Fantastic dragons

A fantastic tale told by a fantastic narrator! Gotta love some dragons. get into it.

2 people found this helpful

Awesome listen!

Enter a world of fairies, humans and dragons (and wizards!!!) and their war against Rectar, the lord of the demons and his army of... well, demons. :D I know what some of you are thinking. Same ol' Good vs Evil fantasy book, right? Not so fast! While this story embraces the traditional good vs. evil trope, it breaks the mold. It does it differently. A couple of tropes common to fantasy fit here. Farmboy prince fits as well, but this one is implemented in such a way that it almost feels like Miller is saying 'yeah, but in his defense, he was the prince first.' It touches on the traditional, but is refreshingly different.

I love some humanoid dragons, or dragons that can become humanoid. It makes them a bit more relatable (and it opens things up for some sweet, sweet dragon/not dragon roooomance - I AM WITHOUT SHAME). Dragons in this particular case, seem to be mostly dicks to anyone who isn't also a dragon, despite the situation of sort of needing to team up against the greater enemy. Darnuir starts this story as the sort of pompous, arrogant, know-it-all heir to the king of the dragons (whose name is Draconis, because of course the king of the dragons is named Draconis). His father doesn't trust him to wield the Dragon's Blade, a very powerful flying sword that only the royal line of dragons can wield. He says that Darnuir isn't ready for it, which of course pisses off Darnuir because he thinks he is ready for it! He couldn't be more ready for it!

Darnuir is mortally wounded and the only thing that can save him is the dragon king's resident court wizard, Brackindon (I probably spelled that wrong. Audiobook.), who does the only thing that he can do to save Darnuir. He performs a rebirthing spell that more or less rewinds Darnuir's life and turns him into an infant, and then he leaves him in the care of a group of hunters, of which the more or less leader is a friend of his. 'I'll be back in six months!' he says. Fast forward to twenty years later, and Darnuir has come of age to wield the Blade, and while there have been many years of radio silence from them, the demons are now redoubling their efforts.

We get some of the early parts of Darnuir's new life from his point of view, which was actually pretty interestingly thought out. The entire growing up again montage is summed up well, doesn't seem intrusive on the overall flow of the story, and is yet informative on what sort of (second) childhood that he has. Darnuir is raised as a human the second time around. He has no idea what he is, but his abnormally brute strength is noticeable to more than one person in his life, including himself at least once. It's kind of a wonder that nobody figured it out sooner. This simple life humbles him, though. He comes from a more humble upbringing this time around and that is the key to wielding the Blade the way his father would have wanted. Brackindon comes back (20 years late, but as we all know, a wizard is never late but arrives precisely when he means to) with the Dragon's Blade in tow and all is revealed.

Darnuir is a cool character who I started off not liking because he wasn't very likable, but I ended up cheering for him, because when his old, arrogant personality starts to try and break through, he tries his very hardest to not be that person, and tries to restrain himself. Where Blaine and the other dragons tend to continue the tradition of being dicks to humans (and women of all races), Darnuir brings his human upbringing into play to smooth things out.

My favorite characters are more or less in the background though. First is Dukuna (am I close? This one was a tough guess on spelling ^_^), one of Rectar's underlings and the first character we get introduced to. A demon lord's underling who is in a position that he doesn't want to be in. We see some of the book from his POV. He hates Rectar and considers himself a prisoner. He even has other demons that he sympathizes with. It's pretty neat. I actually cheered for him the most. The second is Lyra, the lady dragon who isn't taking any of Blaine's crap about lady dragons not being allowed to be warriors. You go girl.

The action/battle scenes were well written and made it easy to imagine the action that was taking place. I was transported into the world of this book quite easily. The magic system is described as a cascade and I thought that was quite an interesting way to think of magic. Like a waterfall, kind of. The plot takes a couple of turns that you don't see coming, and it doesn't plod along. I thought it was quite well written and plotted out quite nicely. It wasn't overly complex, but it was complex enough that I was immersed quite thoroughly.

The narrator totally nailed it. Dave Cruse's narration of this book is more than slightly reminiscent of Simon Vance. Dave Cruse gave each character an appropriate voice and tone and told the story very well! Some pretty brilliant accents were peppered throughout, and I quite enjoyed the listen! My only criticism here is that when characters are having an inner monologue moment, which they do from time to time, a better way to differentiate that would be awesome. As it stands, it just seems like the same character speaks but... a little muffled. When they're inner monologuing in the middle of a spoken conversation, this can be confusing.

What a great debut! The best part was watching a character that I didn't really start out liking turn himself into a character that I liked rather a lot. I did really dig this story, and really enjoyed my time with this listen! I'm excited to read (or hopefully listen!) to the next book in the series!

I was given a free review copy of this audiobook by the author in exchange for an honest review.

5 people found this helpful

Very Long

I got this book via audiobook boom. The narrator was very good. the story had lots of twists and turns and sometimes just gave too much information. The description of the king took almost two minutes. Those are the things I am talking about. The story was developed and it was interesting how Daniur's character took over the story and made his way to being the one who could control the dragon blade. Nice fantasy just a little long for me.

4 people found this helpful

Strong beginning

Book starts off rather slow with the protagonist being a nasty little shit. However eventuallly he grows to be more endearing.

It’s a strong start to a fantasy series and I hear the second book is much better

1 person found this helpful

A great classic fantasy with dragons

If you’re a fan of fantasy, there’s nothing not to like about this book.
It’s nothing out of the box in terms of themes or world-building, but I believe Miller really shines here when it comes to amping the drama and creating suspense.
I was surprised by how much I liked this novel. The title and description really do remind you of a litRPG novel, but it didn’t feel like one. This book is a much more polished and well crafted version of a reincarnation ‘tale-as-old-as-time.’
The performer doesn’t have great range when it comes to making new voices for characters, but the diversity of his ability to do accents was fun and helped distinguish more.
Just a great novel that I recommend to fantasy fans. Even though the dragons are humanoid, they are still awe-inspiring.

Highly rated, but not for me

A lot of other reviews acknowledge that the other books are more exciting and that this first one is a bit slower. It was indeed slow. I found it hard to care about much of anything that was going on, and the parts that I did care about seemed to last all of 30 seconds. But other portions of the book the author will go on for 20 minutes about a bit of fabric hanging from a wall.

The thing that killed this audiobook for me the most and what made it so I won't be continuing the series is how they handled the character's inner monologue. The narrator would do a kind of whisper or cover his mouth or something. It made his voice sound wet(?) and made me want to start attacking anything around me. Since about a 1/4 of the book seems to be inner monologue, it made finishing the book more difficult.

Events take center stage

The title says it all. This is not a character driven story, other than in the prolog where we are presented with the premise of a pure evil antagonist. Not sure why. And “the one blade to fight them all.” Eventually we get the dragon and blade backstory. But I didn’t get interested in any of the characters. The prose is clear; the story moves, but without me.

If you love deeply detailed, intense stories, look no further

Fantastic narration. The story is convoluted in a good way that really helps the reader to only see most things as the main character learns of them. Super entertaining battle scenes, the gore isn’t described in a way that will bother most (I think) and the language is minimal at most (no F bombs). Allusion to a intimate scene only once and is left primarily to the readers imagination.

I’d say this is for those above the age of 17 or so.


—I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and have voluntarily left this review.

