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The Dragons of Nibiru
The adopted daughter of a distinguished starship commander, young Celine is a brilliant student, a promising cadet – and a secret witch. When a psychotic criminal, bent on revenge against her father, teleports Celine randomly out into the cosmos, she finds herself stranded on the forbidden planet Nibiru, in the lair of Fianna – last princess of a dying race of noble dragons. Fianna and Celine face dire perils and overwhelming odds in their quest for the key to the Dragon race’s survival, and the lives of everyone Celine holds most dear.
- GenresFantasy
320 pages, Paperback
Published July 28, 2017
About the author
Lorna J. Carleton
5 books13 followersI make my home in Vernon, British Columbia. I'm a BC native, and have a "day job" as a Safety Advisor for a major utility. I'm also working toward a university degree. Though I've dreamed of being an author since childhood, and made several attempts at novel writing, The Dragons of Nibiru is my first published story. The newest book in the Dragons of Nibiru Series, Dragons of Earth, is my second – and I look forward to bringing you many more. My inspiration for the stories came from observations of life over the years; chief among them were clashes among diverse cultures, and the struggles of former cult members to get on with their lives and find happiness. While continuing the series, I'm also quite excited to be planning a vacation trip to the Pleiades Cluster – providing I can find suitable transport (technological or otherwise).
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Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews
November 27, 2019
I can confidently say that I have never quite read a book like this before. There were elements of reality, fantasy, and science fiction all wrapped up into one story. Although it may seem like an overwhelming concept, the author does a good job of making the concepts flow together.
Overall I would say that the story was very interesting, and easy to follow. I think it may have been a bit too fast paced for my personal taste. I would have liked a slower explanation of some aspects - versus the quick explanations that covered a lot in a single sentence.
It is important to note that this book is only the first, and ends on a big cliff hanger! Hopefully the second comes soon!
Overall I would say that the story was very interesting, and easy to follow. I think it may have been a bit too fast paced for my personal taste. I would have liked a slower explanation of some aspects - versus the quick explanations that covered a lot in a single sentence.
It is important to note that this book is only the first, and ends on a big cliff hanger! Hopefully the second comes soon!
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 16, 2018
Really liked this story and characters. The author has a thorough understanding of dragons, crystals and magic -- a pleasure to read. Looking forward to the sequel.
September 2, 2020
It is a hot garbage fire. Every sentence is full of cringe, making it feel like a 16 year old wrote it for their English assignment.
The author is Canadian, which is what drew me to it, as I am from Canada. It is also about Dragons in Space, a concept I found interesting.
Reasons why it is one of the worst things I’ve ever read:
1. Pacing: if a book could give you whiplash, this would be it. We start out ungodly slow in a convention or something, then end up on Earth with reptile people? you’re wondering “where’s the space dragons” for the first 1/3 of the book, because none of it is relevant, and could have been summed up in a chapter with this pacing.
You finally befriend a dragon in the space of a paragraph and montage trough some training which I guess is relevant later on? You would have thought they’d have to sneak and fight more with the length of the montage, but the fight was also resolved in a paragraph.
Also *spoiler* they instantly find the plot maguffin - they’ve been building up for the entirety of the 2/3 since there were dragons and they INSTANTLY find it. Oh and there is the cliff hanger at the end which felt like the author hit “Enter” on their keyboard just so they could write and sell another shitty book.
2. Characters: character development? What? None to be found here. She’s not tried to become a good person. The people around them don’t face any challenges to their world views and feel like they are two dimensional archetypes.
We have the full of herself, trying to impress all the boys, mud cooler and sociable sister. We have the overtly protective father. We have the random priest that’s good and will help you. I was wholly expecting them to betray the protagonist, having the most screen time of any other characters, but no, he’s just there.
There’s also the slightly older boy you’re soulmates with (where the biggest cringe comes from) that you’ve known for a couple of years. Particularly he’s horrid to be around because he’ll say some shit that’s slightly possessive and uncool and you’re supposed to laugh it off because they’re “soul mates”. The villains are also two dimensional and gross to read about. And then there is the super competent protagonist that never fails at anything.
3. It’s written in third person omniscient which isn’t bad in general but is poorly executed. It left me confused as to was thinking most times.
