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Reverting Scales
Naydrus is a dragon born to immense parents who live with and serve humans. When the dragonling hatches, it is revealed that she doesn't look anything like her family and she has a passion for fighting. However, she also carries a deep hatred for the hominid 'caretakers'. This inspires her escape from the city through the sewer system and find other dragons that share her mindset. However, the world is a big place and very old. Much has happened and continues to happen without Naydrus being aware of it, causing her to cross paths with dangerous individuals and end up in hazardous locations.
- GenresDragons
245 pages, Paperback
Published January 17, 2024
14 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
February 5, 2024
Interesting premise with room for improvement
Born (or rather, hatched) different from her dragon siblings, Naydrus grapples with her identity and despises dragonkind's apparent subservience to humans, the latter an influence of her ancestral memories. She runs away from her birthplace, away from her siblings and parents, in search of like-minded dragons elsewhere, encountering a fair amount of trouble on the way...
Being born different is not a new premise, but the protagonist's immediate development of a hatred for humans and dragons serving them piqued my curiosity. Images or memories from her time in the egg tell Naydrus that humans are the enemy, and she accepts this as truth unhesitatingly. However, as the reader, I thought Naydrus's ire and escape from humans feel unconvincing, especially as the dragons around Naydrus appear to be treated kindly. Even the death of a dragon acquaintance, the impetus that finally drives her to make an escape, felt like it should have been expected, considering that dragon's chosen line of duty. Naydrus's worldview is interesting, but perhaps more could be developed to make the reader relate to her better.
That aside, later events lead Naydrus to encounter new and intriguing characters as well as a window into the past and the origin of all dragons. The ending leaves her at a better place, and I look forward to finding where the sequel will take her to next.
Born (or rather, hatched) different from her dragon siblings, Naydrus grapples with her identity and despises dragonkind's apparent subservience to humans, the latter an influence of her ancestral memories. She runs away from her birthplace, away from her siblings and parents, in search of like-minded dragons elsewhere, encountering a fair amount of trouble on the way...
Being born different is not a new premise, but the protagonist's immediate development of a hatred for humans and dragons serving them piqued my curiosity. Images or memories from her time in the egg tell Naydrus that humans are the enemy, and she accepts this as truth unhesitatingly. However, as the reader, I thought Naydrus's ire and escape from humans feel unconvincing, especially as the dragons around Naydrus appear to be treated kindly. Even the death of a dragon acquaintance, the impetus that finally drives her to make an escape, felt like it should have been expected, considering that dragon's chosen line of duty. Naydrus's worldview is interesting, but perhaps more could be developed to make the reader relate to her better.
That aside, later events lead Naydrus to encounter new and intriguing characters as well as a window into the past and the origin of all dragons. The ending leaves her at a better place, and I look forward to finding where the sequel will take her to next.
June 30, 2025
Reverting Scales is a criminally underappreciated story. It has some of the issues inherent to many debut works, but it’s also notable for its well-written protagonist and unusual premise.
In its world, dragons benefit from their remarkable adaptability and access to their ancestral memories. This is an intriguing notion that is further expanded throughout the story, with the two books in the series offering occasional glimpses into the origin of all dragonkind and how it ties into other mysterious happenings in the world.
While most dragons’ ancestral memory only goes back a few generations, our protagonist, Naydrus, can hear the voices of primordial dragons, and those voices warn her that humans are not to be trusted. This is something she takes to heart and refuses to let go of with the stubbornness of a hatchling. In this, in my opinion, lies the greatest strength of the story’s protagonist: this stubborn conviction, through careful maneuvering on the author’s part, comes off as genuine and makes the character feel much more alive.
The story creates some nuance by underlining that, while the relationship between dragons and humans is mutually beneficial, one side is clearly benefiting more than the other. In this way, it avoids making its protagonist’s stance entirely misguided, but still highlights that she is being unreasonable, opening the way for interesting interactions and further character growth.
Reverting Scales also has some problems. The prose is a bit odd at times, and some narrative elements can feel underdeveloped. Certain plot points seem to suddenly appear out of nowhere, only to be discarded just as quickly once they are no longer needed. This makes the story feel a bit unbalanced and leaves occasional gaps in the worldbuilding.
All in all, Reverting Scales lacks some polish, but the book more than makes up for it with genuine characters and intriguing plot elements. I particularly enjoyed seeing Naydrus grow through reluctantly shedding her preconceptions. This ability to change is what makes her stubbornness feel endearing rather than grating; and it was one of the main reasons I liked the story as much as I did.
In its world, dragons benefit from their remarkable adaptability and access to their ancestral memories. This is an intriguing notion that is further expanded throughout the story, with the two books in the series offering occasional glimpses into the origin of all dragonkind and how it ties into other mysterious happenings in the world.
While most dragons’ ancestral memory only goes back a few generations, our protagonist, Naydrus, can hear the voices of primordial dragons, and those voices warn her that humans are not to be trusted. This is something she takes to heart and refuses to let go of with the stubbornness of a hatchling. In this, in my opinion, lies the greatest strength of the story’s protagonist: this stubborn conviction, through careful maneuvering on the author’s part, comes off as genuine and makes the character feel much more alive.
