The Legion of Flame

2.75 out of 5 stars – find this review and others at The Speculative Shelf.

The Legion of Flame picks up directly after the events of The Waking Fire, as our adventurers must contend with the White drake menace that they've unleashed on the world.

I love the sandbox that author Anthony Ryan has created — a Victorian-era world filled with steampunk gadgets and a politically complex society. Unfortunately, a cool setting is not enough to overcome a thin plot that struggles to carry the novel.

That being said, the first few hundred pages were outstanding. The pacing was much better than the first book as there was less reliance on action sequences to drive the narrative forward. It's these quieter moments (the scheming, the politics, etc.) where Ryan's writing is most engaging. I find his action sequences to be difficult to follow and repetitive. There are only so many times a chapter can end with impending danger at the unexpected sight of a dragon.

Eventually, much like the first book, things descend into a dizzying action bonanza. This, coupled with an ending with little resolution, makes my commitment to finishing this series up in the air.

Executive Summary: Another solid entry in this series. Here's to hoping for a good ending with the final book.Audiobook: I hate narrator changes. I'm bad with names, so at first I almost didn't notice the change from [a:Stephen Brand 6075312 Stephen Brand https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/u_50x66-632230dc9882b4352d753eedf9396530.png] to [a:Steve West 737890 Steve West https://s.gr-assets.com/assets/nophoto/user/m_50x66-82093808bca726cb3249a493fbd3bd0f.png]. Plus I like Stephen Brand, and he narrated the last 4 Anthony Ryan books. So Steve West had his work cut out for him because I came into this book heavily biased against him.I'm happy to report I thought he did a good job. I don't know why they changed narrators, but Mr. West read with good volume and inflection and he added a few voices into the mix to make for a good audio experience.Full ReviewThis series mixes such a wide variety of themes, it still seems strange that they all work together, but they do. First you have Lizanne, who I always just think of as Jane Bond in my head. Then there is Clay, who's got a bit of an Indiana Jones vibe to his story. Finally there is sailor Captain Hilemore. Their narratives are all tied together with Dragon Blood. Added to the mix is Sirius. I don't recall if he was introduced in the last book as a minor character, but he certainly wasn't a POV in that. Much like Hilemore in the last book, his story felt mostly disconnected from the other three until near the very end. Unlike Hilemore however, I had a much better idea how his story was going to fit in with the rest well in advance.I found the start of the book a bit slow. It took me awhile to remember the characters and the details from last year's [b:The Waking Fire 25972177 The Waking Fire (The Draconis Memoria, #1) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1456221270s/25972177.jpg 45880091], and even afterwards I didn't find myself completely sucked in. Once the book got going however I definitely enjoyed it. Clay's story started the slowest of the four, although I didn't find Sirius much better. Even Lizanne who's definitely my favorite of the series felt like she was meandering a bit before her story got going again.The world building continues to be excellent. We learn a lot more about the Dragons and the blood blessed, and the nature of many of the mysteries from the first book. Clay's story in particular reveals quite a bit of interesting details. I really like the world Mr. Ryan built here.Based on his previous series, I feel like Mr. Ryan's good at writing both beginnings and middles, but struggles with endings. [b:Queen of Fire 18405221 Queen of Fire (Raven's Shadow, #3) Anthony Ryan https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1417350958s/18405221.jpg 26039753] felt rushed, and partially spoiled an otherwise perfect series for me.I hope he takes as much time as he needs (assuming his publisher will let him) to write the final book of this series. I think this book set things up nicely for that. Now I just have to wait and see how it all comes out.

More of this on kinda stuff on Tome Raider .
Second books have a tendency of being a bit of fillers and just generally the least interesting part of a series. Mr. Ryan was like “fuck that, Imma do this”. Maybe he didn't say that, maybe he doesn't swear, but after a book this badass I imagine him being like that. If I'm totally wrong, contact me or whatever.

We go on with the story. The White dragon and Co. is still insistent on taking over the world with Spoiled and all. The human are less enthusiastic about the project, but at this point they are kinda powerless against all that crazy. And they are also idiots, who have a hard time allying against something that will potentially kill em all.
Lizanne needs to find a mythical inventor. Clay needs to find a place he had seen in his future that leads him to the salvation of the word. Hilemore needs to find his cool. No, he needs to do the captaining in a way that allows Clay to do his thing, but that sounded kinda fun. Also, they go to some arctic place. So cool. Ha.
Aaaand there is a new POV character, who would be a spoiler, even though this person has the first chapter, but still. There is a new one, with a whoooole new point of view that I personally never expected to see and it was REALLY interesting and a whole new facet of the story. Ingenious. Seriously, we will see the inside workings of Spoiled. How freaking cool is that, man? I swear, it surprised me in two ways; how cool the world building in one more way and how entertaining borg zombies can be to read.

