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Fool's Gold

(The Dragon Lords #1)

Jon Hollins

3.72 · Rating details · 1,247 ratings · 209 reviews

"YOU'RE NOT PROPOSING WE STEAL FROM A DRAGON?"

It's not easy to live in a world ruled by dragons. The taxes are high and their control is complete. But for one group of bold adventurers, it's time to band together and steal back some of that wealth.
No one ever said they were smart.

Ocean's Eleven meets The Hobbit - Jon Hollins' debut combines non-stop action, death-defying ...more

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Paperback, 516 pages

Published July 21st 2016 by Orbit (first published July 19th 2016)

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Jan 11, 2016 Mogsy (MMOGC) rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy, magic, arcs-and-galleys, netgalley, audiobook, dragons, review-copy, humor

3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2016/08/06/...

Ill admit, it hasnt exactly been a smooth year for me when it comes to fiction and humor. Excitement over highly anticipated satire and parodic works have mostly fizzled after finding out they are in fact not what I had in mind. Undeterred though, I decided to leap next into The Dragon Lords: Fools Gold, intrigued by its Guardians of the Galaxy meets The Hobbit tagline and hoping against hope that Ill finally get the 3.5 of 5 stars at The BiblioSanctum https://bibliosanctum.com/2016/08/06/...

I’ll admit, it hasn’t exactly been a smooth year for me when it comes to fiction and humor. Excitement over highly anticipated satire and parodic works have mostly fizzled after finding out they are in fact not what I had in mind. Undeterred though, I decided to leap next into The Dragon Lords: Fool’s Gold, intrigued by its “Guardians of the Galaxy meets The Hobbit” tagline and hoping against hope that I’ll finally get the fantasy comedy I’ve been searching for.

The premise sounded promising enough, featuring a tale about an unlikely band of adventurers who’ve gotten it into their addled heads to rob a dragon. Before everything in his world turned upside down, Will Fallows was just another unassuming farm boy from a poor little village (literally called, The Village…the people are too downtrodden to be inspired) in Kondorra Valley, doing his best to make ends meet. However, each year the rising taxes demanded by the Dragon Consortium makes it that much harder to do, until one day, the moment that Will has been dreading all his life finally comes. With no warning at all, the dragon lord Mattrax’s soldiers show up at his door to seize his farm.

Left with nothing to his name, Will suddenly finds himself in the company of two traveling mercenaries, the skilled fighter Lette and her partner the eight-foot-tall lizard man Balur. After recruiting the help of a magically gifted university scholar named Quirk and an old drunkard named Firkin, the five of them conspire together to hatch up a plan to get revenge on Mattrax, the dragon who has been the cause of so much pain and suffering to the humans of the valley. It’s a totally crazy, stupid idea, one that Will knows has almost no chance of success. If they fail, they’ll bring doom upon all the people of Kondorra, and possibly to the world beyond. But if they can somehow pull this off? They’ll all be rewarded with riches beyond their imagination. The promise of gold beckons, and who knows, maybe this time fortune might actually favor the foolish.

Main reasons to check out this book: 1) if you think you’ll enjoy an epic fantasy seen through a modern humorous lens, and 2) if you’re like me and have a fondness for a good heist story. Many times throughout this one, I was reminded of Patrick Weekes’ Rogues of the Republic series, which contains a similar amount of humor, action, snappy dialogue, and creative solutions to unusual problems. Jon Hollins takes the zaniness further though, often putting his characters in ludicrous situations whenever things go wrong—and things actually do go wrong a lot in this story, despite our heroes’ careful planning (or rather, what they naively believe passes for careful planning). But hey, who wants to read about a heist that goes off without a hitch anyway? In this quirky tale, it’s the infighting and the unforeseen circumstances that makes things so entertaining.

Now for the reasons why you might want to take a pass on this book. If you like full immersion into a world, then this would not be for you. The Dragon Lords: Fool’s Gold is unabashedly tongue-in-cheek, with exaggerated characters and situations. It’s all done very cleverly, but it’ll be tough to get on board if you already that know fantasy comedy isn’t your cup of tea. Hollins is generous with the use of anachronisms, pop culture references and modern slang, but mind you, these are features, not defects. One only has to take a glimpse at the chapter titles to see what I mean, with hilarious headings like “We’re Going to Need a Bigger Boat”, “What’s in the Box?”, “Hubris is a Dish Best Served Charbroiled”, “Lying Liars and the Lies They Tell”, “The Inevitable Cliffhanger Chapter” and many, many more such examples. It’s meant to be pure fun, and pure fun is what you get. It’s also relatively light fare, which is to be expected. For humor fiction, the book might have run a little longer than I was happy with, but that’s really my biggest criticism, which is in no way a deal breaker in the greater scheme of things. For the most part Hollins does manage to keep the story moving along at a quick pace.

