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Draconis Memoria 1-3
In dieser Hobbit Presse Gold Edition befinden sich alle drei Teile der Trilogie "Draconis Memoria" von Anthony Ryan. Über 2100 Seiten entführen den Leser in die Welt von Mandinorien. Die Limited Edition ist nur für begrenzte Zeit lieferbar. In dieser Hobbit Presse Gold Edition befinden sich alle drei Teile der Trilogie "Draconis Memoria" von Anthony Ryan. Über 2100 Seiten entführen den Leser in die Welt von Mandinorien. Die Limited Edition ist nur für begrenzte Zeit lieferbar. Jahrhundertelang baute das gewaltige Eisenboot- Handelssyndikat auf Drachenblut – und die außergewöhnlichen Kräfte, die es verleiht. Als die Drachenblutlinien versiegen und Kundschafter ausgesandt werden, um neue Quellen zu entdecken, kommt ein verheerendes Szenario in Gang. Dieses E-Book enthä -Das Erwachen des Feuers -Das Heer des Weißen Drachen -Das Imperium aus Asche
2470 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 6, 2020
1 person is currently reading
20 people want to read
About the author
Anthony Ryan
94 books10k followersAnthony Ryan was born in Scotland in 1970 but spent much of his adult life living and working in London. After a long career in the British Civil Service he took up writing full time after the success of his first novel Blood Song, Book One of the Raven’s Shadow trilogy. He has a degree in history, and his interests include art, science and the unending quest for the perfect pint of real ale.
For news and general wittering about stuff he likes, check out Anthony's blog at: http://anthonystuff.wordpress.com
For news and general wittering about stuff he likes, check out Anthony's blog at: http://anthonystuff.wordpress.com
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March 13, 2025
I'm writing this review after reading (most of) the full trilogy, as I think it actually provides the most balanced, objective viewpoint.
PLOT & CHARACTER SUMMARY
The Waking Fire (and the entire trilogy) is set in a world where the blood of different dragon species grants unique abilities to humans known as "Blood-blessed." The powerful Ironship Trading Syndicate relies on this blood (or 'Product') to fuel its dominance, but as dragon populations dwindle and rival nations threaten war, the discovery of a mythical, more powerful dragon - the White Drak - becomes crucial. The three chief protagonists set out on separate yet intertwined journeys to find this legendary creature: Lizanne Lethridge, a deadly spy and assassin; Claydon Torcreek, a rogue Blood-blessed with untapped potential; and Corrick Hilemore, a naval officer navigating growing tensions on the high seas.
As the search for the White Drake unfolds, the characters face political intrigue, brutal warfare, and ancient secrets hidden in uncharted lands. Lizanne undertakes dangerous missions for Ironship, using her intelligence and combat skills to sabotage enemies and uncover hidden knowledge. Claydon, initially a petty thief, finds himself drawn into a greater destiny when he stumbles upon unprecedented dragon blood abilities. Hilemore’s naval battles showcase the rising chaos as nations prepare for all-out war. As their paths converge, they uncover a growing threat that could reshape their world, forcing them to reckon with the true power of dragons and the cost of human ambition.
CRITIQUE
First off, this is definitely the best book of the series. Setting up a unique world where fantasy dragons meet steampunk and Industrial Revolution themes with a strong undercurrent of espionage, Anthony Ryan has created a very unique IP with a lot of potential... that never fully crystallises, for several reasons.
The main characters are interesting and distinct, and the scope of the world feels vast, setting up a promising opening gambit. However, it's Ryan's writing style and ultimately, the lack of a truly gripping plot that scupper the ship. It's not that there isn't a plot or a story - far from it, and Ryan is obviously an accomplished author - but rather that the way it's told leaves a feeling of ambivalence.
One characteristic of Anthony Ryan's work is his profuse verbosity (turn of phrase intended), which proves difficult to wade through and strips many key scenes of their urgency. There is something of Arthur Conan Doyle to this work, although without his iconic character. Contrasting the writing to Ryan's 'The Martyr' and its associated trilogy, it's similar, but doesn't work as well here.
In 'The Martyr', the dense writing makes sense as the narrator is a scribe - but here, it slows the action down and saps your will to ultimately care about individual characters and events. While this book is the strongest, the series overall suffers from progressing the story via a series of events of dwindling meaning, as characters engage in battle/chase after battle/chase, only to end each chapter in a cliffhanger. There were multiple occasions where I forgot why the characters were embarking on whatever voyage or venture because the text was so bogged down with rambling action sequences and, well, words.
The other main issue I have with the book (and the series overall) is the repetitive and near-video game-like description of how Product is used. Ryan doesn't do a great job early on of really impressing the full effects of each type of dragon blood (Green for healing, Blue for telepathy, Red for fire, Black for telekinesis) on Blood-blessed users - it doesn't feel as exciting as it should.