TL;DR this book is not worth your time an money. There are other better debuts.
The author is Canadian, which is what drew me to it, as I am from Canada. It is also about Dragons in Space, a concept I found interesting.
Reasons why it is one of the worst things I’ve ever read:
1. Pacing: if a book could give you whiplash, this would be it. We start out ungodly slow in a convention or something, then end up on Earth with reptile people? you’re wondering “where’s the space dragons” for the first 1/3 of the book, because none of it is relevant, and could have been summed up in a chapter with this pacing.
You finally befriend a dragon in the space of a paragraph and montage trough some training which I guess is relevant later on? You would have thought they’d have to sneak and fight more with the length of the montage, but the fight was also resolved in a paragraph.
Also *spoiler* they instantly find the plot maguffin - they’ve been building up for the entirety of the 2/3 since there were dragons and they INSTANTLY find it. Oh and there is the cliff hanger at the end which felt like the author hit “Enter” on their keyboard just so they could write and sell another shitty book.
2. Characters: character development? What? None to be found here. She’s not tried to become a good person. The people around them don’t face any challenges to their world views and feel like they are two dimensional archetypes.
We have the full of herself, trying to impress all the boys, mud cooler and sociable sister. We have the overtly protective father. We have the random priest that’s good and will help you. I was wholly expecting them to betray the protagonist, having the most screen time of any other characters, but no, he’s just there.
There’s also the slightly older boy you’re soulmates with (where the biggest cringe comes from) that you’ve known for a couple of years. Particularly he’s horrid to be around because he’ll say some shit that’s slightly possessive and uncool and you’re supposed to laugh it off because they’re “soul mates”. The villains are also two dimensional and gross to read about. And then there is the super competent protagonist that never fails at anything.
3. It’s written in third person omniscient which isn’t bad in general but is poorly executed. It left me confused as to was thinking most times.
TL;DR this book is not worth your time an money. There are other better debuts.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 17, 2022
This review is intended to be constructive. I know authors avoid reading 1 star reviews but I hope Lorna sees this and finds it useful in some way, from the other reviews on this book I've heard she's a pleasant woman. Let's begin, shall we?
Formatting: 9/10
This is the best part of the book. The drawings were a lovely touch and attention was paid to the details, like the tiny dragon around the page numbers. The start of chapter ten was a little messed up but that was the only off thing I noticed.
Mechanics: 3/10
This does not look edited. There were misused words, tense changes, and some questionable capitalization. Also the author is really fond of double punctuation (??, !!), which is never grammatically correct. I would argue that there were also missing line breaks, especially around dialogue, but I have a harder time identifying the correct use of those.
Another, smaller detail is the use of invented terms. Invented terms aren't inherently bad, and are common in fantasy, but in this case there wasn't much effort to explain what a lot of these terms meant (the author just kind of expects us to know what Greys, Repts, and Rawkls are?). The terms 'incant-baton' and 'menting' in particular were awkward and got a little frustrating to read after a while because 'wand' and 'telepathy' are words that already exist and mean the same thing.
Style: 3/10
As far as writing style goes, some key issues that showed up throughout the story include:
- The author doesn’t seem to trust her readers to glean any sort of information or context for themselves and as a result everything that could possibly want for emphasis is italicized or capitalized. Fellow writers, you don't have to spoonfeed readers the exact way you want a sentence read, we have brains of our own.
- The infodumping is heavy. The first seven pages of chapter three are a meandering info-dump, to give you an inkling of how much there was. When it comes to fantasy and science fiction it can be difficult to find the perfect balance between giving readers the information they need to be immersed in ythe world, and drowning them in information. This book waterboarded me and somehow it still managed to come off like there was no solid worldbuilding.
- Most of the characters are written as either background filler or extreme caricatures. It was difficult to tell the side character crew members apart, meanwhile I desperately wanted Soader and Zulak to tone it down.
- All of the dialogue read like NPC videogame character dialogue.
Fianna was cute, I enjoyed her character!
Content: 5/10
Dragons and space! It's a really cool, creative idea and I would have loved to see it executed well. As a fan of ye olde SciFi shows a la Star Trek and Stargate, the premise of the book was definitely up my alley. The plot also had potential. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out.
