The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan – Review & Giveaway

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Description:
The Waking Fire is set in a vibrant new world where the blood of drakes—creatures similar to dragons—is valued beyond reckoning, and can be distilled into elixirs that grant fearsome powers to those who are “blood-blessed.” The novel follows an unregistered blood-blessed as he searches for an elusive variety of drake so potent, its capture would mean unrivalled riches; the second in command of a blood-burning ironclad ship; and a young woman in a lifelong contract to a trading syndicate, whose espionage mission places her on the front lines of a newly declared war. As empires clash and arcane mysteries reveal themselves, these characters are tested again and again and soon discover that the fate of the world rests on their shoulders.

The Draconis Memoria is a remarkable new epic fantasy series with steampunk flavor, full of the phenomenal worldbuilding and non-stop action that have gained Anthony Ryan a global fan base.

Review:

The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan is the first book in his The Draconis Memoria series.  This series is an epic fantasy, with an amazing world building, that includes magic, agents, war, ships, thieves and dragons.  Though the dragons are a major part of the storyline, it is the blood blessed humans who drink the blood harvested from dead dragons that give them the magic to perform many amazing powerful feats.  The story revolves around a war &  finding an unproven myth of a White Dragon that is more powerful than any of the other dragons (Black, Red, Green, Blue), and therefore, the white blood will be more powerful. 

The Waking Fire centers on the pov of three interesting and different main characters, who are sent on separate missions, which will bring them to the same resolution, finding that dragon and saving the world.

Lizanne:  she is a agent and spy for the Ironbound Protectorate.  Lizanne had been trained to be a top assassin since she was a young child, and is considered one of the best.  We see how good she is when she manages to get herself out of difficult situations.  Lizanne starts off as somewhat cold as she is efficient early on; this will change as the story evolves.  

Clay:   He is also blood blessed, but not as powerful or registered like Lizanne.  He is an adventurer and thief, who is forced to help his uncle on a mission to find out the truth of the mythical White Dragon, which Lizanne’s superior, Madame Bondersil  has assigned them on.  Clay by drinking bue blood, allows him to communicate with Lizanne mentally from far away, keeping her up on what is happening on his assignment.

Hilemore:  He is a naval officer, who was just assigned to be on a new warship.  In a short time, he will earn the respect of his ship mates, and when faced with war, will take over command.  He has little interaction with the others main characters, but we can see at the end, this may change in the next book of this series. 

With an epic fantasy type of book, there will be many characters, and The Waking Fire had quite a few memorial ones: Lizanne’s superior, who ruled those with an iron fist; Clay’s uncle and other people on their trek into dangerous and unknown territory; Tekala, a young girl, who will eventually open up Lizanne’s cold heart;  Hilemore’s ship mates, including the captured pirate queen; the missing academy  member, Ethelynne Drystone, who was presumed dead after leaving years before to look for the mythical White Dragon.   Ryan did create some wonderful and complex characters.

The entire book had a lot of action, with many battles against the attacking dragons.  Why are they all of sudden coming after the humans in full force?  Is the White Dragon real and does this have something to do with the attacks?

The Waking Fire was very well written by Ryan. I did think early on it was a slow, but as normal in the start of an epic fantasy, there is a lot of world building and character introductions.  I liked the element of blood blessed drinking Dragon blood to give them more powers, but I would have liked to see more Dragons that were good, or even talked.  I loved seeing one that communicated and helped protect Ethelynne.  I hope they utilize this more in the next book.  The Waking Fire ends with more to come, and the main characters to continue the quest to save the world. If you like fantasy, world building and a big book, I suggest you read The Waking Fire. 

Reviewed by Barb

Copy provided by Publisher

Anthony’s publisher is offering a Hardcover copy of The Waking Fire to ONE (1) lucky commenter at The Reading Cafe.

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9.. Giveaway runs from July 14 to July 18, 2016

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