The Complete Dragon Apocalypse

by James Maxey

The warrior known as Infidel (Princess Innocent Brightmoon, to a very, very few) is legendary - as much among the drunkards of Commonground as among heroes and bards - for her superhuman strength and skin tough as mail. Stagger, her long-time friend and closest companion, is a wastrel and a sot, but a gifted scholar. Sorrow, a powerful and possibly deranged witch, will stop at nothing - including mutilating her own body - in her pursuit of a fairer, more just world.

Once, dragons covered this world, warring with each other for dominance over great territories. In aeons past, however, their numbers dwindled, and the few that remained withdrew from mundane affairs, claiming the very primal forces of the world - fire, cold, storms, plants, the sun, wild beasts, even the principle of decay itself - as their own. Now the powerful Church of the Book has set its sights on destroying the primal dragons and freeing humanity of their supposed 'tyrrany' forever. Wearying of the mercenary life after Stagger's death, Infidel - with an eye on the dragons' celebrated wealth - agrees to take part in their first expedition.

But the primal dragons are not to be tackled lightly. In the most hectic, touching romp since The Princess Bride, Infidel, Stagger (or his ghost) and Sorrow will find their lives, and the world around them, changing beyond their grasp as the Church's hubris reaps its rewards...

Genres: Fantasy

873 pages, Kindle Edition

First published May 21, 2013

About the author

I've been an avid reader since I first picked up a book. Luckily, I was within biking distance of three different libraries growing up. I was a skinny kid. If only I had maintained that link between biking and reading, I might be a skinny adult.

I'm also a writer. I wrote my first book as a kid, an adventure about pirates and ghosts. When I was a teenager, I used to write superhero adventures. Then I went to college and was steered toward writing "literature." It took me several years to shake that off, and today I write the sort of books I devoured by the shelf when I was sixteen, fast-paced fantasy, SF, and superhero adventures, which I use to explore deeper questions about life. My goal is to always be thought-provoking and always be fun.

I've had short stories in about a dozen anthologies and magazines. My novels to date are:

Nobody Gets the Girl

The Dragon Age trilogy
Bitterwood
Dragonforge
Dragonseed

Burn Baby Burn

The Dragon Apocalypse
Greatshadow (January 2012) -- A team of superpowered adventurers are recruited by the Church of the Book to extinguish the primal dragon of fire, Greatshadow.

Hush (July 2012) -- An effort to complete a quest for a fallen friend, the warrior woman Infidel stumbles onto a plot to kill Glorious, the primal dragon of the sun, and plunge the world into permanent cold and darkness, the elemental domain of the dragon Hush.

Witchbreaker (January 2013) -- A young witch named Sorrow has lost control of her magic after tapping into the spirit of Rott, the primal dragon of decay. Her desperate quest to save what remains of her humanity leads to an uneasy alliance with an amnesiatic warrior who might be the legendary champion of the church known as the Witchbreaker. But can there combined powers prevail when they trigger the wrath of Tempest, the primal dragon of storms?

Reviews

[Tony Duxbury · Rating 4 out of 5]

There's not a lot of world building in these novels, you just have to grab what you can in passing. A thread runs through the series, but don't look for it as it will probably drive you crazy. It becomes evident by the end. If you like your fantasy wacky and very fast paced, this the read for you. The world in which it is set is rife with magic and dragons. Almost every character can perform it in very strange and fantastic ways. The books are full of thieves, cutthroats and religious zealots. Everyone has their own agenda. Everyone is a backstabbing liar. Although many of the characters aren't even human, it shows mankind at its worst and best. The adventures come thick and fast, with hardly a pause for breath, as they lurch for one disaster to another. These stories are of the kind where you need to stop looking for a plot or logic and just go with the flow. Sit back and enjoy the action. I loved all for the characters, both the good and the bad, although it was sometimes difficult to tell which was which! I would recommend these novels to any fantasy reader who is looking for the weird and wonderful.

[Greg (adds 2 TBR list daily) Hersom]

I finished the first book of The Complete Dragon Apocalypse omnibus;Greatshadow.
Over all it was a very fun book to read. It's a kinda corny, light read, that would be ok as YA or older.
I loved the setting in the "town" of Commonground - a village of refugees,outlaws,criminals,and pirates comprised of docks, piers, anchored boats and ships.
There was some parts where it just got too far out-there for my tastes that I had to force myself through, but the ending redeemed the story enough that I do hope to pick-it up again to read the next book, Hush. Also, Maxey did intrigue me enough to make me curious about his Bitterwood Trilogy.
If you're in the mood for some pop-corn entertainment in fantasy books, the likes of the Dragonlance Chronicles, then James Maxey's Dragon Apocalypse will do the trick.