The level of realism and basic knowledge of how things work was very low, which in broad terms is an okay thing for a fantasy, but there was stuff like normal human characters avoiding getting gassed by holding their breath for several minutes (and that worked. More than once). This contributed to the infodump/worldbuilding problem as well.
Let's talk about our main girl, Celine, for a minute. I'm not sure Mary Sue is the right term but she certainly has impressive plot armour. She is always prepared, even when it's unreasonable for her to be. It takes her approximately six seconds and one attempt to come up with solutions to all her predicaments, and if she isn't immediately successful that's fine, the issue is pushed to the side to never cause any problems that genuinely impact her. At a peak point in Celine's character development we learn that she is so incredibly ultimately special that she was self-aware and able to influence her mother while in the womb. The womb. As. A. Fetus. Oh, and she's a massive bitch about her sister and mother, who she views as grossly overfeminine and vapid respectively.
I've gone over it again and again and I think the core problem with this story is a lack of any sort of planning. As a plantser myself who in the past has favoured pantsing over plotting, I completely understand diving into a writing project with no idea how it's going to go and just word vomiting to the end. But you have to clean it up after. There was no real character growth or arcs. The pacing was horrific (sorry). The worldbuilding was swiss cheese (humanity should be long dead! Dead! According to the rules of the pandemic in this book). And as other reviewers have mentioned, the ending isn't really an ending so much as it is an abrupt cut-off. I think the author is in need of a deeper understanding of the elements of creative writing and I would love to see her learn those skills and return to this trilogy to do her fantastical ideas justice.
Other
One final thing I wanted to make note of is a particular character. Mia, Celine's sister, is portrayed as a self-centered bimbo to the extreme, has no impact on the plot at all, and seems to just be there as a way for Celine to vent her personal issues with femininity and/or female sexuality (the term "megawatt feminity" comes up on page 9). It goes like this: Celine is smart, strong, special, and not like the other girls so we should love her; Mia is hot and stupid and can have babies (that's a plot point but it's never really addressed past the first few chapters) so we should hate her. Mia could have been taken out and the story would have been the same. In fact, it would have been better. She served literally no other purpose than to be a hot dumb woman that the main character hates because she's hot and dumb . The reason I bring her up is because it was just so... icky to read a character written like this and it's disappointing to read this kind of characterization in a book written and published in my lifetime.
Formatting: 9/10
This is the best part of the book. The drawings were a lovely touch and attention was paid to the details, like the tiny dragon around the page numbers. The start of chapter ten was a little messed up but that was the only off thing I noticed.
Mechanics: 3/10
This does not look edited. There were misused words, tense changes, and some questionable capitalization. Also the author is really fond of double punctuation (??, !!), which is never grammatically correct. I would argue that there were also missing line breaks, especially around dialogue, but I have a harder time identifying the correct use of those.
Another, smaller detail is the use of invented terms. Invented terms aren't inherently bad, and are common in fantasy, but in this case there wasn't much effort to explain what a lot of these terms meant (the author just kind of expects us to know what Greys, Repts, and Rawkls are?). The terms 'incant-baton' and 'menting' in particular were awkward and got a little frustrating to read after a while because 'wand' and 'telepathy' are words that already exist and mean the same thing.
Style: 3/10
As far as writing style goes, some key issues that showed up throughout the story include:
- The author doesn’t seem to trust her readers to glean any sort of information or context for themselves and as a result everything that could possibly want for emphasis is italicized or capitalized. Fellow writers, you don't have to spoonfeed readers the exact way you want a sentence read, we have brains of our own.
- The infodumping is heavy. The first seven pages of chapter three are a meandering info-dump, to give you an inkling of how much there was. When it comes to fantasy and science fiction it can be difficult to find the perfect balance between giving readers the information they need to be immersed in ythe world, and drowning them in information. This book waterboarded me and somehow it still managed to come off like there was no solid worldbuilding.
- Most of the characters are written as either background filler or extreme caricatures. It was difficult to tell the side character crew members apart, meanwhile I desperately wanted Soader and Zulak to tone it down.
- All of the dialogue read like NPC videogame character dialogue.
Fianna was cute, I enjoyed her character!
