Jerry Cooke

2.75⭐️ - A disappointing sequel that hooks you back in at the very end

I wanted to love this book so much - I had really enjoyed Quicksilver and found the ending of that was such a big cliffhanger. Well it seems like Hart's skill is in crafting a hook like that, then writing an unsatisfying sequel that hooks you back in at the end with ANOTHER cliffhanger. As such, I probably will (as loath as I am to say it) read the sequel if and when it comes out, but I can't say I'm massively enthralled with the idea of it.

4⭐️ - A fantastic sequel to A Language of Dragons with even more political intrigue and dragon lore!

With the Civil War from the first book changing into a multi-party conflict now, Viv finds herself the unwitting face of the rebellion. Working undercover and pretending to be of the first class, she tries her best to sway public opinion about dragons as the government starts strongly cracking down on otherness and becoming a lot more centralist.

With her cover blown, she finds herself on a remote Scottish island that is the home of the wyverns that she hopes to recruit to support their cause, but being pulled between the rebellion the government and the Romanian Dragon forces it's not remotely an easy time for her.

This was just as good as the first book and the exploration of the race of wyverns is amazing. They're such a well thought out race of dragons and the way that they are nomadic and obsessed in doing things in a kind of human way is really interesting. There's so much intrigue so much deception loyalties tested and introduction of new enemies - for not a lot of pages it packs in a lot of new detail. I'm very excited to see where Williamson is going to go with the third book!

4⭐️ - A fantastic fantasy reimagining of British wartime history, with many powerful parallels to the current political state of the world.

Vivienne Featherswallow’s Parents are both dragon experts and she has the same aims for her own academic life. In the rigid hierarchy of this society, she is fortunate enough to be in the second class and be able to pursue a degree of draconic linguistics, with desires to be a translator eventually.

When their role in the ongoing anti-government sentiment causes her parents to be taken away, Vivienne wants nothing more than to clear their name and destroy any evidence, but when she enlists the aid of an imprisoned dragon, she unwittingly ignites a new dragon versus human civil war. Pulled in by the government and told that she can essentially be tried for treason or accept a place in a mysterious program that aims to aid the war effort, she's really only got one choice if she wants to help her family.

This is such a great fantasy reimagining of this period in British history. The way in which this rigid system is in place that separates the classes really highlights the way that the government are disadvantaging and trying to push away the lower classes and it's immensely political. There's so many parallels in there in terms of social injustice that resonate with a lot of the things we're seeing in the world right now and that contributes to making it a really powerful read.

Vivian is at times really annoying character but you have to make allowances for the fact that she is essentially a teenager and ask yourself, placed in those situations where the only real thing you can think of to find your way back to feeling normality is to free your parents, what choices would you make that might be deemed cruel by other people?

There’s a diverse cast of characters with her in this Bletchley Park environment and so much lore about the dragons established - it makes for a really well-rounded world. I was so excited to go onto the second book after reading this - the hype is justified for this one

4.75⭐️ - Perfectly applied humour and fantastic characters in this chaotic story of magic and trauma!

Clare Bishop is the best name in magic on the Las Vegas strip - a fact made possible by the almost unlimited powers of a future Zaro, a leader of the world's witches. Power that nobody suspects she possesses, because everyone knows there can only be one future Zaro at a time and that's Ozarik. The universe doesn't particularly care what anyone thinks though.

When Ozarik experiences a spiral of panic that leads him to cast a spell that stops all death on earth in the name of protecting Clare, she must (reluctantly) take hold of the power and try to fix what her oldest friend has broken.

This was such an unexpected joy - Thorne brings the perfect Pratchett style wry humour forth to balance the dark trauma the characters experiences and it makes for such a fascinating and well written story. The setting makes for such a great way to expose the question of how a human would deal with almost godlike power and Ozarik and Clare's parallel experiences show how different two people can be based on their life stories. There's something so satisfying about seeing magic like this used and I particularly loved how Thorne describes the interaction of that power and the physical world - the semi-sentience of objects is so very much in that Pratchett tradition and it's so fun.

An utter joy and such a powerful story, so very worth reading!

4.25⭐️ - A fantastic fantasy tale of shadow magic and competing dark factions!

Seraphine has grown up as the daughter of a Shade smuggler, always adjacent to the underworld of the City of Fantome, but kept separate from it. Her quiet life is turned to ash when she returns home to find that her mother has been killed by the dangerous Order of the Daggers, the shade consuming guild of assassins. With the shadowy figures pursuing her, she seeks sanctuary in the only place that can protect her - the equally shadowy thieves of the Order of Cloaks. The Daggers are more persistent than she could have imagined though and coming into direct conflict with with the silver-eyed assassin Ransom, secrets of her past are forced into the light.

This is a wonderful world that Doyle has written, with a fascinating system of plant based magic and divinity. Seraphine and Ransom are well paired and have the most authentic feeling enemies to lovers vibe - genuine hatred and desire to kill, threaded with an intense attraction. The larger political landscape and the shadowy conflict between the two orders makes for great tension and there is an engaging cast of characters on both sides of the shadow divide.