Rate this book

Dragon In Chains (2009)

by Daniel Fox(Favorite Author)

3.35 of 5 Votes: 2

ISBN

0345503058 (ISBN13: 9780345503053)

languge

English

genre

Fantasy

publisher

Del Rey

series

Moshui, the Books of Stone and Water

review 1: This is a book written by a man for a man's enjoyment. It is full of senseless violence with a plot that is apparently being stretched out to make this into a series.The current emperor is a boy (teenage?) who is a puppet for his mother who really rules. They have been chased out of the city by rebels and are regrouping on an island. The emperor's people are violent and spend all their time raping and pillaging the town for no reason as the people are more than willing to just give them what they want. The rebels are no better. They are on the mainland killing all the emperor's troops (who are waiting to be ferried to the island) and raping and pillaging. There are also pirates (working for themselves) who are kidnapping and torturing people and making them into slaves... more. There is absolutely nothing to redeem this story. There are just too many "main" characters with only a few of them good people. Everyone else is violent and has ulterior motives. Daniel Fox is apparently a British author but the book reads like a translation with poor sentence structure and sentences written in the wrong tense. The book shifts point of view with no warning and it takes paragraphs to figure out which group of violent characters is now center stage. Definitely not a series I will be continuing.
review 2: I read this book just after Liz Williams' Snake Agent- and it might have been a bit wrenching to go from modern China/cyberpunk to mystic medieval China.I did enjoy the book though, and more as it went on and the different character threads began to pull together. At first, the fragmentation of character viewpoint kept changing the story's pace; when I wanted more about a certain character they would disappear and I'd have to do a mental reset. The dragon was almost too menacing; once she's free, what could anyone possibly do to stop her? But I did truly enjoy the concept of how jade affected anyone it touched, and thus was preserved for the emperor. A miner who even accidentally ingests jade dust is stealing from the emperor and may earn a death sentence. I also like how we got to slowly explore this alternate Taiwan and learn more about it. I also liked the wry humor in the writing- how it gently made fun of people's foolishness and never lost its empathy. I believe this author is also Chaz Brenchley, from some internet research. I was impressed with his Outremer series back in the day. A good series that explored and humanized the medieval Middle East much as this series explores medieval China. However, minus a point for the pointless change of author name. Why start over when you've got a good thing going and are building your reputation? And why so coy and secretive about it? Meh. But I'll be reading the next one. less

Download links for: Dragon in Chains

Advertising