Smorgasbord Fantasia

Order of the Scales is the third book in the planned trilogy: Memory of Flames set in the Dragon Realms and follows the individual storylines of the different Kings and Queens of the Dragon Realms to a satisfactory closure.  Stephen Deas continues to do what he does best: skyrocket the tale forward in a brutal breathlessly frenetic manner and kill off people you care about, leaving the world a burnt-out smoky ruin with stragglers and fire-breathing dragons for survivors. If anything, the pacing is even better in the third book as we finally get to the big showdown that the Dragon Realms have been waiting for, for the past two books. All that scheming, skullduggery, backstabbing and bloody politicking finally comes to a grand finale – fiery, brutal and shocking one at that – as the battles for supremacy between Kings and Queens and the awakened dragons and the Adamantine Men comes to a head. It is guaranteed fireworks and wholesome entertainment – bloody pitched battle...

I popped in elsewhere on the internet today - find below a link to my review of the fourth and concluding series to the Inheritance Series by Paolini. http://vaultofbooks.com/action/review-inheritance Let me know what you guys thought. I sure thought it was a toil. and I plodded and crawled to finish this book. I sure hope Paolini gets his basics right in terms of plotting !!

There is no denying that Daniel Abraham is a prolific writer. He has already churned out a full-fledged quartet series (One that bucks the trend and takes an absolutely delightful new setting for an epic fantasy series far removed from European Medieval settings – the Long Prince quartet. I have read the first two books but sadly never got around to finishing it as I couldn’t find the rest two books and I stopped it at that), is already co-authoring (James A Corey) a super ambitious project called the Expanse – a good old sci-fi sweeping series with already three books out and a lot many in the offing ( according to the author interview) – read the first one in that series, Leviathan Wakes, all-stops pulled out fantastic monster of a read that blew away my expectations – now he’s turned his attention back to traditional epic fantasy in familiar surroundings – The Dagger and the Coin, the first part being called the Dragon Path.    This is familiar grounds fo...

Second book in the Memory and Flames series. Stephen Deas still plays to his strengths, that is a jet setting story burning on rocket fuel with multiple POVs, bloody battles fought in the air, some bits of magic thrown in for good measure, not a lot of world building but enough hints to visualize a fantastic one, and giant fire breathing mad dragons hurtling through the air and slamming into each other, searing up everything around them. A good book that is again a breathless frenetic read. Deas has obviously sacrificed some quality for the sake of scorching pace that he sets up again. Book Two is even faster than Book One. Frankly in terms of plot, not too much really happens. Book One had all the set pieces being arrayed in place and now all of it comes to play. An all-out dragon-war in the realms of the dragon lords. What made Stephen Deas call this book, the King of the Crags, is still a mystery to me. Book One builds an aura around this strange king who has never st...

Book Review: The Adamantine Palace by Stephen Deas I have not read Stephen Deas before. I should have. He’s already a phenomenon in the fantasy scene. Having completed an astounding epic fantasy series called the Memory of Flames, he’s sitting pretty on top of the pile. Adamantine Palace is his debut novel and introduces us to the world of Dragon Realms where Kings and Queens rule with an iron fist the lands divided between and pay their homage to the Speaker of the Realms, a powerful figure who arbitrates between the dragon lords and rules from the Adamantine Palace and of course, where the skies are ruled by the magnificent creatures of fire, dragons.  The first book traces the Machiavellian plots and the titanic struggles between the scheming kings and queens as they vie for the position of the Speaker. It also draws up a parallel plot of the dragons within this realm who are domesticated with the help of potions brewed by the alchemists and thus serve their riders ...