Audiobook Comments: I was also fortunate enough to be given the opportunity to listen to the audiobook edition, and it confirmed one of my long-held suspicions: humor works splendidly well in audio format! Narrator John Banks with his smooth accent and deep tones seemed like an odd choice of reader for this book at first, but I quickly came around. In fact, I think his serious, earnest style only emphasized the humor. More importantly, his performance also moderated some of the more absurd situations for me, whereas if I’d actually been reading the words on a page, I think I might have rolled my eyes at the same scenes. He’s also great with voices, and even his exaggerated ones for characters like Balur or Firkin somehow sounded completely natural and in keeping with their personalities. Overall, I would highly recommend this audiobook.

Bottom line: The Dragon Lords: Fool’s Gold is clever, adventurous and entertaining. If you’re looking for a light read with a fun plot and interesting characters, you won’t be disappointed. ...more

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Jun 03, 2017 Kaitlin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: my-sff-faves

A solid 4.5*s for this book and I am soooo happy I finally got around to this as it was EXACTLY what I was in the mood for and it was completely what I love. This follows a rag-tag group who live in a world filled with Gods and Dragons. The section of the world we're focused on is fairly similar to a 'classic' medieval fantasy, but the witty awareness of the author whilst writing made this book into something so much more than the average and I have to say that this is rude, lewd and crude A solid 4.5*s for this book and I am soooo happy I finally got around to this as it was EXACTLY what I was in the mood for and it was completely what I love. This follows a rag-tag group who live in a world filled with Gods and Dragons. The section of the world we're focused on is fairly similar to a 'classic' medieval fantasy, but the witty awareness of the author whilst writing made this book into something so much more than the average and I have to say that this is rude, lewd and crude throughout (but for me that was a large part of the charm!)

The section of the world we're focused on is ruled over by crazy evil dragon lords who are pretty beastly (as you can see by the cover illustration! Terrifying!). Mattrax is the dragon who rules over this particular spot of land and he's quite beastly!
We follow Will, a young man who owns a farm and is just trying to scrape by until one day his farm is taken by the Dragons and he has to abandon it and flee for his life. Will quickly meets our other main characters, Quirk, Lette and Balur and the four of them (plus a raving drunk man) concoct a plan to steal from Mattrax and get him back for all the horrors he's inflicted on Will and the other local's lives... things like (excuse my swearing) SHITTING on them as he flies by!

What I adored about this book was the fact that it truly kept me laughing out loud and smiling throughout. It's a great story featuring pretty evil dragons (a big plus) and some wonderfully entertaining characters. I really loved the way Will constantly walked into things he was trying to avoid, the way Balur stood for his tribe and himself before all else (but he also wasn't fully playing into the barbarian trope) and how Lette and Quirk both turned gender-roles on their head by being completely savage and completely intellectual respectively.

This book is written by Jon Hollins which is a pseudonym for someone else and I am SO CURIOUS as to who it is becuase this is technically Jon Hollins' debut, but it felt so well crafted that it HAS to be a brilliant author already writing and I really want to know who so I can read everything else by them!

This is just the beginning of course and I am very excited for book #2 to come out later this year as no doubt it will continue to bring this world and these great characters back to life for more escapades and I am definitely up to read more of that. Brilliant fun and witty throughout - 4.5*s and I'd highly recommend this to anyone who has read books like the Greatcoats series by Sebastien de Castell and enjoyed them as I think it's in a similar vein to that :)
...more

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Jan 20, 2018 Belinda rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

4,25 stars - Audiobook - review will follow later. Still have to get my thoughts together about what I heard. 🌷🌹🌷

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Apr 14, 2018 kartik narayanan rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: unfinished-series

Fool's Gold is an excellent mash of fantasy and humour.

