I started reading this the day after finishing book two. Luckily, the books of this series are short and fast-paced, and this one followed the pattern.

Read: September 6 – September 8, 2022
*Self-published author

Genre: Fantasy
Audience: Young Adult
Book contains: violence, death, fire, corrupt government, animal cruelty

Purchase a copy from Amazon.ca

[I received a free copy of this book and am voluntarily leaving a review.]

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Third Book and Third Big Battle

This book picks up right at where the last one leaves off. Ellisar is killed, and with the new responsibility of Leader on his shoulders, Devarius must decide the future of the resistance. To win the war, they must find the dragon stone, something the emperor keeps closely guarded. A team is chosen—Zaviana, Derkas, and Devarius—to sneak into the heart of the empire and steal it from right under the emperor’s nose. In the meantime, Paedyn, now acting leader, has to put out a few fires on his own, no matter how much he’d rather be the one setting the fires.

Before I say anything else, I’d like to point out that this is the third book in the series, and this is the third time it has ended in a big battle. I don’t mind it, honestly, but it’s getting a bit boring at this point. The battles keep getting bigger—the first one was just a few people, then next was at the resistance’s base camp, and this one was the biggest by far—but they still just end in one big battle. It’s kind of cut and paste, even if one or two things has been added to make it different (like the magic, shadowmen, etc.).

Anyway, this book starts out like the previous ones, with a prologue flashback about the emperor before he conquered Kaeldroga. From there, the story continues in the A storyline, plus a few B storylines as well, and switches between them whenever there is a new chapter.

I once again read this book quite quickly, but the pacing was once again good. No scenes seemed unneeded in the story. However, I thought the addiction side plot was odd. I didn’t see the point of it other than to take away a weapon they could’ve used against the empire. It seemed forced. I don’t have any experience with drug addiction, nor has anyone close to me been addicted to drugs, so I don’t know how it is, but the way it was described in the book seemed unrealistic. Yes, I know that they are addicted to magical substances, and it might mess with their brain chemistry, but I would’ve liked to see a bit more from their perspective. The dragomen used the substance, which gave them powers for 36 hours, then sent them into a coma for another 36 hours, like with the shadowmen in the last book. However, when they don’t immediately get more wyvern oil to ingest, they become irritable and prone to attack others. The dragomen even assault and try to kill Devarius and Aquila while trying to get more oil. I guess that the irritability part is accurate, but I would’ve liked to see more about the withdrawal symptoms of the men, to see them fall deeper into their addiction before their personalities just turn 180. Either that, or the book shouldn’t have described it as “addiction” and rather as a “magical infliction.” Still, that’s just my own opinion.

As for the magic system, one side story is an expedition deeper into the wilds of Adeth Peak Isle in search of wyvern scales for the magical trainees. Lilyana does find the scales, but she also finds something else—more scaled creatures, but neither dragon nor wyvern. This had me wondering what other creatures the author will add in (as there are quite a few other possible creatures).

The writing, like the other books, was okay, but I still feel that it could’ve been improved. Some scenes were hard to follow, and some dialogue was stilted, but those things become better with time and practice. The editing was better than the last book, meaning the pronouns weren’t all jumbled like they were before, but one character accidentally switches at one point. It’s kept consistent, so this scenario leads me to believe that the author just forgot whether the dragon was a male or female.

I’d recommend this book to people who enjoyed the first two, obviously, but also to people who like the quest/dangerous journey stories with the big battle at the end.

Related Reviews:

*Dragonia Empire Book 1: Rise of the Wyverns by Craig A. Price Jr.*
*Dragonia Empire Book 2: Revenge of the Dragons by Craig A. Price Jr.*
*Dragonia Empire Book 4: Rise of Magic by Craig A. Price Jr.*
*The Gatekeeper Book 1: Gatekeeper’s Key by Krista Wallace*