Hey,
I was very pleased with this book and I can’t wait to read the next one. The author of this book is also co-author of The Expanse series, so I was eager to see if his Fantasy skills were as good as his Science Fiction. I was not disappointed.
Title: The Dragon’s Path
Series: The Dagger and the Coin; Book 1
Author: Daniel Abraham
Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Adult
ROTS Setting: UU, Medieval, Dragons, Magic
Synopsis: A world on the precipice of something grand. A girl, a war hero, an oafish lordling, and the childhood friend of a king. Each plays a part, but no one knows the script. Unbeknownst to all, they tread the dragon’s path to destruction.
Recommendation: Adult, but mid to late teen could probably read it too. I recommend this book and eagerly look to see where the series goes.
I really enjoyed uncovering the intricacies of the world and it’s history. The details are few and far between but they speak of a deep and rich world. Thankfully that same history creates plausible reasons why that history is patchy. What I didn’t enjoy was the lack of descriptions for most of the races even when they were characters that spoke or interacted with the main characters. One are like normal humans, another are fair skinned and fine featured, one has glowing eyes, one live underwater, one has fur, another have wolflike ears…..and might also have fur, one has tusks like orcs or ogres, there are two that have scales or something similar but one of those might be more insect like. After that, they either were mentioned in name only or weren’t mentioned at all. I’m seriously off to find a wiki or something to get everything straightened out.
The characters are diverse and believable.
Dawson is probably my favorite character because he feels the most real to me. He’s a nobleman and friend of a king. He’s fiercely loyal but also level headed. I want to know more about his history, and his family. Clara is his wife. She’s epic.
Marcus is a bit of a cliche and is probably the favorite for most people, but he’s kind of annoying. A war hero responsible for the murder of his wife and child now works as a mercenary and eventually works for a girl about the age his daughter would have been.
Cithrin, is a fairly thought out. She’s a young ward of a bank until she comes of age. She becomes an alcoholic while hiding her identity as she flees for her life….while also smuggling a cities worth of gold. For all the talk of her strong character, it is undercut at couple of points. I wish she’d been developed more, but she was constantly hiding behind personas, so she is essentially a child still at the end of the book.
Geder is a tubby bookish lordling. He’s picked on, bullied, manipulated and used by everyone. Not surprisingly he’s oblivious to it and is a weak man without political skills or experience……even though at the end he comes across as a master politician.
While the characters were good in this book, I’m concerned that Cithrin and Geder will be portrayed as having developed more than this book would have suggested. I won’t know until I read the next book, but it has me worried.
The main story line takes the long view so it isn’t overly action paced. That isn’t to say it wasn’t interesting or entertaining. Nor was it too slow. Everything said or done felt like it was needful to the story even if it wasn’t strictly important.
My biggest issue was that there weren’t hard copies at either library. I had to resort to ebook versions. Sadly it looks like even those are going to be limited because there are only the first 3 of the 5 books out in the digital library. Hopefully by the time I finish the next two they’ll have the rest or I’ll just have to breakdown and buy them.
Robert
Reading Over The Shoulder 