Not a strong start, but worth sticking with

I received a free audio copy from the author in exchange for an honest review.
This isn’t a single book review, but a trilogy review, so it may look a little different to the normal one. Darnuir, Prince of Dragons, is reborn twenty years after his arrogance causes a split among the races of his land. The Dragons (not the big scaly ones, although it does suggest they were once like that), are super soldiers, protectors of the land from the Shadow (Rectar), who doesn’t require an introduction. The story, in its essence, tells of Darnuir’s efforts to reunite the land against its frightening foe, one who can turn people to his side with ease. Can the reborn Dragon (sorry for WOT reference) learn from his earlier mistakes and...well, you get the gist. Just for the record, it’s not all plain sailing. Here are my thoughts on the book(s):
The Reborn King - the first book in the series was actually the weakest, and this is actually a shame, because the trilogy as a whole is an enjoyable read. The problem with TRK is it doesn’t really have a whole lot going on except for Darnuir discovering who he is and what his powers are. It’s not awful, but there’s certainly a lot of talk. But, trust me, it’s worth sticking with
Veiled Intentions - here’s something you don’t hear every day. Book two, at least in my amateur opinion, is actually the best of the bunch. Rectar’s plan to rule the land begins to escalate, and he leads his army on a rampage with only the Splintering Isles, a small island with few warriors, standing in his way. If Rectar can win here, Darnuir will not have time to rally the other races to his cause. There are also signs of fracture among Darnuir’s people, and the hopes of alliance are slim
The Last Guardian - a good finish to the series. Darnuir has sent out emissaries to raise extra allies, but they are constantly beset by Rectar and his minions. But wait. Not only are there problems in Darnuir’s camp, but there seems to be dissent in Rectar’s too, which suggests the Shadow’s control is not what he believes. The alliance still struggles to get humans on board as the king of Brevia continues to thumb his nose at Darnuir. Can his daughter Cassandra sway his mind, or will the alliance of races fall before it has its day in the sun?
Good story. It’s not overly original, but it is fun, with some races that appear a little different to the norm. The conflict throughout, right up to the end, keeps you guessing as to whether Darnuir and Co will succeed. The various conflicts, on both sides, is nicely done and believable, and the characters are generally likeable, or eeevvviiillll. The plot is the best part of the book though, ticking over throughout and always keeping us on our toes and causing us to question if we believe we know what will happen
Finally, the narrator. He did a great job mostly, adding the right tone when required, and mixing humour with gravitas. If I had one complaint, and it may not have been his decision, the use of traditional accents (Scottish and so forth) to identify the various different races has been done to death and never really been a great idea. Perhaps mixing accents or trying new ones might have been a better idea. Then again, this could be applied to a hundred different books.
Verdict
After a rocky start, things heat up in a hurry as the trilogy progresses.

An Interesting Take on Dragons

The Reborn King series is an interesting twist on the typical dragon story, and I really liked the change. I love traditional dragons soaring through the air and settings things on fire, but Michael R. Miller has come up with a fresh twist on these creatures and it's a nice change-of-pace.

In this series, dragons once were creatures that most people think of today, but some time ago, changed into human-like men, albeit, taller and stronger than typical mankind. As you could expect, though, dragons have become arrogant due to their apparent superiority to traditional men. It's this arrogance that Darnuir is full of, that makes him very unlikable in the beginning of The Dragon's Blade, and ultimately leads to him receiving a mortal wound. To save his life, along with the rest of the races battling a demonic hoard, Darnuir will be put under a rebirthing spell and forced to have a second chance at life living among mortal men. Will he grow into a worthy leader this time, the only hope the world has at stopping the demons that threaten to conquer the world?

I really liked these fresh concepts that are in this series. The twist on dragons is a welcome one and adds serious character flaws to Darnuir that he will have to overcome if good is going to prevail over evil. He's quite unlikable in the beginning of this book, but needs to be in order to see the change and growth in his character through his second chance at life. I enjoyed the different characters and races presented in this first book and the unique characteristics of the Dragon's Blade has been intriguing. This is a true epic fantasy story with good battling evil across multiple lands and with the help of multiple races. It reminds me a lot of The Lord of the Rings series, without being too similar. I'm looking forward to seeing where book 2 takes me!

The audio narration was well done. Dave Cruse is a good fit for an epic fantasy story like this. There's not a crazy amount of variation between characters, but they're different enough for my liking. I enjoyed his narration and had no problems with it.

I was provided a copy of this book and am leaving a voluntary review. My thoughts and opinions are my own.