The Waking Fire

Executive Summary: A great start to a new series. It blends a lot of different things together in an interesting way to feel original. I'm really looking forward to see where he takes things from here.Audiobook: Steven Brand is a great narrator. He reads with good inflection, and does a few voices. In the past my main complaint about him has been he speaks too quietly. He's either fixed that, or the people making the books are adjusting his volume up to make him a lot easier to hear than past books I've listened to.Full ReviewI absolutely loved both [b:Blood Song 13569581 Blood Song (Raven's Shadow, #1) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1421573407s/13569581.jpg 19148922] and [b:Tower Lord 18138189 Tower Lord (Raven's Shadow, #2) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1382486392s/18138189.jpg 25481154]. It's possible that it made it impossible for me to love [b:Queen of Fire 18405221 Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3) Anthony Ryan https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1417350958s/18405221.jpg 26039753]. Either way, I was disappointed enough in that book, that I was reluctant to pick this one up. I had planned to wait on reviews from people I trusted to come out before getting it. Then a review copy fell into my lap.This book is kind of a hodge podge of several things I love: Mistborn, Indiana Jones, James Bond, and Dragons. And if that's not enough there is also high sea adventure, and pirates! That may sound like a mess, but Mr. Ryan does a great job in blending those elements together. I also can't guarantee all of those things were influences on this book, but they are things I thought about as I was reading.Mistborn has one of my all time favorite magic systems. This one feels similar, only a little less structured, and with only 4 known types of abilities. The main similarity is the idea of imbibing something in order to do magic, and that only a small number of people are born with the ability. Beyond that they are quite different.My favorite character is Lizanne, who is basically Jane Bond. Her story line was always my favorite, and I really want to know more about the training she went through. I hope we get some flashbacks or possibly her training new recruits in future books, but then I'm a sucker for the magic school trope.Clay was also a great character, and a more reluctant protagonist then Lizanne. His story was reminiscent of an Indiana Jones story, with him being basically nothing like him. If anyone is Jones it's maybe his uncle.The final protagonist, Lt. Hilemore was enjoyable enough, but I spent much of the book wondering how his story fit in with the other two. Rest assured it's made clear by the end of the story, but it takes awhile. That doesn't mean his story wasn't interesting, it just felt disconnected from the rest of the book for me. With him you get high seas battles and pirates!None of that even scratches the surface of the great supporting cast. Each subplot has it's own supply of interesting characters. And if 3 interesting protagonists influenced by different elements, and a great supporting cast isn't enough. There are Dragons. And really, isn't that enough?Overall, I'm glad I got this is a review copy because I really enjoyed this book. I just hope he can take his time on the sequels because I felt like his last book suffered from rushing to completion to meet a deadline. I love getting new books in a series once a year, but I'm willing to wait longer if the author needs more time. I'm hoping he'll be able to bring this to a more satisfying conclusion than his previous series.

3.75 out of 5 stars – see this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

Combine the magic system of Mistborn, the gunplay of Red Dead Redemption, the steampunk aesthetic of Bioshock Infinite, the dragons of Skyrim, a fun cast, a unique culture, and an intriguing Macguffin and you have The Waking Fire. I was expecting a traditional dragon-centric Epic Fantasy story and this was that and so much more.

The story follows three character POVs who are each integral to the hunt for the mythical White drake, whose blood grants unimaginable power to those who can ingest/wield it. Along the way, the characters are thrown into bar brawls, naval battles, dragon fights, zombie horde skirmishes, and so on – frankly, the steady barrage of action sequences was a bit dizzying. I would have happily sacrificed a few of these scenes for some additional character development. With that in mind, the book feels overlong, but luckily never loses its sense of excitement. Author Anthony Ryan has built a thrilling and fascinating world that I plan on revisiting soon in the forthcoming sequel, The Legion of Flame (2017).