Content: 5/10
Dragons and space! It's a really cool, creative idea and I would have loved to see it executed well. As a fan of ye olde SciFi shows a la Star Trek and Stargate, the premise of the book was definitely up my alley. The plot also had potential. Unfortunately, it didn't pan out.
The level of realism and basic knowledge of how things work was very low, which in broad terms is an okay thing for a fantasy, but there was stuff like normal human characters avoiding getting gassed by holding their breath for several minutes (and that worked. More than once). This contributed to the infodump/worldbuilding problem as well.
Let's talk about our main girl, Celine, for a minute. I'm not sure Mary Sue is the right term but she certainly has impressive plot armour. She is always prepared, even when it's unreasonable for her to be. It takes her approximately six seconds and one attempt to come up with solutions to all her predicaments, and if she isn't immediately successful that's fine, the issue is pushed to the side to never cause any problems that genuinely impact her. At a peak point in Celine's character development we learn that she is so incredibly ultimately special that she was self-aware and able to influence her mother while in the womb. The womb. As. A. Fetus. Oh, and she's a massive bitch about her sister and mother, who she views as grossly overfeminine and vapid respectively.
I've gone over it again and again and I think the core problem with this story is a lack of any sort of planning. As a plantser myself who in the past has favoured pantsing over plotting, I completely understand diving into a writing project with no idea how it's going to go and just word vomiting to the end. But you have to clean it up after. There was no real character growth or arcs. The pacing was horrific (sorry). The worldbuilding was swiss cheese (humanity should be long dead! Dead! According to the rules of the pandemic in this book). And as other reviewers have mentioned, the ending isn't really an ending so much as it is an abrupt cut-off. I think the author is in need of a deeper understanding of the elements of creative writing and I would love to see her learn those skills and return to this trilogy to do her fantastical ideas justice.
Other
One final thing I wanted to make note of is a particular character. Mia, Celine's sister, is portrayed as a self-centered bimbo to the extreme, has no impact on the plot at all, and seems to just be there as a way for Celine to vent her personal issues with femininity and/or female sexuality (the term "megawatt feminity" comes up on page 9). It goes like this: Celine is smart, strong, special, and not like the other girls so we should love her; Mia is hot and stupid and can have babies (that's a plot point but it's never really addressed past the first few chapters) so we should hate her. Mia could have been taken out and the story would have been the same. In fact, it would have been better. She served literally no other purpose than to be a hot dumb woman that the main character hates because she's hot and dumb . The reason I bring her up is because it was just so... icky to read a character written like this and it's disappointing to read this kind of characterization in a book written and published in my lifetime.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 10, 2018
After meeting the author I was really excited to start reading this book. The story was definitely there and the world she created is definitely interesting but at times the dialogue and character development was weak and there were gaps in the narrative that weren't well developed. But it was an enjoyable read!
July 30, 2019
I di not like the main character very much, but I still quite enjoyed the book. It was different than the
typical "chosen one" plot, and I always love a unique take on dragons.
typical "chosen one" plot, and I always love a unique take on dragons.
September 9, 2021
I don't know where to start.
I got this book at a local bookstore and saw the author was local as well. Cool. Premise on the back of the book was interesting, a girl and a dragon go on a perilous journey to find the key to saving the dragon's dying population. Cool.
But the book is not cool.
As some other reviewers have mentioned, the pacing is way off and the first third of the book is super slow, hard to follow because there are so many ideas, and the titular species isn't even present. It isn't until page 119 you meet the dragon and then in about 20 pages or less the main character, Celine, and the dragon, Fianna, have this "immense, deep, bond" that is literally told to you. As I approached the ending of this book I kept thinking to myself, "how is this going to end in 30 pages?" "How is this going to end in 15 pages?" "How is this going to end in 4 pages?!" Because there was so much to get accomplished to wrap up the story and I was running out of pages. The answer is a whirlwind explanation and the story doesn't actually end. I thought I got a misprinted copy and was missing the last 40 pages or so, but then read the reviews and it's supposed to be a cliffhanger. But it is less of a cliffhanger and more of a "the ground fell out from underneath you" and you are just falling into nothing.
