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Song Of Dragons: Blood of Requiem Review


LordStoneheart

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First off, I did search for this on here and came up with nothing, so if I'm retreading old ground I apologize.

Second, I haven't finished this Kindle book so maybe my review isn't fair. But I also think it's a testament to the whole Kindle author thing, and the fact that anyone can just publish something and release to the masses. So I won't feel bad for any harsh words.

Third, and I don't want to sound too douchey, but GODDAMN is this book bad. it is called Blood of Requiem, Song of Dragons Book 1. Spoilers coming for those unfortunate enough to check it out after this...

My first criticism is the series title. Song of Dragons? Does that not remind you of ASOIAF? I bet the author, one Daniel Arenson, read the ice and fire novels before writing this trilogy. Is that wrong? You decide for yourself. The main reason I read asoiaf was because I thought the title was cool. Maybe this guy thought something similar and wanted to attach this book to fame? Idk...

It's about Weredragons. Yes, Weredragons. Depending on who you are, that's either really cheesy, or really cheesy but sounds kind of cool too. The real species name is Vir Requis, but I kid you not, in the prologue the Weredragon King Benedictus has this thought: "The last Vir Requis. Not humans. Not Dragons. Weredragons, the humans calls us. Shunned. Today is our last flight."

Great exposition there, guy.

Every character in this book is named after some sort of latin song or chant The species themselves are called Vir Requis, an obvious reference to a Requiem. Weredragon King: Benedictus. Typical Evil Guy/King's Half Brother: Dies Irae. Main Character/Hero Kid (I think): Kyrie Eleison. let me repeat. Kyrie Eleison. It's not subtle. It's not coy. It's completely obvious that it's a reference to the music setting in church-related music. As is Dies Irae, and Benedictus, and Gloriae, and Mirum, and all other characters he has. It's today's equivalent of naming a child Fergalicious or Boom Boom Pow. "Oh your baby is so cute, what's his name?" "Tik Tok. like the Ke$ha song." Great name scheme. He could have at least tried for some originality.

Other problems I have with it are Kyrie's much too easy finding of the last Weredragon besides himself. It goes a little something like this: Kyrie escapes evil guy after being found out, laments the loss of his caretaker, wants to find the last weredragon king, and lo and behold, he finds him not a chapter later!

Also, I have trouble feeling for the Weredragon's plight when they had enslaved all griffin's with the help of a magic amulet. You could say maybe that was the author's point, but no, I disagree. This is not grey area writing. The weredragons are clearly shown to be the heroes and victims in this story. But somehow the species of griffins is not a very smart one anyway. They're little more than dogs. And the villain, Dies Irae is so one-dimensional. He's Loki to Benedictus' Thor from the most recent movie. Dies Irae resents being the elder brother but not a weredragon, therefore not the heir. So he takes over and slaughters the other weredragons. Brothers feuding for the crown. Where have I heard of that... oh yeah. Everywhere. But its been done much better than this trite.

Maybe one day I'll finish it and have more complaints, but for now I'll stick to much better books and give the book 2 out of 10 stars. I'd give it 0, but the author at least takes a somewhat original idea, weredragons, but of course completely wastes/misuses it.

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