The story creates some nuance by underlining that, while the relationship between dragons and humans is mutually beneficial, one side is clearly benefiting more than the other. In this way, it avoids making its protagonist’s stance entirely misguided, but still highlights that she is being unreasonable, opening the way for interesting interactions and further character growth.
Reverting Scales also has some problems. The prose is a bit odd at times, and some narrative elements can feel underdeveloped. Certain plot points seem to suddenly appear out of nowhere, only to be discarded just as quickly once they are no longer needed. This makes the story feel a bit unbalanced and leaves occasional gaps in the worldbuilding.
All in all, Reverting Scales lacks some polish, but the book more than makes up for it with genuine characters and intriguing plot elements. I particularly enjoyed seeing Naydrus grow through reluctantly shedding her preconceptions. This ability to change is what makes her stubbornness feel endearing rather than grating; and it was one of the main reasons I liked the story as much as I did.
June 28, 2025
This is the third book so far I have decided to try out from a Reddit post. While I am not a super fan of dragons, so far I have never read a book from the POV of a dragon I disliked and decided to read the first 10% free sample.
So far, the book focuses on the birth of a female baby dragon named Naydrus who is only a few days old and already exhibiting signs her intelligence, aggresiveness and sense of self are far more developed than her littermates, causing her immense irritation. Her parents are loving, yet also confused about why she is speaking so soon and has a physical trait that stands out: instead of having flat hoofs (I assume like a Brontosaurus, perhaps?), her feet have sharp claws like a Velociraptor.
Even though both books are quite different, Reverting scales reminds me a lot of Heart of Fire by Raina Nightingale. Both books star a baby female dragon that is much more aware of the oppressive social status of dragons while living under the yoke of their handlers (in this book humans and in Raina's book elves) and all signs point Naydrus is going to end up running away. The main differences between both books is that in Heart of Fire, all dragons have higher than average intelligence, but elves use magic for subjugation. In this book, it seems dragons have average intelligence with docile personalities, quite possibly from domestication similar to dogs, and Naydrus is the result of an unexpected mutation. To me, this whole story concept is really cool which I seldom ever see in fantasy books.
Even though I feel chapter 1 is very slow and would have benefitted from reaching the birth scene sooner to more easily grab my attention, the book is picking up nicely from chapters 2 & 3. I will assume things will only get better as Naydrus's yearning for freedom brings forth story conflict. Some bits of text regarding eating food could have used a bit more clarity, but I didn't have much difficulty following along the story and am getting good vibes from the personalities of Naydrus's parents and their human handlers. The addition of having dragons nibble on rocks with metals for growing healthy scales is a really awesome touch. Me likey stories with dragons eating rocks!
Typos wise I found three of them within the first 10%. Most of them are the homophome kind that will be missed by spellcheck. Such as "The male dropped next to his mate, tired by the hunt and eager to have his next male when he'd open his eyes again." Would be a real good idea to use a dictation software to listen to the book because visually they are the kind of typo even a proofreader might miss unless they were paying close attention.
I usually don't read blurbs until after I finish the book (it is apparently a strange quirk of mine), but I do think this blurb could use more punch to lure readers with a hook. The blurb's passive writing is actually quite a stark contrast to the book which is much more immersive. I quite enjoyed the lineart of the cover, but feel the dark background makes the art fade and is difficult to see when minimized. Typography is impossible to see from a distance and will probably be tenfold harder to see if the cover was converted to greyscale. The lineart certainly gives good Middle Grade vibes, which is probably the right reader age group for this book. With a revamped cover where the colors are in full display, it would look, really, really awesome despite the huge cost investment.
---
Update: As I mentioned before, I enjoyed the sample and wanted to finish the book. And wow, if I had known beforehand I was going to enjoy the book this much, I would have bought a copy much sooner. Despite the clarity issues, the book just kept on getting better & better. Most of the clarity issues early in the book are because Naydrus is (immeasurably) ignorant about the world. Being clouded by her hatred of all bipeds for seemingly no reason, she lets her anger cloud her judgement and ends up in problems fairly often. Even fellow dragons find her to be rather intolerable and belittle her a lot.
We get to meet various different dragon species as the story goes by. Her parents and siblings are a sort of chunky rock dragons called cercreau, while we meet more agile white D.er, 4 winged lotkis (uhhh, I spelled that one wrong), spiky blue ones calle Kohals, also chunky yellow ones I think sclerols and even a dragon species that needs to wear steampunk inspired facemasks called felhs because they can only breathe air inbued I suppose with carbon dioxide. The book mentions there are also semiaquatic dragon species but we never get to meet any. It would have been wonderful to get a glossary with artwork of each species and some traits at the end of the book to avoid some spoilers.
Naydrus starts to see some moments of her rigid worldview crashing when she meets a human that is a sort of dragon worshiper named Gar. We don't know much about him, but he's like, really, really adamant in keeping her safe. I liked him a lot.