More from stuff like this on Tome Raider.Seems like I am in a steampunk kind of a mood and it seems to work out great. As it is increasingly more common, this story is centred around three different POV characters; petty criminal Clay, spy Lizanne and navy officer Hilemore. They live in a world where certain people have special ability to drink dragon blood and do superhuman things. Because yeah, this one has dragons. Wouldn't have guessed looking at the cover at all. On top of that, they have different kinds (black, red, green, red and supposedly, according to myths even white), all giving a different power. Sounds peachy, eh? Think again. War is brewing between different countries and even the one we follow is having issues with bureaucracy and technical stagnation. In this situation an expedition is started to find the white dragon and a lost young woman, supposedly still alive out in the jungle, decades after the failed, previous trip. There is a lot going on, yes. It's complex, hard to explain without giving away too much or sounding like a rambling crazy person. My previous read, [b:The Clockwork Dynasty 32670125 The Clockwork Dynasty Daniel H. Wilson https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1527606594l/32670125.SX50.jpg 53238815] was the same genre and extremely lovely, but much smaller in scope, so I enjoyed how it really managed to show the extent of a world you can do with steampunk. Somehow it always makes me... I guess limit my ideas, which is probably just coming from not having read much from the kind. Still, there is room for even more, the concepts are really creative and can be used in all kinds of crazy ways. A lot of the war and the internal problems of the place are involving politics, but what I loved about that part was how neither side had all their shit together. Often times authors go peachy the moment things are political; they can't be critical of all sides, they just have their loyalties one way and somehow they don't go far enough to take risks. Which is sad, I would love risk taking fantasy. Sure, in today's word it feels like everyone is offended by something, something is always taboo and off limits and you HAVE to give straight answers, but there should be room for this. For a book so long, it actually had enough substance, though. The alternating POV chapters help with that for sure (one of the benefits of it, in my opinion is that even boring chapters can be made better if the other characters are having an interesting time). Mr. Ryan didn't stretch things out too much with world building and nothing else, action was mixed in with it all. Plot twists are not a must for me. Many people disagree, but here they were done well. We discover interesting things about characters and lore, history and the science of the world. I appreciated how the twists really had all that variety, it showed some thought put into it all. I would say there is something for everyone on this front. So about the characters. So far the three POVs were a bit weird. Lizanne and Clay meet early on and are in touch, they have to work together, while Hilemore is separate from the other two, having his own story that connects to the war aspect, but doesn't cross over to the others. Up until the veeeeeeery end. That made me pumped. I mean not sure how much of it is a spoiler, I had a feeling Hilemore wasn't just there for the lulz, but to connect with the other two, but hey. They are sufficiently separate entities. They do sound like separate people, influenced by their circumstances, which is essential for different POVs, as one of the potential pitfalls is all of them sounding the same and becoming a mass of the same.You can't pull this off by just coming up with an interesting cast, you really have to KNOW them, their ways, their typical figures of speech. Everything. At this point I would say it's not going to go too too dark. For a books about trying to save the world and all, it has a good amount of discovering things, adventures, things that break up the fact that certain places are lawless enough for people to drop like flies. It's not trying to have too much pathos, never goes over the top, never feels like this is too much of a rigid, lecturing dark story. It's actually well-balanced as far as tone goes. I'm definitely picking up the next book. I need to know what happens, it keeps my attention, it is definitely worth your time. It is “normal” fantasy enough for people not familiar enough with steampunk, but it was different enough. Good stuff, one of my favourites of the year so far. Good night and let out some steam with this!

Dragons. DRAG–ONS. There isn't a book about DRAGONS that I won't like. This is no exception.

This book isn't blessed with amazing characters, but it has a pretty good plot.
It was about halfway through this book that I started to feel the pull. The what's going to happen next, the worry for the characters.
Antony Ryan takes his time to set up the world and the magic system. It pays off. I enjoyed both immensely.

Characters.
There's Clay, a simple thief, nothing really extraordinary about him but goes through the most emotionally. The last third of the book really brought Clay to life. Hillmore, I couldn't give two shits about. Lizanne. Oh, Lizanne! She is by far one of my favourite characters, and written by a man to boot. Think of a female James Bond, but BETTER.

I want to pick up book two immediately, but alas I don't own it. yet

Pros: great characters, brilliant world-building, variety of action

Cons: lots of close shaves

Claydon Torcreek is a thief who gets roped into being the blue-trance communicator for the Longrifle Independent Contractor Company. The Company's mission is to find the fabled white dragon, living in the dangerous interior.

Lizanne Lethridge is a blood-blessed covert agent of the Exceptional Initiatives Division of the Ironship Trading Syndicate. She's sent to Morsvale to investigate the former owner of a box that held a device that might aid in Clay's company's mission.

Corrick Hilemore is the new Second Lieutenant of the IPV Viable Opportunity. Their ship is trying out a new engine that allows for faster travel, as it takes out a pirate ship.

Meanwhile, the drakes that have been bled for their magical blood for decades, have started acting in strange ways despite their reduced numbers, attacking cities, leaving their hunting grounds, and working together in ways they never have before.

There's a lot going on in this book. There's some political intrigue, spy work, sea battles, steampunk style inventing, dragons, dragon blood magic... Told from three POV characters, the book jumps around enough that you're always on your toes, wondering what will happen next.

The world-building is excellent. There's real history here. There are several countries with different ways of doing things, past rebellions, corporate greed. Different people from different lands interact in different ways (sometimes as part of the same crew, sometimes as infiltrators).

The characters all felt like real people with real hopes and goals. I enjoyed spending time with all thee POV characters, learning more about them and seeing how they react in different circumstances. Their supporting casts were all really interesting too.

This is partly explained by the end of the book, but there are a LOT of close shaves for the various groups. Enough that it started to feel really manufactured and repetitive. There was a reason for that, but it doesn't prevent some scenes from feeling a bit fake.

The economics around blood-magic was well done, though it started to drive me nuts hearing how depleted their stores of product were becoming and how expensive it was to buy, and then seeing so much wasted blood as more and more drakes get killed. The magic itself was cool, with each type of drake having a different property. I especially liked that there were limitations on the magic and that there were actual consequences for using it extensively.

At the back of the book is a list of dramatis personae, which I would have referred to a few times had I known it was there. There's a large cast, and on the ship especially I had to remind myself who was who.

This is an excellent book with a lot going for it. It you love immersive fantasy, pick this up.

Extremely solid first book to a series I can't wait to finish. Took me a bit to get into, but I'm glad I stuck it out. Don't give up on this book. There are 3 parts to the first book:

Part 1 is a lot of world and character building. The book focuses around 3 characters and it switches perspective pretty much every chapter. I didn't love that at first, but I got used to it and began to look forward to each character's progress in the story. There's also A LOT of world building

Part 2 is where the story gets going and where you really start to get attached to the characters

Part 3 is definitely the strongest and it's where you know the rest of the series is gonna be amazing

Highly recommend reading it and sticking with it if you find it slow at first. It's all necessary