Tag: books

  • SPSFC 2: Semi-Finalists Announcement

    SPSFC 2: Semi-Finalists Announcement

    Over the past few months, team Wayward Stars have been working our way through the books allocated to us at the start of SPSFC. Now we’re at the end of Phase Two where we can announce our Top 3 books – our semi-finalists! Below is each of the books with their blurbs to expand a little on what they’re about.

    Tropical Punch (Bubbles in Space, #1) by S.C. Jensen

    Woman with pink hair and a cybernetic arm half turned towards the viewer

    Strippers, Drugs, and Headless Corpses

    All in a day’s work for Bubbles Marlowe, HoloCity’s only cyborg detective.

    What do an anti-tech cult, a deadly new street drug, and the corrupt Chief of Police have in common?

    It’s a question Bubbles can’t afford to ask. Last time she got curious it cost her job, a limb, and almost her life.

    She vows to stay out of police business. But with a newly minted cybernetic enhancement, a semi-legal P.I. license, and a knack for asking the wrong kind of questions… Vows are made to be broken, right?

    When a seemingly straightforward contract takes a dark turn, heads literally roll. Unless she wants to take the fall for the murders Bubbles needs to cut town on the double. Too bad she’s flat broke.

    And now, she’s being hunted.

    In a world where dreams can be made real for the right kind of dough, nothing is as it seems. One thing is clear, though. The dream is becoming a nightmare.

    As the body count stacks up, Bubbles realizes she’s made a terrible mistake.

    Can she figure out who is behind the murders before she loses her head?

     

    The Clarity of Cold Steel by Kevin Wright

    Steampunk skull with a top hat

    Mortise Locke, the Machine City, last bastion of mankind in all its fallen glory, where the sum total of life is cheaper than in part.

    A poor kid wrung from the city’s dregs has been abducted.

    His family’s lost all hope.

    Enter Detective Singh, gumshoe legend in his own mind and maybe — just maybe — a few others. He’s the bloodhound loosed on the kid’s trail, and it’s clear from the get-go that someone wants this hound put down. And they ain’t shy about it. Killers keep coming.

    And the clock keeps ticking…

    Can Detective Singh navigate the labyrinth of Mortise Locke’s criminal underworld? Can he follow the trail? Can he dodge death in its pantheon of incarnations to finally find the missing kid?

    And if he does find him, will he wish he hadn’t?

     

    Titan Hoppers by Rob J. Hayes

    Long haired person with two swords and armour poses atop a rock

    Courage Iro will shatter the Gates of Power to protect his fleet.

    Born talentless, Iro has all but resigned himself to a life of drudgery, watching his sister hop across to the massive space titan for supplies. But when the titan explodes and his sister is killed, Iro finds a new determination to take her place. He’s not about to let weakness prevent him.

    When the fleet encounters a new titan, filled with powerful monsters, deadly traps, and mysterious cloaked figures, Iro is the first to spontaneously manifest a new talent. Now sent to a different ship, to train with others far beyond his strength, Iro will have to train twice as hard just to catch up.

    To protect his fleet, and to uncover the mysteries of the titans, Iro won’t just open the Gates of Power. He’ll break them.


    Check out our Team Leader, The Shaggy Shepherd’s, announcement post to see a break down of the scores. To keep up to date with the rest of the competition and see more Semi-Finalist announcements, keep an eye on the SPSFC website!

  • New Year’s Book Tag

    New Year’s Book Tag

    I have tagged myself after reading The Shaggy Shepherd’s answers. It’s only a quick little tag of 6 questions/prompts but it will be interesting to revisit come the end of the year to see how things panned out!

    How many books are you planning on reading in 2023?

    40. This is slightly out of sequence for me as I’ve been adding 6 each year since 2017 and last year’s aim was 36 so I’ve only added 4 this time. I think I’m getting close to a reasonable and repeatable number that I can stick with year-on-year. If I surpass 40, I may bump it to 52 but we’ll see what the year brings.