This book grips you by the throat right from the start with its humour, and never lets go. There are few rough edges though. I found some of the humour to be forced in the first third of the book. And some of the scatological references get old after a while. Thankfully, there is more variety to be found which helped me get over these few minor annoyances.

In addition to the humour, the characters are also memorable in a sense since they are ...more

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Sep 07, 2018 FanFiAddict rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

First off, thanks to Hachette Audio and Libro.fm for an audio copy of Fools Gold (The Dragon Lords #1) in exchange for an honest review. Receiving this audio copy does not influence my thoughts or opinions on the novel or author.

One of the easiest recommendations I can make if you enjoy audiobooks. Jon Banks is again phenomenal and never ceases to make daily commute highly entertaining.

Have you ever come across a book that exceeds your expectations?

Who am I kidding.

OF COURSE you have.

Well, Fools ...more

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Oct 08, 2016 Nicholas Eames rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I can only imagine the day Jon Hollins (a pseudonym for Jonathan Wood) devised the plot for Fools Gold. He might have turned over the final page of some dour tome of epic fantasy and thought: Fuck this noiseI want something fun for a change. He may have googled, Oceans Eleven meets The Hobbit, figuring some brilliant bastard had already mashed these two worlds into one awesome story because WHY THE HELL WOULDNT THEY!? And then, upon discovering this inexplicable vacuum in the universe of fantasy ...more

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Oct 29, 2016 RG rated it liked it · review of another edition

It wasn't a bad book. Solid action fantasy with mixed comedic elements. Actually enjoyed the first 1/3 quite a bit, then it sort of lost its appeal a bit for me. Could appeal to those who like the witty banter mixed with minimal fantasy tropes thrown in. The action scenes are quite well done, and the characters are fun but none really stood out for me (Will annoyed me haha).

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May 24, 2020 Heather rated it liked it · review of another edition

Rag tag group with heists, some humor, battles, and most importantly, dragons. Its different from your typical epic fantasy, and I had fun reading it. ...more

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Jul 26, 2016 Fantasy Literature rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

If youre a fan of heist stories particularly the planning, the bickering between co-conspirators, the moments when it all goes dreadfully wrong or sublimely right and you also happen to enjoy epic fantasies with vicious fire-breathing dragons and their vast caches of filthy lucre, then youll be happy to know that theres a Venn diagram where those two genres meet, and the center is filled by Jon Hollins debut fantasy novel, The Dragon Lords: Fools Gold.

In the lovely but oppressed Kondorra ...more

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Dec 01, 2018 Jenifer rated it did not like it · review of another edition

Shelves: bookclub-selection, dnf

Got over 6 hours into the book and I just couldn't go on any further. The book was ridiculous and there wasn't a character I liked and the plot line was awful. I'm sorry I wasted 6 hours of listening time on this.

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Mar 11, 2018 Taylor rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: 2018-books, fantasy, dragons

"So we can rob Mattrax?" Will said just to be sure.

Firkin laughed again, loud in the small sty. "Maybe," he said. "I don't know. But we can try, Will. Anything could end up happening. Maybe we could even rob them all. I've learned about all of them, Will. Matrix, and Dathrax, and Kithrax, and the whole cursed lot of them. I can tell you about them all. We can make plans for them all. You can make plans. And then..." He smiled, reached for his flask again. "Beautiful chaos."

...

I'm just going to ...more

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Jul 03, 2019 TABI⁷ (ᕗツ)ᕗ marked it as to-read · review of another edition

I would have wanted this just from the cover alone, but Guardians of the Galaxy meets The Hobbit??? I gotta check this out

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Jul 24, 2016 Gwyn Harley rated it liked it · review of another edition

ARRRRRRRGH! Right then, now that that's out of my system let's begin. This book has got to be one of the most frustrating books I have ever read. I'm so conflicted by it. On the one hand I have laughed out loud at some of the scenes and dialogue and been left almost breathless with excitement with some of the action. This book knows how to put the Epic in epic fantasy! 5 star book right?
On the other hand I have wanted to cry in frustration at some of the juvenile dialogue and ridiculous chapter ...more

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Sep 12, 2017 Calvin rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

one of my top books!

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Oct 08, 2017 Jane rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.5 stars

I really, really enjoyed this book. It is fun and witty and full of action. It is one of the rare fantasy books that is actually funny. Like really funny, not corny funny. The characters interact with each other just like best friends do in real life. They give each other a hard time, never let anyone take themselves too seriously, and have their back when the going gets tough.

