Craig Halloran

FBI agent Sidney Shaw (female) becomes the handler of mysterious prisoner John Smoke, a maveric bounty hunter. In each book they are sent against a different type of fiendish shape shifter.

They are quite entertaining books, and I certainly wanted to continue reading, but the writing is pretty raw. In the early stages it leans too much on conveying information by conversation between the characters, rather than by narrative, and it seemed a long time before there was much in the way of show more character development. Gun battles include lots of 'blat! blat!' and 'blam! blam!', or even 'blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! blam! click!' Very “comic book”.

It's a quick, light read, but it's no competition for Jim Butcher's Dresden Files. show less

(First of 10: The Chronicles of Dragon series. Children's, fantasy)



A quick, light read. I don’t know if it’s an author problem or one with my edition but there were a few mistakes like missing words. This looks like a novella - my Kindle tells me it should take 40 minutes to read - so there is no time for the story to develop depth or to really connect to the characters. There are some good ideas there, albeit the sword and ... er ... barbarian type, that could make a good full length show more book if it it had a good editor and was fleshed out with more detail.

The protagonist, who calls himself Nath Dragon for short, is a dragon who transformed into a human as a baby. This means he will be the next king of the dragons - but first he has to transform back. It has already been a couple of hundred years but Nath is having too much fun as a human with powers and a physique greater than most humans; now he has to shoulder his responsibilities and become a dragon. But how is he going to do that?

ETA: I didn't realise, when I first read it, that this story is targeted at younger readers. I'd put it in the 6-10 age range. However, I think I'll leave my rating from my initial impressions. Although the writing style would suit younger readers, the main character goes through a lot of angst which would work better for teens, I feel.

3*** show less

(First of 10: The Chronicles of Dragon series. Children's, fantasy)



A quick, light read. I don’t know if it’s an author problem or one with my edition but there were a few mistakes like missing words. This looks like a novella - my Kindle tells me it should take 40 minutes to read - so there is no time for the story to develop depth or to really connect to the characters. There are some good ideas there, albeit the sword and ... er ... barbarian type, that could make a good full length show more book if it it had a good editor and was fleshed out with more detail.

The protagonist, who calls himself Nath Dragon for short, is a dragon who transformed into a human as a baby. This means he will be the next king of the dragons - but first he has to transform back. It has already been a couple of hundred years but Nath is having too much fun as a human with powers and a physique greater than most humans; now he has to shoulder his responsibilities and become a dragon. But how is he going to do that?

ETA: I didn't realise, when I first read it, that this story is targeted at younger readers. I'd put it in the 6-10 age range. However, I think I'll leave my rating from my initial impressions. Although the writing style would suit younger readers, the main character goes through a lot of angst which would work better for teens, I feel.

3*** show less

I found this one hard to put down. Although I haven't a clue why anyone would WANT go be one of the Henchmen. But I enjoyed the story and the characters anyway. A little slow on the pacing when there are flashbacks, which creates kind of a roller coaster for the reader.

I'll definitely continue on in the series.