    Name 5 books you didn’t get to read in 2021 but want to make a priority in 2023.

    Name a genre you want to read more of in 2023

    Sci-fi. I already read some but not as much as Fantasy at the moment. Then again, I do just want to read MORE FANTASY.

    Three non-book related goals in 2023.

    1. Lose weight
    2. Build confidence
    3. Have fun

    What’s a book you’ve had forever that you still need to read?

    This was a gift a long time ago that I really need to get around to. It’s been on my Goodreads since 2014 but I believe I’ve had it longer than that.

    One word that you hope 2023 will be?

    Better.

  • 2022 Top Reads & Book Awards

    2022 Top Reads & Book Awards

    In 2022, I read (and finished) a total of 37 books, which was one more than my GR Challenge target. These totalled 10,257 pages, with an average page count of 277, which felt a bit low to me but I did blast through a few novellas and novelettes towards the start of the year that has clearly brought that average down.

    This was less than in 2021 and 2020, but I’m not too concerned about that because both of those years were anomalies considering world events and all the extra free time that created as well as a generally hatred of computer screens. As a gamer, that meant my gaming time decreased but I ended up reading way more than I was aiming to. So, 2022 was a return to my +6 rule – where I had 6 to the total challenge number each year in an effort to slowing increase my reading capacity. As such, I’m very pleased with hitting 37/36. It was touch and go as I had a few months were I read or finished absolutely nothing, for one reason or another. All that being said, let’s take a look at some of my favourites and my newly coined, slightly off-piste, awards.

    Top Reads of 2022

    In no particular order because I honestly can’t choose between some of these amazing books.

    2022 Year-in-Review Awards

    Admittedly, there is some heavy crossover between the two lists nevertheless it has been a successful reading year and I am looking forward to 2023. If you want to see my most anticipated releases of the new year, check out my earlier post.

  • Top Anticipated Releases 2023

    As we’re reaching the end of 2022, many of us are looking forward into 2023 to see what goodies and delights await us. In this case: new books. I made myself a shelf on GoodReads specifically for books releasing in 2023 that I’m interested in and it’s already over 30-strong(!) so I have attempted to condense that list into my most, or top, anticipated titles here. These aren’t in a strict preference order so instead of numbering them, I’ve ranked them in groups as to how excited the prospect of each book makes me.

     

    Intrigued

    To Shape a Dragon’s Breath by Moniquill Blackgoose

    This sounds interesting to me and I think it certainly deserves highlighting. I’m undecided whether it’s one I will prioritise just yet because I’m always a little wary when it comes to things tagged as YA. I don’t always get along with YA so I tend to wait until a few reviews from people I know start appearing before I jump in. That being said it’s a story about a teenage girl who finds a dragon egg and bonds with the hatchling; she is forced to go to a dragon school run by her people’s colonisers where she faces challenges that she must deal with, lest her dragon be killed. Coming-of-age, magic school, dragons? What’s not to be intrigued about!

     

    Paradise-1 by David Wellington

    Deep space, sci-fi horror? Yes, please! I’ve not come across Wellington before so I’m tempering my expectations (just in case, you understand) but from the blurb of Paradise-1, it certainly sounds right up my street. This year I have felt the need for a bit more sci-horror set in space so here’s hoping this turns out to be as cool as it sounds!

     

    I am excite

    Of War & Ruin by Ryan Cahill

    The only reason this isn’t in a higher level of excitement is because I’m still a bit behind on the series and need to get through Of Darkness & Light first. I suspect if I was fully up to date I’d be bumping this up the ranks considerably. Of War & Ruin will be the third instalment in Cahill’s hugely popular indie debut series The Bound and the Broken, which will eventually have five primary works in addition to novellas (there are two of these already). If you’ve not come across the series yet, do consider taking a look at Of Blood & Fire (book #1) or The Fall (first novella, #0.5 in the series.)

