Talon (Talon Saga, #1)

by Julie Kagawa

In New York Times bestselling author Julie Kagawa's groundbreaking modern fantasy series, dragons walk among us in human form...

THE DRAGONS OF TALON: Once hunted nearly to extinction, they are now poised to take over the world.

THE ORDER OF ST. GEORGE: The legendary dragonslayers will stop at nothing to wipe dragons from the face of the earth.

These mortal enemies are locked in secret and deadly combat, with humanity none the wiser.

To take her rightful place in the Talon organisation, young dragon Ember Hill must prove she can hide her true nature and blend in with humans. Her delight at the prospect of a summer of "normal" teen experiences is short-lived, however, once she discovers that she's also expected to train for her destined career in Talon. But a chance meeting with a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught.

As Ember struggles to accept her future, St. George soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian is tasked with hunting her down. But when faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything the Order has ingrained in him - and what he might be willing to give up to uncover the truth about dragons.

'Kagawa knows how to end a first volume for maximum cliff-hanger drama.' Booklist

'A strong, promising start to the Talon Saga.' - Publishers Weekly

A round of applause for TALON

'Five stars for TALON, because obviously.'

'The genius of Kagawa once again shines through in this new series that follows two teen dragon shifters and their transition into society.'

'Ruthless. Julie Kagawa is ruthless. Mad. Intoxicating...Brilliant.'

***

The Talon Saga

Book #1 Talon
Book #2 Rogue
Book #3 Soldier
Book #4 Legion
Book #5 Inferno

• ISBN10: 1322109435
• ISBN13: 9781322109435
• Publish Date: 1 January 2014
• Publish Status: Active
• Out of Print: 12 May 2015
• Publish Country: US
• Imprint: Harlequin Teen
• Format: eBook
• Language: English

Reviews

[Ashley]

Nose Graze — Book reviews & blogging tips

Talon wasn't what I imagined

Here's what I THOUGHT Talon would be:

• Dragon lore/history


• Dragons blending in with society to take over government/military/organizations


• Dragons in disguise assassinating humans


• Dragon politics, hierarchy, and structure


• Epic dragon battles and wars


• Dragon training programs


• FIREBREATHING


• Forbidden romance

Here's what Talon actually was:

• Largely about a teenage girl living a 'normal' teenage life (or pretending to)


• Beaches, parties, the mall, boys


• The girl happens to be able to turn into a dragon.. but that doesn't mean she ever does


• Very little information about the dragon history, politics, or hierarchy


• Sort of a forbidden romance, but Ember doesn't actually realize it's forbidden so it doesn't feel like a forbidden romance

As you can see, it's not quite what I imagined.

Remove dragons and you get the exact same story

This was my number one problem with the book. If you removed the dragon aspect from Talon, you'd still have the exact same story. Why? Because although Ember and her fellow dragons are dragons, they can turn into humans and they spend the ENTIRE book in human form. Or, at least, I can count the number of times they shift into dragon form on one hand. There is a bit of dragon talk, but not much.

The bulk of the story is about Ember's mission, which is to blend in with humans. This results in most of the book reading very much like a normal "teenage girl romance" book. We read a lot about Ember going to the beach, making friends, going to the mall with said friends, commenting on which guys are hot, etc. But every now and then we'd get a small snippet to remind us that she is a dragon (like "Surfing is almost as great as flying!" or "I wish I could shift and nom this asshole but I'm not allowed to.").

I think I just so desperately wanted an epic dragon book and instead I got a semi-typical teenage girl book with a small dragon element. Like, "I'm playing the part of a teenage girl but I COULD shift into dragon form if I really wanted to. Remember that." Meh.

The romance wasn't bad

It wasn't fabulous or earth shattering and I never got excited feels, but the romance wasn't bad. There is sort of a love triangle, but not really. Ember and Garret have a slow-brewing romance, which was really nice. Julie Kagawa spent a lot of time slowly building it up, so I came to like it, even if I didn't love it. They did have a few cute moments!

Then there's a third leg: Riley, the rogue. However, he isn't in the book a whole lot (compared to Garret) and I always got the impression that Riley liked Ember more than she liked him. So it wasn't a full on, in your face, annoying love triangle. Also, Riley could get a bit rapey at times:

"We belong together, you know it as well as me. Say you'll come with me. Tonight."
"We just met." Ember sounded very human then, like she was trying to convince herself. "I don't even know you, really."
"This is instinct, plain and simple. Human emotion has nothing to do with it. Stop fighting it. Stop fighting me."

Yeah, Ember, stop fighting it. Just give in. You'll enjoy it.

Overall, it was very 'okay'

Talon wasn't bad, but it wasn't great either. I wanted FIREWORKS and FIREBREATHING and TOTAL EPICNESS! I was excited just at the idea of dragons in YA! FINALLY! But what I expected and hoped for wasn't what I got. It's really just a "teenage girl meets forbidden boy and falls in love while defying secret society" kind of book. You could strip out the dragon aspect entirely and still understand it.

I'm not necessarily giving up the series, but I'm not super excited to move onto the next one either.