The story is set in Kondorra. Many years ago the dragons decided they wanted to rule over Kondorra. So they 4.5 stars

I really, really enjoyed this book. It is fun and witty and full of action. It is one of the rare fantasy books that is actually funny. Like really funny, not corny funny. The characters interact with each other just like best friends do in real life. They give each other a hard time, never let anyone take themselves too seriously, and have their back when the going gets tough.

The story is set in Kondorra. Many years ago the dragons decided they wanted to rule over Kondorra. So they set upon on the populace, murdered thousands of them until they were sufficiently cowered, and then taxed them until no one could make a living. Will's parents are dead, the man that helped raise him has gone crazy and disappeared and he can barely keep the family farm running. When the dragon's men come to collect yet another tax on the farm, a fight ensues and Will barely escapes with his life.

Will runs away and finds himself in a cave where he runs into Lette and Balur, two mercenaries that are searching for a new life in a new land. The gold they had stolen to start this new life was stolen by goblins that they tracked to the cave. Firkin, Will's former farm hand and friend, is found bound and gagged in the cave. He is drunk and just as crazy as ever. Rounding out the group is Quirk, a recovering magician whose new "career" is studying dragons. As the group commiserate about their lot in life, they devise a plan to steal gold from the dragons. What could possibly go wrong?

The story is fast paced and the interactions between the characters is very funny. One big warning, however; there is a lot of cursing. Like, A LOT. So if lots of cursing offends your delicate sensibilities, this is not the book for you. The few love scenes and action scenes are very tame, however, which is kind of weird considering how much cussing there is in the book. But, it works, and I enjoyed it.

I liked this book so much that before I finished it, I bought the second book in the series on Amazon. I can't wait to see what the gang has up their sleeve next. While there are other books in the series, this one can be read as a stand-alone book as there is a definite beginning, middle and end to the story. ...more

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Nov 26, 2018 Dennis Hearon rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasy

DNF. Well, I gave it 120 pages. Its not bad, its just not particularly good and I have other books I would rather read.

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May 12, 2019 Khai Jian (KJ) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Hilarious, witty, fun, are the only words to describe this book!

This debut by Jon Hollins (a pseudonym for Jonathan Wood) reminds me so much of Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames whereby the humor element shines strongly throughout the book. I literally laughed out loud when Im reading this book! While some big words were used by Hollins, it does not dilute the humor element. Some may think that the a lot of vulgar words/descriptions were used, but seriously, I have no issues with that.

The plot Hilarious, witty, fun, are the only words to describe this book!

This debut by Jon Hollins (a pseudonym for Jonathan Wood) reminds me so much of Kings of the Wyld by Nicholas Eames whereby the humor element shines strongly throughout the book. I literally laughed out loud when I’m reading this book! While some big words were used by Hollins, it does not dilute the humor element. Some may think that the a lot of vulgar words/descriptions were used, but seriously, I have no issues with that.

The plot of this story is also quite refreshing. This story took place in the world where Dragons ruled the society and humans are forced to pay crazy high taxes to the Dragons due to fear. We follow the main character Will, a farmer who, in the midst of running away from the guards of the Dragon Consortium for failure to settle his tax, met up with Lette (a mercenary who wanted to be “a better person” and seeks for a change in her life), Balur (Lette’s “tribe”, who is also a lizard man), Quirk (a scholar/professor and wizard who refuses to use magic due to her past life) and Firkin (a drunkard, who is also Will’s friend). All 5 of them (with Will as the group’s herald) initially came up with a plan to rob one of the Dragon, Mattrax, who ruled Will’s village. But such plan of course, did not go as well as they imagined. One heist plot lead to another and all plans turned out to be a disaster, except for the last plan where it was a success. In the midst of taking us through the action-packed plot, Hollins managed to bring the characters to life. The interactions between the characters are so engaging and fun!

I have to say, this series is a new breath to the fantasy genre. While we can see some usual fantasy tropes in this story (i.e. the medieval world building, greedy dragons who are crazily in love with gold), Jon Hollins still manage to step out from the usual classic fantasy genre by introducing the heist plots. And of course, i definitely enjoyed the epic battle with 5 dragons at the end of the book (even in such an epic battle, Jon Hollins still managed to make me laughed out loud)!

