Rise of the Dragons

I'm very conflicted. I got this book for free, so no harm was done really and I feel bad about giving it such a low score. But if I have to base it on how much I enjoyed it, it has to be one star.
Finishing a book is a really difficult endeavour, so praise where it is due. And I thought the map at the beginning of the book was really pretty.
And it isn't really a positive, but my husband also read it, and we love complaining about it together! We get into passionate debates about how this book doesn't work, and it's really fun!
The downsides of this book are numerous, and I don't want to be even more of a bully. I gave it one star, enough said.

After some research: Morgan Rice is a bestselling author and has written over 60 books! Okay, show more that is an incredible achievement. But it only leaves me more confused. I really don't understand the very good score this book has here on Goodreads, and I'm getting suspicious...
Here are some reviews I found on Amazon:
- "Morgan has managed again to produce a strong set of characters that make us cheer for them on every page....Recommended for the permanent library of all readers that love a well-written fantasy."
--Books and Movie Reviews, Roberto Mattos
- "A great Story!"
- "Adventure, intrigue and good characters"
I'm sorry, but that simply isn't true. I suspect there are a lot of fake reviews out there to hype this book up. But I would hardly call it a book! This "book" has no closure, several characters were introduced, but didn't really have an arc. They were just introduced, as I suspect they will play a role in the future. But that's not how a book works. Not a book from a best selling author anyway.
I will resist the urge the list all the bad that was in this book, but I thought at first it was a self-published book from a new author, a beginner and someone who was probably very young. It reads like something you could read for free on Wattpad, by a student who was kind of winging it in their spare time, and who then decided to publish it.
It is self-published, will is fine, but I really don't understand how this was a bestseller, and the incredible praise I see everywhere. show less

While I don’t mind series, I do very much mind authors who take a couple hundred pages to do nothing more but set up following books. The story and characters are promising but I won’t read the following books simply because I won’t reward the author for wasting my time and not bothering to tell a complete story in book 1.

If you thought that there was no reason left for living after the end of the “Sorcerer’s Ring” series, you were completely wrong. Mrs. Morgan Rice came up with what promises to be another brilliant series, where you can live the fantasies of trolls and dragons, and all the good ingredients that produce a very entertaining story, including valor, honor, courage, magic and faith in your destiny. Her book “Rise of the Dragons” is the first book in the “Kings and Sorcerers” series. Her easy and light writing style will hook you up from the very first page.
In this book we are introduced to our heroine Kyra, a 15 year old girl, who loves to fight like a warrior. She is trained by the best warriors that her father has in his show more castle. She is an excellent archer and her fighting skills are better than most of other men that work for her father. She has some mysterious power, but there is a secret about her birth that is kept from her. When an oppressive local lord comes for her, the only choice her father have is to wed her, but Kyra refuses and flees for a forest, where she finds a wounded dragon. She feels a strong connection with the dragon. Soldiers from the lord find both her and the wounded dragon and try to kill the dragon. In order to protect the dragon, she kills all of the lord’s soldiers, but a young boy escapes and notifies the lord. That triggers the beginning of a war.
In another parallel story, Alec is a young boy that volunteers to go in place of his lamed brother in the draft to go to protect The Flames, a place where there is a wall of flames preventing an army of Trolls to invade their land from the north.
In a third parallel story, Merk is a mercenary, hired to kill, but he is trying hard to change his lifestyle, seeking to become a Watcher of the Towers, people who guard the Sword of Fire, that keeps The Flames going on by magic.
I recommend this book to the permanent library of all readers that love to read a well written book, which will allow them to live a fantasy full of action. I can hardly wait to see how the story will develop from here and how our three heroes will have their fate entangled. Mrs. Morgan managed again to produce a strong set of characters that make us cheer for them on every page we turn.

I received a copy of this book from the author and I was not requested to write a positive review. Opinion expressed here is my own. show less

Fast read interesting start to a series.. not good enough for me too get hooked before getting to others on my list first, but plan to come back to this promising series..at least it is not the same overused plots out there, but original

This book had interesting elements in it that kept me engaged, which is the only reason I'm rating it at 3 stars. Kyra and her relationship with her brother is sweet, and I love Kyra as a hero. However, I feel the other two protagonists feel a bit flat. It was also hard for me to ground myself in the story as the other two protagonists were in a different place. I got confused who was who, especially when I took a break because of life.

