting. The execution felt a bit lacking. I think there's a period of a few dozen pages where the protagonist's primary activity involved running around between two or three different general locations while events happened, and in the end it wasn't really the protagonist who made things happen; at times, he was just an ineffectual witness. The protagonist is supposed to be among the most knowledgeable users of magic in the world, with easily the most extensive known collection of magical texts in the world, and others refer to him as some kind of magical big deal at times, but in the context of the story he seems like the single least effective user of magic, and he rarely seems to know as much about magic as others. His big moment researching some key element of the events building toward the climax produces a tantalizing bit of a sense of scope and danger, but then ends up being irrelevant to the actual plot and just gets quietly dropped. Hilariously, the most use that information could have been was in the moment that inspired him to look it up, so that ship had already sailed.
It was pretty clear he was the protagonist, nonetheless, though.
Before this, I've read a trilogy by this author, and another book that was part of a multi-author series, both set in the Vampire: The Dark Ages setting, and his writing was quite good in all of that. This book, by contrast, was a bit of a disappointment. As I said, though, it wasn't really bad. It just wasn't great, either.
There was a bit too much exposition at times. There was a bit too much expository dialog at times. Some descriptions went on for just a little too long, and in at least one case still resulted in me not having a great mental picture of the scene. The magic "system", such as it was, basically consisted of a bunch of occasions where a character happened to have some minor deus ex machina on hand to address the need of the moment.
The ideas behind the plot were interesting. The execution felt a bit lacking. I think there's a period of a few dozen pages where the protagonist's primary activity involved running around between two or three different general locations while events happened, and in the end it wasn't really the protagonist who made things happen; at times, he was just an ineffectual witness. The protagonist is supposed to be among the most knowledgeable users of magic in the world, with easily the most extensive known collection of magical texts in the world, and others refer to him as some kind of magical big deal at times, but in the context of the story he seems like the single least effective user of magic, and he rarely seems to know as much about magic as others. His big moment researching some key element of the events building toward the climax produces a tantalizing bit of a sense of scope and danger, but then ends up being irrelevant to the actual plot and just gets quietly dropped. Hilariously, the most use that information could have been was in the moment that inspired him to look it up, so that ship had already sailed.
It was pretty clear he was the protagonist, nonetheless, though.
Before this, I've read a trilogy by this author, and another book that was part of a multi-author series, both set in the Vampire: The Dark Ages setting, and his writing was quite good in all of that. This book, by contrast, was a bit of a disappointment. As I said, though, it wasn't really bad. It just wasn't great, either.
March 26, 2013
There are a lot of things to recommend about Heart of Dragons: Characters I wanted to get to know better, intriguing world building and magic system, a fast plot that stays suspenseful until the very end.
Most of the flaws in the book was because of the writing style. The sentences are short and choppy, the descriptions go on just a little too long, and the vocabulary was about second grade level. Granted, the writing was clear and there were hardly any spelling or grammar errors, but I was dying for something a little more complicated by the middle of the book.
Like I said above, everything else worked just fine, and the book did have enough in other ways to make me consider buying the next book in the series.
Most of the flaws in the book was because of the writing style. The sentences are short and choppy, the descriptions go on just a little too long, and the vocabulary was about second grade level. Granted, the writing was clear and there were hardly any spelling or grammar errors, but I was dying for something a little more complicated by the middle of the book.
Like I said above, everything else worked just fine, and the book did have enough in other ways to make me consider buying the next book in the series.
July 16, 2018
A Mystique Press Production, an imprint of Crossroad Press, ©2014
An intriguing novel, magic and dragons set in a US city that seems to have a history older than is possible - with tunnels below the surface that seem to form part of a dimensional transfer system - but the book serves as an introduction to a series around the deChance character, a collector of rare manuscripts who is older than he looks...
The sequels look equally intriguing - and there is an extended extract from Book 2 (vampires rather than dragons in this, it seems).
An intriguing novel, magic and dragons set in a US city that seems to have a history older than is possible - with tunnels below the surface that seem to form part of a dimensional transfer system - but the book serves as an introduction to a series around the deChance character, a collector of rare manuscripts who is older than he looks...
The sequels look equally intriguing - and there is an extended extract from Book 2 (vampires rather than dragons in this, it seems).
February 22, 2013
So this book is not the best written but what a great story! It has crazy a demon voodoo priestess, a child that can open portals to other worlds, in this case where dragons reside. An intercity gang of thugs infested by evil spirits and a motorcycle gang that needs to restore the balance. It rocks and rolls through a week of scary happenings. Did I mention the ancient occult text collector that tries to figure the whole thing out. Anyway, it is an easy read perfect for a cold snowy day!
December 13, 2015
Besides hating books about gangs and uncalled for violence I really enjoyed this book. Sally was a memorizing character who I would love to see much more of. Dechance was mysterious and the author gave nothing away about what he is capable of so the reader desires more which is great plotting. Amethyst is a wonderful supporting character with just as much mystery behind her to want more from her in the series. Intriguing stuff from the author. Wishing much more to come.
July 7, 2019
Fantasy
I like Dragons. This was an interesting way to connect to them. Lived this book. The ones that follow about vampires not as much.
I like Dragons. This was an interesting way to connect to them. Lived this book. The ones that follow about vampires not as much.
June 10, 2021
A very good urban fantasy
For a full review, please go to https://areviewerdarkly.blogspot.com/... and follow me on Twitter @josenher
For a full review, please go to https://areviewerdarkly.blogspot.com/... and follow me on Twitter @josenher
April 24, 2014
Review is posted on Audible
December 21, 2015
This author wins the award for excessive descriptions and, at the same time, lack of character development. Couldn't bring myself to care about any of the characters.
January 2, 2016
Part of a series - urban fantasy -pretty good.
April 12, 2016
A very impressive story. Grips you from the first page and won't let go. I can't wait to read more of this series!
April 23, 2014
Not a bad attempt. I was looking for a Harry Dresden substitute though and this really isn't it.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews