Drawing the Dragon

by April Adams

Drawing the Dragon is a genre-fusion tale of what happens after humans leave Earth – only scratching the star-strewn surface of what they discover about the universe and themselves. A story about the power of intention, galvanized by compelling villains and passionately charged heroes. Both sides learn that hate consumes reason, love can cross any distance, and reality is what you make it.

Genres: Fiction, Adult, Science Fiction, Fantasy, Dragons

380 pages, Kindle Edition

First published January 5, 2013

About the author

April Adams has spent almost as much time upside down as right side up. As a competitive gymnast she led her University of Alabama team to the top of the podium and although her sights were never on the Olympics, after a degree in creative writing , April went as a journalist to the London games. April loves hiking, baking and spending time with her family in Utah.

Reviews

[Richard Flores IV · Rating 3 out of 5]

So I saw April Adams at a booth at WorldCon in Texas this year. She was clearly an independent author trying to promote her book, and I know that feeling so I bought it with only knowing minimal about the book. The book blurb on the back cover says the book is about what happens after humans leave Earth... but that isn't what this book is about.

I will say this: I liked the story. I really liked the two Jordans. I liked the idea of living spaceships called Dragons. I liked the boot camp flash backs. Only one thing drove me crazy. The constant POV shifting was insane. I'd be reading in a woman's POV, then without any indication I am getting a man's thoughts on her body. Then we are back to the woman. It just hoped around until I had to put the books down. But I always picked it back up because I was interested in the Jordans' stories.

I found myself skipping over the "dream logs" and anything with Grandpa. Those parts were not important to me ( or, in my opinion the story).

I don't want to give the ending away, so I will be vague. But after rapidly turning the pages as things really ramped up big time, the last 70 pages had me captured. But the ending was a complete, flat out disappointment after all that build up. Suddenly in the last chapter we are thrown out a new idea, something never hinted at in the book (or I just missed it). Especially when you are so connected to the characters and... well I was just disappointed.

But, over all I was not disappointed with the book. I enjoyed it and I am sure other SciFi readers will like it. As far as all the comments about the genre fusion parts; you can put an elf in a spaceship and that doesn't make it a scifi fantasy fusion. This is for SciFi fans, namely Military SF and Space Opera fans.

[Cerece Rennie Murphy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really loved the world that Adams creates here. This is a book for true space-based sci-fi lovers. Adams' writing is crisp and her characters are distinct and unusual in a way that I really enjoyed. While the action is in your face from the get-go, there is also a subtle conversation about what it truly means to be human going on that I found fascinating. The way the story unfolds is unexpected and layered. I look forward to starting the sequel this weekend.

[Scott · Rating 3 out of 5]

An interesting fusion of ideas. I'm not sure I appreciate the "lesson" of the story though, but it certainly is thought-provoking.

[Maria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I picked this up at a booth I came across at a book festival this past summer. The girl at the booth sold me on the synopsis she gave me and I thought it sounded like a really cool blend of fantasy and sci-fi. I have to say, I absolutely loved this book and very eager to read more of this series! I had a hard time putting it down and I felt very enthralled by the characters and storyline. There was a lot of influence from some famous works of sci-fi but it was also very original. My only major complaints are the typos and grammatical errors, which is understandable considering it’s a self-published book. My other issue was that it can be a little hard to follow the story as it jumps back and forth a lot between characters and timelines, which can make it a little confusing. But once you realize what is going on, it’s not too bad. I am definitely looking forward to checking out her next books!

[J · Rating 3 out of 5]

I say the best way to describe this book is Farscape, BattleStar Galactica (reboot) and a hint of Blade Runner. I really enjoyed the development of the characters and there was enough plot twists and action to keep the story moving forward. There were however some points in the book that I became confused as whether the author was talking about the past or present. Once I figured out the pattern, it was easier to understand. Also Ms. Adams uses three different names or initials for the same characters which again it first is a bit confusing to follow. Over all the book is a good read, despite the few "road bumps" I would recommend it

[Red_Mama · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thought it was a great book. The development of the characters, the over arcing story and the secondary story-lines work really well all together.

I have a full review written at:
http://http://talesofthecon.com/artic...

[Vance Noonan · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like this series. I really did. I met April at ComicCon in San Diego this past summer and bought the first three books of the GwenSeven series. She autographed the books for me. I got a poster of Jordan Blue. I was psyched to read these books!

I really hate that this is going to be a negative review. I love the universe she has created, but there are some fundamental flaws in her storytelling. Her bio says she's former military. So am I. She did an absolutely fantastic job of capturing the feel of the day-to-day interaction between military members. On the other hand, the leadership gets caught with their pants down and suffers a major loss. Okay, that happens. But immediately after that crisis passes, they keep their guard down and suffer an even WORSE loss. I'm not saying the military doesn't sometimes make bad decisions, but what happens here is absolutely unforgivable. Then they keep suffering major losses due to nothing else than gross incompetence. I don't want to drop any spoilers here, so I'll forego a lot of the other plot points I have issues with.

Stylistically, however, April tried to cram a bunch of plot twists into the very end of Drawing the Dragon, twists that seemed to come out of left field and serve no other purpose than to set up a cliffhanger ending. She goes on in book 2 to try to pull a George R. R. Martin by telling only half the story and then telling the other side in book 3.