Would love to know what happens next to Kyra but not in a rush to read the second book.

One of the only reasons I read this book was because it was free on my tablet and I had a 12 hour flight. Surprisingly, it was better than I thought. I like the idea of the strong female character and the complexities of the other characters coming in and knowing they will all tie in nicely from the start instead of feeling like I'm reading 5 different books. The nice things about this book was that towards the end I got more attached to what was happening with each character and kept trying to guess what was going to happen. But in the beginning of the book it wasn't like that. Which what was really annoying to me.

In the beginning (no spoilers here), the author gives almost too much detail. Every characters thoughts are literally show more spelled out for you and it almost give you no reason to keep reading cause your imagination sort of stops working. Not to sound rude but it was almost like reading a manual - boring, and to the point. It eventually got better after about half the book on that part.

The only other thing that bothered me was that some of the small stories of the other characters (that I know will tie in later) ended up being too descriptive to dedicated to four (I think four) parts of the book. Specifically the goblins (I think they were goblins...), they were too long for what the author wanted to show.

This book was overall okay, but as much as I want to know what's going to happen in the next book, I'm inclined not to read it because it could be too descriptive and drawn out. show less

Rise of the Dragons is an interesting story. Like many of the books I read, it has a compelling female hero who breaks boundaries and becomes a warrior. Kyra lives in an occupied country, but because her father commands the fort which guards The Flames, her people are allowed to have weapons and train as warriors. But only the men. So Kyra, with her wolf Leo, trains in the woods until she can best any of her father's men at archery. Because a double-handed sword is too heavy for her, Kyra fights with a staff.


But at some points the novel moves too fast and the character's triumphs feel unearned. The story is similar to the Protector of the Small or the Song of the Lioness quartets by Tamora Pierce. Keladry, the hero of the former, also show more faces down bullies and becomes a great warrior in spite of prejudice against her because of her sex. But Keladry spends eight years, and three novels, as a page and then squire, mastering her craft and earning the respect of her fellow warriors; when she finally receives her shield at 18, none can doubt that her knighthood is deserved. Kyra, in contrast, completes her training in the two years preceding the start of this novel, and she needs only five chapters, and one pivotal sparring session, before "on this day she was accepted among them [the warriors]... From this day forward, she knew, everything would change."


And everything does change, but not because of her alleged new status. Kyra's father immediately forbids her to train with the men again. This feels out of order; parental objections to a girl becoming a warrior should take place before she begins training, not after she has achieved her goal. And this conflict between Kyra and her father doesn't matter. Immediatly, a proclamation from the occupiers states that the oldest unwed daughter of every family can be taken in marriage by the governor, for himself or whomever he chooses. To avoid this fate, Kyra runs away and immediately experiences more pivotal moments. She prays to become a warrior at a magic lake, makes a vow to a witch that she will pay any price to avoid living the life others have planned for her, and then discovers, saves the life of, and loses a dragon. To save the dragon she had to kill soldiers of the occupying force, and she let their squire get away, so she immediately returns home to warn her people. All this happens in the first half of the book. But the rest of the book contains more of the same: too many monumentous events, many with dire consequences, happening in quick succession; but the events have no meaning as each new event overturns the consequences of the last. Overall, Rose of the Dragons is an interesting concept that is poorly executed.


In addition to the main storyline, there are three narrators, each with their own story, but their chapters feel like an interruption of Kyra's story. Probably they will play a role in later novels. Merk is an ex-assassin, who struggles with his vow to avoid violence as he makes his way to join the Watchers who keep the magic sword that ensures The Flame doesn't go out. Alec takes the place of his disabled brother when the latter is forced to join the Keepers of the Flame. Vesuvius is the king of the trolls on Marda, on the other side of The Flames. He is a two dimensional villain who reflects on his love of causing suffering.

The writing is not terrible, but it's not great either. I've seen better writing by high school students.
I noticed several typos, and I've read novels, even YA books, with more sophisticated writing. This writing is too verbose, and I found myself skimming through overly detailed descriptions and repetitive introspection.

This book was free, and it is worth reading if you have nothing else to do, but I don't see myself buying the remaining books in this series or seeking out other work by this author. show less