I've loved pretty much everything about this. When it comes to fantasy with serious topics and not much humour, like here... I need me some exploration. I find that if the story is dark and serious in tone I need two things to make it palatable; either some hilarious dark funny moments (hello Mr. Dresden, I love you so much) or adventures and the wonder of exploration. Here the latter is what's happening more and I am 100% fine with that, because the world building is on point.
We got to see for example the Corvantine Empire in this one, which is extremely interesting and different from the Ironship Syndicate, but just as dangerous. We got a different kind of human race! It's all fascinating stuff and the whole thing was much easier to grasp than in the first book. There some moments were a bit hard to follow with the names and different powers and all, but it did pay off 100%.
(One thing from the first book they didn't care much about here was the way Product was weakening, though. I really liked that idea, so I hope Mr. Ryan deals with it later, but it was totally understandable why they didn't care too much while everyone was trying to survive crazy stuff. The implications are just... really interesting.)

The characters were still great. At this point in time I can't help cheering on the author for writing a young female character who is a person, not a Straaaawn Female Character cliche. Lizanne doesn't go on tangents about how she needs to beat men. She is not morally superior. She does need her male allies just as much as the female ones. For how much we keep hearing about female characters, we do have a lot of shittily written, “all that matters is that it's flattering to think about her for women who typically can't even land a punch”, and Lizanne is NOT anything like that. Do enjoy.

With fantasy novels romance is always something that can make or break my relationship with them. I don't need it. If it never happens... I'm kinda content with that. But if we do it, then at least make it feel okay. Here that happens. Romances start, they are understated, Mr. Ryan realises that the focal point of the story is not soap opera, but dragons and wars and all that. None of that gets overshadowed by needless romantic drama. People can even drift apart without ridiculous meddling, magical or otherwise and good ol' “I could explain, because I am not going to, which means you will misunderstand and hate my guts”.

Never read anything before this series by Anthony Ryan, so I have no idea if he is generally this freaking brilliant and magical and perfect, or he just got lucky. I doubt it's luck, this is pure talent for intricate stories in well-built worlds with enjoyable characters, with tight action, with constant excitement, everything. Seriously, I can only rave about this.
I'm gonna say, though, I don't think this series is a good first time getting into fantasy as a genre. It's just really complicated and being unfamiliar with the genre as well as trying to understand a specific world like this can potentially put people off of fantasy for a long time. Otherwise it's A+.

At this point I'm interested in everything the author produces. I need to read his previous books, get the sequel of this as soon as it comes out and I'm looking forward to whatever he does next. Again, I can't say for sure if this is his norm or not, but I am optimistic and really pumped about not only this, but reading in general and you need a certain kind of book to achieve that effect. So there is that, I freaking loved this. All the stars in the sky for this book.

Have a nice day and definitely get this burning hot piece of work!

Pros: excellent world-building, great characters, well paced, exciting

Cons: cliffhanger ending

Refugees flock to Feros, where Lizanne Lethridge, aka Miss Blood, is given the first of a new and even more dangerous series of missions to perform in the Corvantine Empire. Clay has convinced Hillmore to sail South, hoping to find something that will help them defeat the white dragon. Meanwhile, the white is gathering its army of spoiled, training them to overrun the world.

This book starts off with little reminder of the events of The Waking Fire, so it's worth rereading it. One of the characters thought dead returns as a point of view character, giving insight into the actions of the white dragon's army.

The world-building continues to be excellent. You learn more about various governments and see how the drakes interact from a different point of view from the first book. Clay's mission provides a lot of questions, which I'm hoping will be answered in the next book.

There are two appendices, one for dramatis personae, which is helpful as several names are similar and the cast is large, and a second with the rules for the card game Pastazch.

Lizanne is probably my favourite character, making difficult decisions and still being influenced more by her emotions than a good operative should. I was surprised by where her choices lead her. Clay seems to grow as the book progresses, which I appreciated. I was disappointed that Tekela wasn't in this book much, considering how she'd grown in the previous book. I was hoping to see more of her development. Loriabeth gets a good amount of page time, which was nice. Her skills have improved a lot and she's a solid supporting character.

The pacing was wonderful, with a lot of action and cliffhanger chapter endings, propelling you through the book at a rapid pace. There's little wrap up here, with the final chapters leaving several characters in difficult positions. This is only a negative in that since the next book isn't out yet, I can't immediately find out what happens to them.

I'm really looking forward to book 3.