     

    The Keeper’s Six by Kate Elliott

    The cover draws me in on this one; there’s a gigantic skull with a portal through it into a lush green world and some teeny-tiny people trekking towards it. It captures my imagination and the description doesn’t fail to back it up. At only 208 pages, it sounds like it’s going to be action packed. A female protagonist (who isn’t a teenager) only adds to the stack of elements pulling me towards The Keeper’s Six.

     

    Godkiller by Hannah Kaner

    It’s called Godkiller. Anything that plays with the concept of killing gods and I am there. Add to that a gorgeous cover with some heavy nature vibes and the first line of the blurb: “Kissen kills gods for a living, and she enjoys it.”  I had been umm-ing and ahh-ing over this one but what tipped me over the edge into excitement has been seeing book community folks whose tastes I trust recommending it. 

     

    I’m Giddy

    Eleventh Cycle by Kian N. Ardalan

    It’s a big chonky grimdark, need I say more? OK, it also got 5 stars from John Mauro over at Grimdark Magazine – more? A foreboding figure adorning the cover; a tantalising blurb, and; the author is a lovely person active on the Keymark discord (formerly the SFF Oasis). If you’re still not convinced, I have heard nothing but amazing things about this upcoming book and I can’t wait to dig into it myself.

     

    The Sword Defiant by Gareth Ryder-Hanrahan

    Besides a totally amazing title and great cover, the blurb mentioning living weapons has pulled me in. “The sword cares not who it cuts…” – how delightfully sinister sounding! Given the success of The Black Iron Legacy I am keen to explore a new, dark world from this author and the information so far for The Sword Defiant sounds oppressively gloomy. Perfect!

     

    Play of Shadows / Malevolent Seven by Sebastien de Castell

    I’m putting these as an either/or situation because I just want another de Castell book to release already, regardless of whether it’s in The Greatcoats world or not. Both of these pique my interests and, given Play of Shadows repeated delays, I would be happy to get my hands on either next year!

     

    SHUT UP AND TAKE MY MONEY

    Fractal Noise by Christopher Paolini

    Yes, Tor done f*cked up with the artwork for this by using some AI-generated elements (and continuing to use them after they discovered this fact). I am still super excited to read *the book itself*. I don’t agree with everyone who has been trying to bomb the rating by posting 1-star reviews to a book that hasn’t even released because they are upset by Tor’s failures regarding the cover. I really enjoyed the first Fractalverse novel and it is in no way the author’s fault that his publisher made such a grave error. To Sleep in a Sea of Stars was an excellent sci-fi epic that I was both excited to read and enjoyed greatly once I did. Here’s hoping book two will blow me away as well.

     

    The Judas Blossom by Steven Aryan

    A Persian-set fantasy interpretation of the Mongols invasion in the 13th Century by the author of the Quest for Heroes duology that I greatly enjoyed in 2022. I am keen to try more of Steven’s work and while I am eyeing up some of his back catalogue, this brand new beauty will be coming out in July 2023. The cover is enchanting and I can’t wait to get my hands on it!

     

    A Day of Fallen Night by Samantha Shannon

    I adored The Priory of the Orange Tree and the stunning artwork by Ivan Belijov is back again for this standalone prequel. Honestly, this went on my TBR before I’d even read a blurb for it; it’s an insta-buy for me and I have already pre-ordered special edition copies of both books via The Broken Binding (sorry, folks, it’s already sold out). It’s not all about the art though; the storytelling of Shannon in the first book was captivating and made me feel so much for the world and its characters. I genuinely can’t wait to get back into this world.

     

    A Shade of Madness by Thiago Abdalla

    The first book in this debut series, A Touch of Light, was one of my favourites of 2022 that left me dying to continue. Thankfully, A Shade of Madness is releasing early in 2023 to satiate that urge. The first book (and accompanying novella) were both excellent, riveting and wonderfully engrossing fantasy offerings. Thiago, as an added bonus, is also a very engaged and very friendly, kind author, which only adds to the experience. Bring me those gryffons! 