This book deserves a strong 4/5 star rating and I can’t wait to pick up the second book in this series! ...more

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May 10, 2018 Hannah (yuebooks) rated it really liked it · review of another edition

God, this was so much more better than I ever expected it to be! 😱 I felt so entertained the whole time, that end battle was expuisitely epic and, come on! It's about dragons! How could this not be awesome as hell?! 🐲

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Mar 06, 2019 Nathan Woll rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

I was not ready for how good this book was. It had great humor, an amazing plot, a satisfying conclusion, and an epic caper.

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Apr 01, 2020 Jasper W rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Jon Hollins writing is fresh, different, interesting, and hilarious! Loved this.

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Dec 31, 2015 Vinay Badri rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2016-read, best-of-2016

Ok this is an insanely insane and fun book. I don't think I have laughed and giggled my way through a book this year as much I have on this. It's just non-stop and the book just lets it go with the flow until it takes a turn to comic booky violence towards the end featuring one of the craziest take down ever.

Plot wise there really isn't much and the book also really doesn't have any pretentious airs around it. It's silly, crass and an absolute hoot

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Jun 18, 2016 Iain Garland rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

A fantastic, epic and very easily loveable start to a new series of books. Between great characters, an awesome setting and an "if you think I'm going to stop reading now you can royally do one" final few chapters Fool's Gold captures the humour and writing style of the author while still feeling fresh and unique.

Buy it. In fact buy two copies in case you crease one of them.

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Jan 21, 2016 Jana added it · review of another edition

Shelves: fantasyliterature, arcs, 5-stars

Rating: 5 stars

Review posted at Fantasy Literature.

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Aug 24, 2019 Trish rated it really liked it · review of another edition

4.25 stars

I've not read much "high fantasy", but feel it's a good stepping point before high diving in.

We follow Will from the beginning and his day isn't going well and continues to get worse. Throughout his day he comes across three strangers Quirk, Lette, and Balur. There we pretty much have our band for the book.

We follow their quest from the offset and shenanigans ensue. This story lacked in world building, as it just follows the band, but you see snippets of what the world could be. The ...more

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Oct 11, 2018 Colin Thompson rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It's been a crap year. Fortunately I've read some good books that have kept me afloat. Some have made me smile. This one put the biggest grin of the year on my face. I've loved the humour, the characters and the interplay between them. The prose is irreverent and coarse (exactly to my liking), but also well written when out of speech. The story isn't complex, but enough to keep the plot going at a good pace. This reminded me of the fun that I had reading the Lies of Locke Lamora and the ...more

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Sep 16, 2018 Taylor Wells rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Ya'll, it's a fantasy heist story with heart, humor, and moments of badassery. Read it!

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Dec 28, 2018 Emma Williams rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: on-bookself

I love this book. just read it, it is a fun ocean's 11 type thing in a D&D like world.

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Jul 16, 2017 Josie rated it really liked it · review of another edition

This was highly entertaining, funny, and very exciting, loved it! The writing was very snappy and engaging and I fell in love with all the characters and really felt like I got to know them. The narration of the audiobook was hilarious and I think it added to the development of some of the characters. I really enjoyed how this story took typical fantasy tropes and turned them on their head and twisted them around. Looking forward to more from this author!
For other reviews and bookish things ...more

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Apr 02, 2019 Grace rated it really liked it · review of another edition

A very enjoyable fantasy romp.
Plans that always seem to go slightly awry and including dragons, goblins, lizard men and an excellent cast of characters, this is a fun read.
The only thing i didn't really like was the character Quirk. Even though we got backstory and things that should have fleshed her out, i never really connected with her and found her annoying.
But this was made up for by Lette being excellent.

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Jun 01, 2017 Mark Stone rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Okay...let's take stock here. This is not your normal fantasy novel about dragons and gold and awesome protagonists with bulging muscles and the gleam of righteousness in their eyes. Take all those notions and toss them in the rubbish bin. Got it? Good.
Sure, there are bulgy muscles and epic deeds aplenty, lots of blood and gore and all the good sword and sorcery type of mayhem that would satisfy the most jaded appetite, but it's wrapped in the soft cottony cloth of complete and utter sarcasm.
...more

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