Queen of Dragons by Shana Abe
Oct. 3rd, 2009 09:45 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
meganbmooreThis is the third of Abe’s Drakon books, and there’s at least one more after it. The first book in the series is pretty clearly the beginning of a series, but is pretty standalone, while the second sets the stage for the meta-arc, which kicks off here.
The drakon (people descended from dragons, which gives them certain abilities, including, for a few, the ability to become a dragon) of Darkfirth have lived in isolation in England for centuries, just another town that most have never been to. For years, their current Alpha, Kimber, has been corresponding with Maricara, princess of a clan of drakon in Transylvania that they never knew existed until she began the correspondence. Maticara’s younger brother is officially the head of their clan, but everyone knows it’s really Maricara who’s in charge. When two drakon are killed, Maricara easily identifies them as spies of Kimber’s, and quickly realizes that there’s a serial killer targeting drakon, and that the killer has most likely learned about Darkfirth, so she decides to go to England to warn them, and to finally meet Kimber face-to-face.
Kimber has also been wanting to meet Maricara for years, and his clan has been planning to eventually invade and combine the two clans for just as long. Kimber and Maricara are also both Alphas, and so it’s automatically expected that they should marry. I can understand the biological imperative involved in mating your most powerful members, especially when that means your clan has someone who can become a flying, armored, 30-foot-long creature that breathes fire. Useful to have around. Unfortunately, Kimber, and the rest of Darkfirth, doesn’t really bother to ask, and just assumes. Similarly, no one ever thinks to actually go to Transylvania to talk to Maricara and her brother about combining forces and forging treaties. The men who rule Darkfirth are pretty much privileged losers.
Shana Abe, IMO, writes some of the best heroines in the genre (and has pretty interesting plots), and Maricara is no exception. She’s confident efficient, and smarter, cleverer, and more skilled than anyone else in the book, and in a believable way. Unfortunately, Abe still likes to pair her heroines with controlling alpha males, and while Kimber is far from the worst (that would be his father) he’s still frustrating. After Dream Thief I had hoped that Abe was getting past that, but I guess not. Though, really, he isn’t nearly as bad as some others. There’d be hope for him if he didn’t have abandonment issues and a dozen men pressuring him to be an alpha jerk. Thankfully, the next book appears to be about his brother, Rhys, and the girl Rhys had a crush on when hormones arrived (Abe loves her unrequited childhood crushes, and so do I), and Rhys didn’t seem to be very alpha here.
I hope that, after the last book in the series, Abe returns to medievals, as I think her plots and characters work better in that setting.
The drakon (people descended from dragons, which gives them certain abilities, including, for a few, the ability to become a dragon) of Darkfirth have lived in isolation in England for centuries, just another town that most have never been to. For years, their current Alpha, Kimber, has been corresponding with Maricara, princess of a clan of drakon in Transylvania that they never knew existed until she began the correspondence. Maticara’s younger brother is officially the head of their clan, but everyone knows it’s really Maricara who’s in charge. When two drakon are killed, Maricara easily identifies them as spies of Kimber’s, and quickly realizes that there’s a serial killer targeting drakon, and that the killer has most likely learned about Darkfirth, so she decides to go to England to warn them, and to finally meet Kimber face-to-face.
Kimber has also been wanting to meet Maricara for years, and his clan has been planning to eventually invade and combine the two clans for just as long. Kimber and Maricara are also both Alphas, and so it’s automatically expected that they should marry. I can understand the biological imperative involved in mating your most powerful members, especially when that means your clan has someone who can become a flying, armored, 30-foot-long creature that breathes fire. Useful to have around. Unfortunately, Kimber, and the rest of Darkfirth, doesn’t really bother to ask, and just assumes. Similarly, no one ever thinks to actually go to Transylvania to talk to Maricara and her brother about combining forces and forging treaties. The men who rule Darkfirth are pretty much privileged losers.
Shana Abe, IMO, writes some of the best heroines in the genre (and has pretty interesting plots), and Maricara is no exception. She’s confident efficient, and smarter, cleverer, and more skilled than anyone else in the book, and in a believable way. Unfortunately, Abe still likes to pair her heroines with controlling alpha males, and while Kimber is far from the worst (that would be his father) he’s still frustrating. After Dream Thief I had hoped that Abe was getting past that, but I guess not. Though, really, he isn’t nearly as bad as some others. There’d be hope for him if he didn’t have abandonment issues and a dozen men pressuring him to be an alpha jerk. Thankfully, the next book appears to be about his brother, Rhys, and the girl Rhys had a crush on when hormones arrived (Abe loves her unrequited childhood crushes, and so do I), and Rhys didn’t seem to be very alpha here.
I hope that, after the last book in the series, Abe returns to medievals, as I think her plots and characters work better in that setting.
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Date: 2009-10-03 04:33 pm (UTC)After reading some other books, I think you're probably right when you say the heroes aren't the worst in the genre--or maybe they're just a little better fleshed out, rather than just stereotypes--but I love her heroines so much that I feels even worse to me.
At first, I thought the next book was much better. Then I didn't! (I just deleted a rant.) But I'd like to hear your thoughts on it; her heroine is still pretty much as awesome.