     

    How about you?

    Are any of these on your list of anticipated releases for 2023? If not, what is on your list? 

  • SPSFC: My allocations

    SPSFC: My allocations

    Within each judging team for SPSFC there are roughly thirty (30) books assigned as their ‘slush pile’ and teams with multiple members then split the pile between them to begin reading. In Wayward Stars we have split things so that every book is read by at least two people. We aim to read 20% of each book and decide whether it’s one to continue as a full group or not. Below are my ten (10) from the slush pile.

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    Sunborn by Kenneth Buff

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    Sudden Death by L.L. Richman

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    Viral by Tony Bennett

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    The Nothing Within by Andy Giesler

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    Across the Broken Stars by Jed Herne

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    Aztra’s Mirror by Charles Freedom Long

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    The Tide Will Erase All by Justin Hellstrom

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    Titan Hoppers by Rob J. Hayes

    60758000. sy475

    Pallas Lost by Jake Morrison

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    The Sequence by Lucien Telford

    Some of these have their covers put forward into the people’s vote for the cover contest (see my previous post for a link to that). They spread over a variety of sub-genres, from military to sci-fantasy to weird to horror and I’m excited to get reading. I have high hopes for some of these. 

    I am not sure exactly what I will be posting during phase one as I don’t want anyone to misinterpret my positive or negative feelings as any guarantee of anything in relation to the competition. Remembering it’s not just me who is reading these books. Judges are asked to vote on each book with a Yes/No/Not-My-Style – Yes means we think the full team should read it in entirety; No means we don’t recommend it to the team for further reading; Not My Style means exactly what you think. Fingers cross I get a few ‘Yes’ out of this bunch!

     

  • SPSFC 2: Intro

    SPSFC 2: Intro

    As I mentioned in my last post, I have joined up with some fellow book bloggers as a judging team for SPSFC 2! What is it though? It is a competition (free to enter) for self-published sci-fi novels, where 300 are whittled down to one winner. It’s the same format as Mark Lawrence’s SPFBO and is run/organised by Hugh Howey and Duncan Swan. There are 10 teams of judges, we each get a selection of books to read and recommend; then we later swap our top 3 with other teams until there’s a group of finalists. For full details, please check out the official site here.

    We are team Wayward Stars and Jamedi put together a post over on his site to introduce the team: https://vueltaspodcast.wordpress.com/2022/08/19/introducing-wayward-stars-spsfc2/ 

    He has also handily put together a Goodreads’ shelf including all of our team’s phase one slush pile: https://www.goodreads.com/list/show/179207.SPSFC2_Wayward_Stars

    Before reading officially begins all teams were asked to put forward 10 covers from their allocation for the Cover Contest, which is now open for public votes! Check out the covers and rate them online here: https://pollunit.com/polls/l5bh0v3k1tetxl-4ja0r4a

    That’s all for this quick introduction to the contest – I will be back soon to show you my list of allocations for phase one.

    Take care & keep reading!

  • Breaking the Silence

    Breaking the Silence

    I feel like every year I have to make one of these entries where I explain my absence and the quietness of the blog. This time I think I have a valid excuse or two.

    Earlier in the year I joined Grimdark Magazine‘s online reviewer team and BookNest.eu‘s and agreed to do reviews for Black Dragon Books too. In an effort not to cross-post and detract from those sites, I haven’t been putting any of those review on here. I’ve also been working with team BookNest to read and review for Phase One of SPFBO 8 and so all of those have been on BN’s site. I have one book left to read and review for that.

    Also, after I had COVID in March and a family bereavement in April I had a pretty prolonged reading slump, which peaked in June when I finished absolutely nothing. Indie Accords and The SFF Oasis Bingo readathons both encouraged me and I picked up the pace a little. While I still have quite a few buddy reads I missed and new releases sitting eye-balling me from the shelves, it’s a step in the right direction.