For me, the use of these colour-coded buffers came across as somewhat compartmentalised, feeling almost like the way you'd use modifiers in a computer game like Dark Souls, or an adventure gamebook. They seem to conveniently solve whatever problems faced the protagonists - often, it felt as if the main characters almost soared through each challenge like The Avengers, rather than using the Product in a more gritty, seat-of-the-pants way.
There's something about Product as a plot device that feels like a nearly-great idea that's been forced in and used over and over again in a rote way that feels unexciting after a while,.
By the end of 'The Waking Fire' I found myself somewhat interested in what may happen next, but not compelled to immediately buy the next book. When I resumed the series some two years later on a YouTube recommendation, I was quickly reminded why I hadn't done so sooner. I didn't care about the characters enough (although Clay was uniformly the most relatable and likeable of the bunch), and I didn't feel enough urgency from the plot despite the proliferation of desperate battles it contained.
From there, the problems I've described only intensified, with certain main characters becoming unlikeable, new supporting character chapters that added perspective but didn't improve my attachment to the world, and the dense text only diluting the story's overall effect.
Lizanne Letheridge progresses from tough, interesting spy to a brutal, impatient and annoying character who seems to threaten or intend harm on anyone who gets in her way in every chapter. Hilemore is perennially impatient to the point where you start to resent his chapters because there's just no joy to be had in them. And new characters enter the fold at first appearing to come from another world only to learn fully colloquial speech for sassy quips with the protagonists.
In the second book, Lizanne ends up in a maximum security prison on an spy mission - which is almost lost under the author's need to exorcise a need to write some sort of pitch-black Artful Dodger-flavoured side quest into a story, essentially, about guns and dragons. It drags on, many of the characters are annoying cliches, and it's easy to forget why she has to be in this place to begin with.
If I were to fault Ryan's world building (which to me isn't as important as characters and plot), it's that it has awesome scope, but everyone seems to come from the same place and speak the same language. He talks of different languages and nationalities, but makes no effort to adjust the dialogue to give you an impression of their diversity, or give you something in the real world to relate them to. Even exotic foreigners speak in posh, dry English tropes. By book three, I still have no idea how to picture each individual race, and I don't care about who comes from where anymore.
Finally, on top of the growing irritating qualities of the main characters, the inclusion of distasteful elements such as several descriptions of children being killed put me off further. While not especially graphic, I found their inclusion jarring and unnecessary - perhaps as a parent, I'm more sensitive to this sort of content, but sometimes the implication of horror is more effective than spelling it out. There's also something to be said for the frequency with which Lizanne executes people in the pursuit of her ends. While she's a trained operative and it's a desperate situation, it gives her a cold and unappealing feeling.
It sounds like I hated this series. I didn't, but it was progressively boring, needlessly verbose and filled with enough annoying quirks and convenient plot holes to make me care far less about each character by the end of reading it than when I began. It's well written in its own way, but it feel like it should've been handled by another author who could've brought some spark, some joy and a little gleeful unpredictability to things (cough) Joe Abercrombie.
It's not terrible, it's got good ideas, but I can't really recommend it.
PLOT & CHARACTER SUMMARY
The Waking Fire (and the entire trilogy) is set in a world where the blood of different dragon species grants unique abilities to humans known as "Blood-blessed." The powerful Ironship Trading Syndicate relies on this blood (or 'Product') to fuel its dominance, but as dragon populations dwindle and rival nations threaten war, the discovery of a mythical, more powerful dragon - the White Drak - becomes crucial. The three chief protagonists set out on separate yet intertwined journeys to find this legendary creature: Lizanne Lethridge, a deadly spy and assassin; Claydon Torcreek, a rogue Blood-blessed with untapped potential; and Corrick Hilemore, a naval officer navigating growing tensions on the high seas.
As the search for the White Drake unfolds, the characters face political intrigue, brutal warfare, and ancient secrets hidden in uncharted lands. Lizanne undertakes dangerous missions for Ironship, using her intelligence and combat skills to sabotage enemies and uncover hidden knowledge. Claydon, initially a petty thief, finds himself drawn into a greater destiny when he stumbles upon unprecedented dragon blood abilities. Hilemore’s naval battles showcase the rising chaos as nations prepare for all-out war. As their paths converge, they uncover a growing threat that could reshape their world, forcing them to reckon with the true power of dragons and the cost of human ambition.
CRITIQUE
First off, this is definitely the best book of the series. Setting up a unique world where fantasy dragons meet steampunk and Industrial Revolution themes with a strong undercurrent of espionage, Anthony Ryan has created a very unique IP with a lot of potential... that never fully crystallises, for several reasons.