The characters are not great. Immediately I didn't like Celine, who is a heavy Mary Sue (can do no wrong, perfect, knows EVERYTHING). Just completely fictional and trope heavy. He sister is the dumb, emotional, pretty girl that clearly Celine is better than and her mother is vapid and father possessive and angry. There is a fated soulmate love interest Celine can telepathically communicate with but the soulmate love interest doesn't add anything to the story. Most characters don't. They are there, maybe help Celine and Fianna, but there is a lot of emphasis put on characters that contribute nothing to the story or have zero development or growth. Very NPC-ish.
My biggest gripe is the way it is written. The story in and of itself is interesting, lots of potential, good plot points, etc but there needed to be another year of editing or so. Pacing is all over the place, tone of voice is the same across all characters which makes it feel flat, repeated phrases that have no reason to be repeated, and this book is a really great example of telling your readers what is going on versus showing them. It comes across as very first draft with minimal edits.
This book was a good swing, but a big miss.
I got this book at a local bookstore and saw the author was local as well. Cool. Premise on the back of the book was interesting, a girl and a dragon go on a perilous journey to find the key to saving the dragon's dying population. Cool.
But the book is not cool.
As some other reviewers have mentioned, the pacing is way off and the first third of the book is super slow, hard to follow because there are so many ideas, and the titular species isn't even present. It isn't until page 119 you meet the dragon and then in about 20 pages or less the main character, Celine, and the dragon, Fianna, have this "immense, deep, bond" that is literally told to you. As I approached the ending of this book I kept thinking to myself, "how is this going to end in 30 pages?" "How is this going to end in 15 pages?" "How is this going to end in 4 pages?!" Because there was so much to get accomplished to wrap up the story and I was running out of pages. The answer is a whirlwind explanation and the story doesn't actually end. I thought I got a misprinted copy and was missing the last 40 pages or so, but then read the reviews and it's supposed to be a cliffhanger. But it is less of a cliffhanger and more of a "the ground fell out from underneath you" and you are just falling into nothing.
The characters are not great. Immediately I didn't like Celine, who is a heavy Mary Sue (can do no wrong, perfect, knows EVERYTHING). Just completely fictional and trope heavy. He sister is the dumb, emotional, pretty girl that clearly Celine is better than and her mother is vapid and father possessive and angry. There is a fated soulmate love interest Celine can telepathically communicate with but the soulmate love interest doesn't add anything to the story. Most characters don't. They are there, maybe help Celine and Fianna, but there is a lot of emphasis put on characters that contribute nothing to the story or have zero development or growth. Very NPC-ish.
My biggest gripe is the way it is written. The story in and of itself is interesting, lots of potential, good plot points, etc but there needed to be another year of editing or so. Pacing is all over the place, tone of voice is the same across all characters which makes it feel flat, repeated phrases that have no reason to be repeated, and this book is a really great example of telling your readers what is going on versus showing them. It comes across as very first draft with minimal edits.
This book was a good swing, but a big miss.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
February 22, 2022
Like many other readers, I met the author at a book store here in Canada. I felt compelled to support her book given that she is an independent female writer who shared that her book resembles the magic from Harry Potter. In fact she encouraged me to hold a small wand she had handy as she told me about her book. This was in 2018, and now 2022 I have finished the book.
In summary, the story had some purpose and it kept me going. I was curious about the characters although I did not feel they were very developed. The writing jumped all over the place making me wonder at times where, and when was I in the story. I was thrown off by unnecessary random mentions of rape early on, and then awkward comments from some characters which felt like they had no place. A lot of side notes in the story seemed to fill up space and have little to no purpose. Overall the story could have used a good flush with several edits.
I am not incredibly interested to find out where this story goes but I commend and celebrate authors who are shaping their journey and growing in their craft. It was not a wasted read.
In summary, the story had some purpose and it kept me going. I was curious about the characters although I did not feel they were very developed. The writing jumped all over the place making me wonder at times where, and when was I in the story. I was thrown off by unnecessary random mentions of rape early on, and then awkward comments from some characters which felt like they had no place. A lot of side notes in the story seemed to fill up space and have little to no purpose. Overall the story could have used a good flush with several edits.
I am not incredibly interested to find out where this story goes but I commend and celebrate authors who are shaping their journey and growing in their craft. It was not a wasted read.