And the typos! I've done proofreading before and I know you can go over a book a hundred times and there are still going to be errors. I usually catch one or two per book that I read. This was more like 10-15. It just seemed like very shoddy editing.

I was slightly disappointed in book 1, but I was really hoping that books 2&3 would turn it around. They did a slightly better job than the first, but not enough to salvage the series in my mind. Again, I really hate to leave a negative review. I do like April and the universe she set up. She does some of it very well, but other times I found myself screaming at her.

[TheNorksWife · Rating 1 out of 5]

DNF at 20%. I really wanted to like this book, I loved the concept and thought I’d found a new series to love. But alas, I just couldn’t get through it. Whenever I know it’s an author’s debut book, I try to extend a lot of grace towards the writing because I know it’s more than likely going to have some minor issues. In this case, I just couldn’t do it.

There were a lot of characters thrown at you way too fast, and with what felt like a lot of missing pieces to the character. There were chapters where it felt like I was missing a whole scene of information regarding to a character’s interactions, and with no flashbacks.

[E. Clevenger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Drawing the Dragon was a unique tale that caught me by surprise. The dragon starship concept was a cool backdrop, but the true story shines in the rise of the Chimeran. I was NOT expecting this particular sci-fi trope and LOVED where it went.

The interplay between the Jordans was excellent and their individual character choices were sublime. The "unanswered" questions left me wanting more! I'll be digging into Book 2 early next year!

[Kiki · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is smut for solely heterosexual audiences. If that's your thing, you will probably like it. I didn't know that going in, so I didn't know what to expect.

[Kim · Rating 2 out of 5]

THIS BOOK. ARGH! I loved this book AND it infuriated me repeatedly.

Award-winning 5-star gloriousness
+ the speculative technology was so much fun! Best imagination-sparking spec tech I've read since The Risen Empire by Scott Westerfeld
+ the glimpses of world-building were Larry Niven calibre at his finest; just wish there was more
+ the space ship design descriptions were wicked good brain candy; wish there was more of that too

Favourite genre stuff
The space opera and military sci fi elements - especially the space battles - were generally excellent. I do think the use of brutality and torture was lazy, inconsistent with the context of the species and character enacting the torture, upsetting without enough plot payoff and ultimately unnecessary. Especially The Evil Villain Murdering the Sex Worker which just seriously needs to stop being a thing in books. The torture scenes weren't purely indulgent, but I don't think their tie in to the plot was coherent or central enough to justify keeping them.

... but then there's the exasperating 1-2 star stuff
Good stuff above, right? EXCEPT the book is also completely sabotaged by what I can best describe as Isolated Writer Syndrome. Did Adams not have access to constructive criticism or did she not solicit it? Did she have editors that were far too kind at the expense of her success? I don't know, but some straightforward feedback about cliché-avoidance, disruptive flows, plot inconsistencies and even the hefty quantity of copy editing errors could've revised this book into dynamite, and I was so fiercely disappointed that the feedback was either unavailable or unheeded. This book seriously could've won awards, I firmly believe that. It was like a few tough revisions and some darling-slaying - as Stephen King in On Writing: A Memoir of the Craft says, "Kill your darlings, kill your darlings, even when it breaks your egocentric little scribbler’s heart, kill your darlings." - away from a nomination.

I really wanted to edit this book as I read it! I hope the author has found or will find an amazing editor to help her kill her darlings and showcase what a phenomenal creative talent Adams has.

+ This book has a lot of girl power
- But a lot of it is this weird 1946 girl power where everyone's astonished the girl knows Chemistry, society still thinks girls can't be pilots and plenty of damsel in distress nonsense ... set in the middle distant future. In the Pacific Northwest of the US, we've already made more advances for women than what's happening in Adams' vision of the future. This repeatedly distracted me from the story.

+ This book makes a token effort to eschew beauty standards
- But all the protagonists are beautiful with pretty eyes and the one super Evil Villain is ugly

+ Potential for a lot of rich character interplay
- Rarely realized, and all of the flash forwards, backwards and sideways to try to make it happen in the first 150 pages of the book just made it really difficult to read.

Other Cons
- Petty character conflicts. Like Blue and Scarlett or Bjorn and Stoj sniping at each other like angry tweenagers when at least a few of them are supposed to be over 100 years old
- Not all of the characters were fully formed; especially not the Evil Villain who was just too ridiculous to be believed and Jordan Jade had such great outlines but never got coloured in
- So many loop holes.
- Copy editing problems large and small. Hundreds of dropped or extraneous articles. Too many reference types to characters that confused scene actions and dropped me out of the story (ex. JM = Scarlett = Johanna = Jordan Scarlett = the Jordan = Scar ... etc.) ... there was one scene where I never actually figured out if there were 2 or 3 characters involved because I couldn't trace which pronouns belonged to which slew of references and if those references resolved down to 2 or 3 men. Oy.

Other Pros
+ Movie-quality visual descriptions throughout; some of the monochrome themes gave the whole story a Hero quality to it in my imagination.
+ Character quirks persisted in a way that made them real to me, like Scarlett's gravel thing.
+ After the first 150 pages, the prose finally starts to tighten up and actually tell a story I was able to immerse into.

[Morgan E. · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you turn your head away from the grammatical errors, then you can conclude that this is a well written book with interesting concepts and interesting characters.