    In amongst all that I was also finishing off my Master’s thesis, which I submitted on 31st July so getting that finished off has opened up my time too. I am debating turning some of it into a book proposal so that might re-absorb some of my time at some point in the future.

    Hopefully I will be back to posting here a little more often as I am on team Wayward Stars for SPSFC 2! This will mean, as we are all separate entities with separate blogs, I’ll be talking about my reads on here and linking to the rest of the team’s posts. I will do another post shortly with more on SPSFC. Until then, happy reading!

  • ‘Hands Like Secrets’ tour: Mariah Norris Interview

    ‘Hands Like Secrets’ tour: Mariah Norris Interview

    Welcome back to another stop for Escapist Tours! This time we’re celebrating Hands Like Secrets from Mariah Norris that was released earlier this month by Shadow Spark Publishing. I’ve had the pleasure interviewing Mariah for my stop on the tour where we talk about worldbuilding with diverse characters, designing festivals and the need for more cats in Fantasy!

    Hands Like Secrets is the first instalment of The Seven Strands, a new adult epic fantasy series that follows a young autistic woman who joins an assassin on a hunt across worlds for a god-killing immortal. Along the way, she’ll have to come to terms with love, loss, betrayal, and the shifting nature of good and evil itself.


    A woman with long hair looks at the camera with a subtle smile
    Mariah Norris

    Interview with Mariah Norris

    Rai (R): Hands Like Secrets is your debut, how does it feel having a novel out in the world?

    Mariah (MN): Surreal…especially since this particular novel is the first I ever wrote from start to finish, twelve years ago. If I’m being honest, this wasn’t the one I thought would get published first, which is why I’m so glad that Shadow Spark saw this story’s potential and wanted to pick it up.

    R: The cast of characters features some diversity – a non-binary character, a neurodiverse character, an asexual and a bisexual – how did you like writing these characters?

    MN: Very much. Hands Like Secrets was one of several early stories I wrote and ended up going back to later, in order to take a good look at each character and ask myself, “Okay, but what if they were ____, how would that make their arc more satisfying?” It’s neat to add layers and see how they shift the decisions a character makes and how they move through their world.

    I’m always a little nervous about getting the representation right, but I think as long as I do my research and hold these characters in my mind as people who are not entirely defined by any one thing, they will come across in a way that’s authentic.

    R: In a world other than our own, how did you get around differences in language for describing these diverse characters and their identities? Was that a tough process?

    MN: To me, it was a lot like any other worldbuilding. I had to place myself in the world and think the way these people thought…how would they describe, for example, someone who’s gay versus someone who’s straight? I ended up with these almost clinical descriptions: opposite-gender attracted, same-gender attracted, and then I reduced those to the acronyms OGA and SGA. The students at Aschamon already shortened “High Priestess” to “HP” in casual conversation, so it made sense that other acronyms would also be in use.

    I had characters descriptively talk around specific terms like non-binary, asexual, and autistic, my reasoning being that if the world doesn’t have a word for it, then neither would they. I didn’t want to resort to making up a fantasy word for a real-world phenomenon and then have to use more words to explain what that word meant. Ideally, my job is to show what’s happening in the character’s head, and the reader will assign the appropriate word to it….or not. To me, the term is not as important as the lived experience of the character.

    It was also helpful to consider how certain words (or lack of words) could be reflective of the cultures’ larger views, and how those views might coincide with or diverge from our society’s views. For example, I couldn’t think of a way to incorporate bisexual students into the Aschamon dorm setup…so I decided Mantle culture does not recognize bisexuality as a thing, and that this will likely cause problems down the road.

    R: If you could design a festival line-up to fit the vibe of the book, who would be your headline acts?

    MN: The Birthday Massacre and Within Temptation would have to co-headline. Evanescence, AFI, Red, and Breaking Benjamin would also be there. There would likely be wine vendors and a lot of lighters. 

    R: Finally, a little more whimsical, as a fellow cat lover, how much does speculative fiction need more cats?

    MN: There can never be enough cats in SFF. They already exist halfway between worlds anyway, staring at stuff only they can see. If the world of Verre hadn’t evolved reptiles and birds as the primary niches instead of mammals, there would have been cats all over Aschera 🙂 


    Many thanks to Mariah for answering my questions and to Escapist Tours for facilitating the tour! Don’t forget to check out Escapist Tour’s Twitter and Instagram for a chance to win a copy of Hands Like Secrets!

  • Review: Gunmetal Gods

    Review: Gunmetal Gods

    Gunmetal Gods (Gunmetal Gods #1)Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar
    My rating: 4 of 5 stars

     

    NB: This review is also available on Black Dragon Books. Please consider using them for your SFF and Horror book purchases. 

     

    What use is winning if we lose everything in the process, even ourselves?  This is the question that runs central to Gunmetal Gods by Zamil Akhtar. We see a war brought to the doors of Sirm; one that has been hundreds of years in the making led by a man, Micah, who is driven as much by vengeance as faith. On the other side, we have Kevah, a retired Janissary famed for his daring victory over a deadly mage ten years prior to the events in Gunmetal Gods. Both Kevah and Micah have lost loved ones, both have suffered and among all the parallels between them it is hard at the start of the book to know who to root for.

    While the similarities between the two men continue throughout the book, the way they define themselves shows in their actions and after certain events, you’ll know which you’re meant to be backing. Nevertheless, Akhtar has done an amazing job at demonstrating how the two sides of any disagreement will make sense to those who are fighting over it.

    There is loss and death in this story as well as love, friendship and hope. Where it differs from other dark fantasy I have read is in the systems of magic and gods, which is where Akhtar has let his imagination run wild. From Eldritch-looking, giant, physical gods, to goofy looking Kinn, the chicken-eagle-boy (you’ll see), there’s a lot that’s visually exciting to get your mind into with Gunmetal Gods.

    This book took me by surprise quite a few times. I wasn’t sure if I’d enjoy it as I’m not too fussed about Lovecraft, nor have I read much matchlock/flintlock fantasy. On both counts, my doubts were assuaged. The plot and pacing also surprised me a few times, bringing events that I was expecting to be end-of-book forward left me wondering where we’d go next: never was I disappointed. This is a well-written dark fantasy that will take you on a hell of a ride.

    4 Stars

  • Guest Post: L.L. MacRae on ‘Dragons: Friends or Enemies?’

    Guest Post: L.L. MacRae on ‘Dragons: Friends or Enemies?’

    As part of the Escapist Book Tour for The Iron Crown, I asked author, L.L. MacRae, for her thoughts on dragons. 


    Dragons.

    Love them or loathe them, they’re a staple of the fantasy genre (and to be honest, one of my most favourite things in the world!).

    Whether it’s a tiny, palm-sized dragon fiercely guarding a single gold coin (its entire hoard!), or a titanic behemoth whose wings blot out the sun, dragons inspire awe and wonder in equal measure. Even if they can be somewhat clichéd. 

    In early stories, they were usually some faceless threat that had to be defeated by a brave hero. From Humbaba being slain by Gilgamesh to Maleficent turning into an all-powerful green fire-breathing dragon end boss, or a major antagonist like Smaug, they were often painted as the enemy of people, or simply a natural obstacle that our protagonists had to overcome/outsmart/outright defeat.

    There has been a shift in the reasoning for slaying dragons; something more than simply rescuing some poor princess. Now, they’re hunted for their scales/bones/blood—for use in magic spells, potions, alchemy etc.—or they are the perfect chance for an upcoming young warrior to prove themselves in a battle to the death.

    Whatever the reason, dragons have a history of being humanity’s enemy.

    But even as an enemy—be they nothing more than apex predators or worshipped as gods—dragons can either influence a story in a significant manner or be relegated to window dressing in the fantasy world.

    Personally, I love when they impact the world, and in my own writing (Dragon Spirits series, World of Linaria series), this is very much the case! In fact, in The Iron Crown, the magic-drenched world of Tassar simply wouldn’t function without them!

    I’m grateful that the time where dragons existed solely to be slain by the hero on their way to rescue a princess is over. Authors are discovering and adding more facets to their draconic stories, and these days you can find stories where they add far more to the plot, or even take centre stage as a character.

    And these are the stories I love. 

    Far more interesting is when dragons impact the world—be it in a magical or ecological sense (Dragons of Terra by Brian Naslund is a great example), are shapeshifting, dominating creatures that run business empires (Heartstrikers series by Rachel Aaron excels at this), are more animal and naturalistic, with their own hierarchies and castes (E.E. Knight’s Age of Fire series), or are the classic animal companion (everything from His Majesty’s Dragon by Naomi Novak to Dragon Keeper by Robin Hobb, and countless books in between!)—when this happens, you know you’re in for a great read.

    Dragons are a force to be reckoned with. Magical or not, they are powerful creatures in whatever format they appear, and this makes them formidable enemies allies when stories turn the “dragon/evil monster” trope upside down and explore new paths. 

    Friendly dragons—Haku (Spirited Away), Toothless (How To Train Your Dragon), Falkor (Neverending Story)—who befriend protagonists and aid them in their journeys, or help provide character growth and development, have created generations of dragon lovers (myself included)!

    Sometimes, they are used as a trump card in violent conquest, such as Drogon/Viserion/Rhaegal (G.R.R.M.’s A Song of Ice and Fire), which leans more into their destructive, powerful nature, and reminds us that despite being on our side, they are still creatures deserving of respect.

    Turning dragons into allies always makes for a great story, especially when authors delve into reasons why, and methods how. Whether it’s training wild dragons, bonding with and riding dragons, or even saving the “last” dragons to protect or save the world. 

    Dragon riding schools are just as exciting as magical schools, same as fighting atop the back of a dragon is just as thrilling as charging into battle as part of a larger army!

    For me, stories where the motivations of a dragon are stronger than the, “angry monster to be eventually killed,” are far more interesting. 

    Of course, there are always dragons who are indifferent, too, and that’s another curve ball. 

    These dragons are simply an awesome force of nature, acting in their own interests, and see themselves above the petty disputes of people. Allying with dragons (even temporarily) can throw in brilliant twists to the story. Shenron (DBZ), a magical, wish-granting dragon, is just as likely to aid an antagonist as much as a protagonist, and cares very little for either side.

    This indifference provides a unique flavour to any dragon, and thus makes the story more compelling any time they appear.

    Whether they’re with people or against them, dragons add that special something to a fantasy story, and I adore them in all their alignment flavours.

    P.S. I HIGHLY recommend every dragon mentioned in this post!


    Lauren is a fantasy author of character-driven stories and epic adventure. Her books usually contain dragons, eclectic characters, and are typically fun and hopeful. 

    She lives in a tiny village in the UK, has a degree in Psychology, and was a professional copywriter before going full-time as an author—swapping corporate copy for magic and dragons!

    She has previously published under the name L.L. McNeil.

    Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/author/show/20896392.L_L_MacRae
    Patreon: https://www.patreon.com/llmacrae
    Twitter: https://twitter.com/_LLMacRae
    Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/_llmacrae/ 
    Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/LLMacRaeAuthor

    The Iron Crown, book one in the Dragon Spirits series, qualified as a finalist for SPFBO 7 and signed copies of The Iron Crown are available directly from MacRae’s site: https://llmacrae.com/shop/p/theironcrown or at The Broken Binding: https://www.thebrokenbinding.co.uk/product-page/the-iron-crown-l-l-macrae