March 3, 2018
The Dragons of Nibiru was a pleasant and engaging read. I picked up this book for a reading challenge (read a book by an author that shares a name with you- good luck with my names!) and liked it all the more because Lorna J. Carleton is a Canadian author.
I was, at first, unsure of the book. Carleton clearly has talent and a compelling story to tell, but the first third of the book was so packed with ideas and world building that I could not truly enjoy the story. The last two thirds was where it really picked up for me and I found myself devouring the novel. I do feel that the last few chapters drew a hasty conclusion to the novel, but I am expecting a sequel.
I would most definitely pick up the sequel because I think that Carleton's work is only going to get more wonderful as she progresses into the series. For anyone seeking a sci-fi book that's creative, compelling and out of the box, Dragons of Nibiru would be an excellent read. I truly believe that this series is going to be a diamond in the rough!
I was, at first, unsure of the book. Carleton clearly has talent and a compelling story to tell, but the first third of the book was so packed with ideas and world building that I could not truly enjoy the story. The last two thirds was where it really picked up for me and I found myself devouring the novel. I do feel that the last few chapters drew a hasty conclusion to the novel, but I am expecting a sequel.
I would most definitely pick up the sequel because I think that Carleton's work is only going to get more wonderful as she progresses into the series. For anyone seeking a sci-fi book that's creative, compelling and out of the box, Dragons of Nibiru would be an excellent read. I truly believe that this series is going to be a diamond in the rough!
November 1, 2019
I give this book 4 stars instead of 5 for a couple of reasons... the first reason being, the first, like, 10 chapters just drag on and on and on, which is part of why it took me so long to read the book, those chapters just barely held my interest... the other reason is the ending! While I understand why the ending is the way it is, being that it’s a cliff hanger and meant to hold your interest until whenever the next book comes out, it is TOO MUCH of a cliffhanger!! LIKE SERIOUSLY! I just about threw the damn book across the room, but I’m at work so I just slammed it on my desk... I will be, very impatiently, waiting on the next book to come out so I can find out wut in the bloody hell happens!!
May 4, 2019
Wanted to enjoy this book. Interesting premise but I felt the story was choppy. Lots of dragon lore and magic with a little bit of science fiction. Didn't really connect with characters and I found the story hard to follow as it jumped around a lot. Passage of time was hard to follow.
July 16, 2025
Written like a person who read Harry Potter and said "I can do that, but I'll make it space dragons and write it like a 12 year old".
The amount of exclamation points (sometimes three at once) makes the book sound childish and I couldn't finish it.
The amount of exclamation points (sometimes three at once) makes the book sound childish and I couldn't finish it.
June 10, 2018
Has lots of potential and obviously there's at least a second book coming at some point (or a trilogy?).
January 12, 2019
the book was amazing iheld my breath and it seems it ended on the cliffhanger ihooe there is a continuation and will be eagerly awaiting for the conclusion to the series!
July 16, 2025
So narcissistic to review your own book. Restricting your comments so people can't call you out for it is very immature, a real author is open to criticism.
December 12, 2022
I really was so excited to read this book, I'm sorry to say I was a bit disappointed by the contents. It was a fairly good story overall but would have benefited greatly with more fleshing out and significant editing... This really wants to be a good book, and much of it was well written, it just needs *more*. More details, more world building as the story proceeds instead of all at the beginning, more time spent on key moments. The pacing was awkward: what should have been big story moments had little descriptive writing while small ones dragged on, and the dialogue largely left much to be desired. The first 1/4-1/2 of the book the plot jumped around and was difficult to follow. Characterization was pretty flat and characters often did things for no discernible reason and without explanation, and all were basic tropes. The sexist nature of the "advanced future society" really surprised me and put me off too, especially for something published so recently... I was not surprised to learn this was self published. The author is clearly deeply inspired by Anne McCaffreys work... despite my misgivings I do look forward to seeing what she comes up with next. I look forward to watching her grow as an author as I think she has a lot to give.
March 25, 2018
Purchased and read a signed copy from the author in the mall. Science fiction, fantasy with dragons etc., is not my usual reading material. I can’t say I enjoyed it but will pass on to one of the teens in my family, it will probably be more suitable for them
Displaying 1 - 17 of 17 reviews