It's a bit hard to continue saying more about the book without spoiling much more, but I am pleasantly surprised by the vivid imagination from the author to create such a fascinating world in just a bit over 300 pages. In reality, I feel the book is much shorter because it reads so fast. If the book is within the 60,000 word limit, I really hope the author considers signing this book up for the SFINCS contest because I have a hunch it will do very well in the competition. Or in the very least, it will bring much more eyes that are interested in a refreshing yet still familiar Coming of Age dragon adventure that is apt for Middle Grade readers.
Despite the typos, I believe the book deserves its 4.5 stars and will most certainly read book 2 soon.
So far, the book focuses on the birth of a female baby dragon named Naydrus who is only a few days old and already exhibiting signs her intelligence, aggresiveness and sense of self are far more developed than her littermates, causing her immense irritation. Her parents are loving, yet also confused about why she is speaking so soon and has a physical trait that stands out: instead of having flat hoofs (I assume like a Brontosaurus, perhaps?), her feet have sharp claws like a Velociraptor.
Even though both books are quite different, Reverting scales reminds me a lot of Heart of Fire by Raina Nightingale. Both books star a baby female dragon that is much more aware of the oppressive social status of dragons while living under the yoke of their handlers (in this book humans and in Raina's book elves) and all signs point Naydrus is going to end up running away. The main differences between both books is that in Heart of Fire, all dragons have higher than average intelligence, but elves use magic for subjugation. In this book, it seems dragons have average intelligence with docile personalities, quite possibly from domestication similar to dogs, and Naydrus is the result of an unexpected mutation. To me, this whole story concept is really cool which I seldom ever see in fantasy books.
Even though I feel chapter 1 is very slow and would have benefitted from reaching the birth scene sooner to more easily grab my attention, the book is picking up nicely from chapters 2 & 3. I will assume things will only get better as Naydrus's yearning for freedom brings forth story conflict. Some bits of text regarding eating food could have used a bit more clarity, but I didn't have much difficulty following along the story and am getting good vibes from the personalities of Naydrus's parents and their human handlers. The addition of having dragons nibble on rocks with metals for growing healthy scales is a really awesome touch. Me likey stories with dragons eating rocks!
Typos wise I found three of them within the first 10%. Most of them are the homophome kind that will be missed by spellcheck. Such as "The male dropped next to his mate, tired by the hunt and eager to have his next male when he'd open his eyes again." Would be a real good idea to use a dictation software to listen to the book because visually they are the kind of typo even a proofreader might miss unless they were paying close attention.
I usually don't read blurbs until after I finish the book (it is apparently a strange quirk of mine), but I do think this blurb could use more punch to lure readers with a hook. The blurb's passive writing is actually quite a stark contrast to the book which is much more immersive. I quite enjoyed the lineart of the cover, but feel the dark background makes the art fade and is difficult to see when minimized. Typography is impossible to see from a distance and will probably be tenfold harder to see if the cover was converted to greyscale. The lineart certainly gives good Middle Grade vibes, which is probably the right reader age group for this book. With a revamped cover where the colors are in full display, it would look, really, really awesome despite the huge cost investment.
---
Update: As I mentioned before, I enjoyed the sample and wanted to finish the book. And wow, if I had known beforehand I was going to enjoy the book this much, I would have bought a copy much sooner. Despite the clarity issues, the book just kept on getting better & better. Most of the clarity issues early in the book are because Naydrus is (immeasurably) ignorant about the world. Being clouded by her hatred of all bipeds for seemingly no reason, she lets her anger cloud her judgement and ends up in problems fairly often. Even fellow dragons find her to be rather intolerable and belittle her a lot.
We get to meet various different dragon species as the story goes by. Her parents and siblings are a sort of chunky rock dragons called cercreau, while we meet more agile white D.er, 4 winged lotkis (uhhh, I spelled that one wrong), spiky blue ones calle Kohals, also chunky yellow ones I think sclerols and even a dragon species that needs to wear steampunk inspired facemasks called felhs because they can only breathe air inbued I suppose with carbon dioxide. The book mentions there are also semiaquatic dragon species but we never get to meet any. It would have been wonderful to get a glossary with artwork of each species and some traits at the end of the book to avoid some spoilers.
Naydrus starts to see some moments of her rigid worldview crashing when she meets a human that is a sort of dragon worshiper named Gar. We don't know much about him, but he's like, really, really adamant in keeping her safe. I liked him a lot.
It's a bit hard to continue saying more about the book without spoiling much more, but I am pleasantly surprised by the vivid imagination from the author to create such a fascinating world in just a bit over 300 pages. In reality, I feel the book is much shorter because it reads so fast. If the book is within the 60,000 word limit, I really hope the author considers signing this book up for the SFINCS contest because I have a hunch it will do very well in the competition. Or in the very least, it will bring much more eyes that are interested in a refreshing yet still familiar Coming of Age dragon adventure that is apt for Middle Grade readers.
Despite the typos, I believe the book deserves its 4.5 stars and will most certainly read book 2 soon.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews