Melanie
Written on Nov 8, 2017
Man, how to write this review without spoiling this series for people who haven’t started (and I highly recommend you start it). If you’re not familiar with this series, it mostly follows Julius, a dragon who is too nice. In this futuristic world, dragons exist and they are very selfish. The pretty much think only for themselves. The might do something for the family, but only because a strong family is good for them, not by any sense of duty to their family members.
Julius is a Heartstriker. They are the largest dragon clan. His mother, Bethesda, has had several clutches of eggs. She names all the children based on which clutch they are from. Everyone in the first clutch started with A (Amelia, the plains walker, is the only one left). Second clutch is B (Brohomir or Bob, the great seer of Heartstriker, is the only one left). There are several C (Chelesa, Bethesda’s shade and enforcer, is the most vital to the story).
The Fs have been sealed into the human forms their entire life. They have forced to work as servants to the rest of the clan. Bethesda never told anyone why this was the case. But she has her reasons (which we know before the start of this book, but many characters still don’t know).
The Js are the youngest group. With Julius, being the last to hatch from the clutch, so he is considered the youngest of all the Heartstrikers. He has spent most of his life hiding from the others, so not to get bullied.
There is also Marci. She is a human mage that Julius befriends in Detroit. She befriends a spirit in the shape of a cat named Ghost. He quickly grows in power and becomes a more powerful spirit and a vital character in his own right. There are other spirits, mostly Algonquin, the spirit of the lakes. She is working to control humans and she really hates dragons.
There is a whole lot more about this series. Here’s what you really want to know. This series is really fun. There are moments of laughter, of sadness (my eyes were watering in the first 10% of the book), of action. The characters are really well developed, even the side characters (I really love Raven who has a larger part in this book. YAY!). The stories are really good too. Not only is the overall story arc great, but each book is amazing in it’s own right.
In this book, we get to finally meet the highly secretive Chinese dragons. Their leader, the Golden Emperor, comes to take over the Heartstrikers. He has a good reason and they aren’t what you might think. Julius is also able to work his magic and niceness on the emperor. Algonquin makes her move. Bob does something unthinkable. The world will not be the same at the end of this book as it was at the beginning. Oh, more people learn the secret about the Fs.
There is only one more book to this series. *sobs* I’m both extremely excited to get to the next book. I can’t wait to see where Julius takes dragons. He is changing so much with his niceness. He might not look at himself as a leader, but he is a very good one.
Narration
I love the narration of this series. It is a series I would consider to be an audio only. Vikas Adam does such an amazing job with the narration here. There is a wide array of characters, from crabby Bethesda, to the weird seer, Bob, to the eccentric Amelia, the spirits of Ghost, Raven (I really love the voice of Raven) and Algonquin. He really nails the voices of both men and women. I think each voices matches the character’s personality perfectly. He is also really good with his inflection. Remember how I said my eyes were watering in the first 10% of the book, yeah, he is partly to blame for that. He is also to blame for the times I laughed out loud. If you haven’t tried this series on audio, I highly recommend it.
On another note, Vikas Adam was just inducted into Audible’s Narrator Hall of Fame. You can read more about Vikas Adam on his Hall of Fame page. While you’re at it, check out all the 2017 inductees.
**I like to thank the publisher for providing me with a copy of this audiobook in exchange for an honest review.