The main characters are interesting and distinct, and the scope of the world feels vast, setting up a promising opening gambit. However, it's Ryan's writing style and ultimately, the lack of a truly gripping plot that scupper the ship. It's not that there isn't a plot or a story - far from it, and Ryan is obviously an accomplished author - but rather that the way it's told leaves a feeling of ambivalence.
One characteristic of Anthony Ryan's work is his profuse verbosity (turn of phrase intended), which proves difficult to wade through and strips many key scenes of their urgency. There is something of Arthur Conan Doyle to this work, although without his iconic character. Contrasting the writing to Ryan's 'The Martyr' and its associated trilogy, it's similar, but doesn't work as well here.
In 'The Martyr', the dense writing makes sense as the narrator is a scribe - but here, it slows the action down and saps your will to ultimately care about individual characters and events. While this book is the strongest, the series overall suffers from progressing the story via a series of events of dwindling meaning, as characters engage in battle/chase after battle/chase, only to end each chapter in a cliffhanger. There were multiple occasions where I forgot why the characters were embarking on whatever voyage or venture because the text was so bogged down with rambling action sequences and, well, words.
The other main issue I have with the book (and the series overall) is the repetitive and near-video game-like description of how Product is used. Ryan doesn't do a great job early on of really impressing the full effects of each type of dragon blood (Green for healing, Blue for telepathy, Red for fire, Black for telekinesis) on Blood-blessed users - it doesn't feel as exciting as it should.
For me, the use of these colour-coded buffers came across as somewhat compartmentalised, feeling almost like the way you'd use modifiers in a computer game like Dark Souls, or an adventure gamebook. They seem to conveniently solve whatever problems faced the protagonists - often, it felt as if the main characters almost soared through each challenge like The Avengers, rather than using the Product in a more gritty, seat-of-the-pants way.
There's something about Product as a plot device that feels like a nearly-great idea that's been forced in and used over and over again in a rote way that feels unexciting after a while,.
By the end of 'The Waking Fire' I found myself somewhat interested in what may happen next, but not compelled to immediately buy the next book. When I resumed the series some two years later on a YouTube recommendation, I was quickly reminded why I hadn't done so sooner. I didn't care about the characters enough (although Clay was uniformly the most relatable and likeable of the bunch), and I didn't feel enough urgency from the plot despite the proliferation of desperate battles it contained.
From there, the problems I've described only intensified, with certain main characters becoming unlikeable, new supporting character chapters that added perspective but didn't improve my attachment to the world, and the dense text only diluting the story's overall effect.
Lizanne Letheridge progresses from tough, interesting spy to a brutal, impatient and annoying character who seems to threaten or intend harm on anyone who gets in her way in every chapter. Hilemore is perennially impatient to the point where you start to resent his chapters because there's just no joy to be had in them. And new characters enter the fold at first appearing to come from another world only to learn fully colloquial speech for sassy quips with the protagonists.
In the second book, Lizanne ends up in a maximum security prison on an spy mission - which is almost lost under the author's need to exorcise a need to write some sort of pitch-black Artful Dodger-flavoured side quest into a story, essentially, about guns and dragons. It drags on, many of the characters are annoying cliches, and it's easy to forget why she has to be in this place to begin with.
If I were to fault Ryan's world building (which to me isn't as important as characters and plot), it's that it has awesome scope, but everyone seems to come from the same place and speak the same language. He talks of different languages and nationalities, but makes no effort to adjust the dialogue to give you an impression of their diversity, or give you something in the real world to relate them to. Even exotic foreigners speak in posh, dry English tropes. By book three, I still have no idea how to picture each individual race, and I don't care about who comes from where anymore.
Finally, on top of the growing irritating qualities of the main characters, the inclusion of distasteful elements such as several descriptions of children being killed put me off further. While not especially graphic, I found their inclusion jarring and unnecessary - perhaps as a parent, I'm more sensitive to this sort of content, but sometimes the implication of horror is more effective than spelling it out. There's also something to be said for the frequency with which Lizanne executes people in the pursuit of her ends. While she's a trained operative and it's a desperate situation, it gives her a cold and unappealing feeling.
It sounds like I hated this series. I didn't, but it was progressively boring, needlessly verbose and filled with enough annoying quirks and convenient plot holes to make me care far less about each character by the end of reading it than when I began. It's well written in its own way, but it feel like it should've been handled by another author who could've brought some spark, some joy and a little gleeful unpredictability to things (cough) Joe Abercrombie.
It's not terrible, it's got good ideas, but I can't really recommend it.
Displaying 1 of 1 review