The Waking Fire, Book 1 of The Draconis Memoria by Anthony Ryan

The Waking Fire, The Draconis Memoria Book 1

• Author: Anthony Ryan
• Published: July 5, 2016 by Ace (US) / July 7, 2016 by Orbit (UK)
• Publisher: Ace (US) / Orbit (UK)
• Ratings: 4/5

The Legion of Flame ♥♥♥♥

Book Synopsis

Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Iron Trading Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes, which can bestow fearsome powers on the rare Blood-blessed.  But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening.  If they fail, war with the neighbouring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly.

The Syndicate’s last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another, far more powerful breed of drake and the few who have been chosen by fate to see it: a petty thief and unregistered Blood-blessed, a formidable spy and assassin, and the second lieutenant of an Ironship cruiser.

As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war, or drown in its wake.

My Thoughts

This book has a fantastic world setting, steampunk technology (my fave) and dragons or drakes are they are referred to in the story, political intrigue and some amazing characters, and oh battle scenes as well.  The magic in the story comes from the drakes, their blood can give special powers to the Blood-blessed, there is only one person in a thousand that are Blood-blessed.

The drakes are near extinction and are being captured and kill for the blood, in the story the blood of the drakes is referred to as “Product”.  At the beginning of the story on Part I we get a brief explanation of the power of the blood:

Blue for the mind.

Green for the body.

Red for the fire.

Black for the push.

besides that there is mentioned of a mythological White drake and even thought you get an idea of what the blood of each drake can do I found that for me it wasn’t enough to understand exactly how it worked, this is one of my cons with the story and believe me I only had two problems with the whole entire story.

The story is divided into three parts and told by three POVs, Claydon Torcreek (Clay) an unregistered Blood-blessed and thief, Corrick Hilemore (Hilmore) a Second Lieutenant of the Ironship Trading Syndicate and my favorite Lizanne Lethridge (Lizanne) Blood-blessed spy and assassin.  The story focuses more on Lizanne and Clay, Hilmore is still around in the background but overall the two main stories I was most interested in were the ones with Lizanne and Clay.

This is a great start to a great series, even though the pace was slow at times there is so much happening.  I say if you pick this one up and find it slow moving just wait till the story twist and the ending leaves you surprised.

Overall, I loved this story and can’t wait to see what happens in the second book The Legion of Flame  out June 27, 2017, expect to see a review up by then.

 

Have you guys read this book?  if so, what are your thoughts?  Are you thinking on picking it up? Let me know in the comments.