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The Fallen King #1
Dragonsphere
When the magic on the sphere fails, the soul of a powerful fire dragon is released and chaos breaks loose. A tentative treaty between two long warring kingdoms is jeopardized when Prince Ranaan kills the new king, his brother. Velkyn and Calderon, the two monks chosen to protect the sphere, must leave their monastery and attempt to recapture the dragon's soul before it takes physical form. Will they be able to stop events beyond their power, or will both kingdoms be destroyed by the dragon's rage?
252 pages, Paperback
First published April 15, 2014
131 people are currently reading
462 people want to read
About the author
Richard Fierce
131 books115 followersRichard Fierce is a fantasy author best known for his novella The Last Page. He's been writing since childhood, but became seriously vested in it in 2007. Since then, he's written several novels and a few short stories.
In 2000, Richard won Poet of the Year for his poem The Darkness. He's also one of the creative brains behind the Allatoona Book Festival, a literary event in Acworth, Georgia.
A recovering retail worker, he now works in the tech industry when he's not busy writing.
He has three step-daughters, three huskies and two cats.
His love affair with fantasy was born in high school when a friend's mother gave him a copy of Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
In 2000, Richard won Poet of the Year for his poem The Darkness. He's also one of the creative brains behind the Allatoona Book Festival, a literary event in Acworth, Georgia.
A recovering retail worker, he now works in the tech industry when he's not busy writing.
He has three step-daughters, three huskies and two cats.
His love affair with fantasy was born in high school when a friend's mother gave him a copy of Dragons of Spring Dawning by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
June 22, 2022
I really did not like this book. Every time I was reading it I wanted to stop and write notes so that I could do a full review about why I disliked the book so much. The story, although badly done, was not compelling enough for me to actually take the time to write notes on why I disliked it so much.
I will say that I paid .99 and I thought I was significantly over charged for what this book gave back.
Some of the major annoyances with the story were
1. The cast was too big and too full of unimportant characters.
2. The long, drawn-out narrative
3. The paint-by-number fantasy aspect
4. The ineptitude of the Abby.
5. How overall unlikable the story/characters were.
Some stories thrive with a large cast. This series did not. There were too many characters that were either unimportant, useless or should have been introduced in another book to make this one flow better.
The entire 5 islands priesthood was just too much and convoluted as an example. The gardener, and the extra races. They were not given enough space to be important in this book so they just diluted the story.
This story was incredibly slow, even with fights and 'adventure' at every turn it was all slow. It offered nothing to the overall story and took away the interest in reading another word but I have already picked my DNF for this year, so I kept trudging.
There is, fortunately, an overall story but it got lost in so much BS that I couldn't care less what the actual plot was I just wanted it done.
I think the story started off with a good, strong idea but the author had a checklist of what he thought was necessary for a fantasy book and he made sure that it was cookie cluttered it into the story.
Deadly monsters [check]
many races [check]
Religion [check]
horses [check]
monkdom [check]
warring kingdoms [check]
rape scenes [check]
food scenes [check]
magic [check]
easily fixed 'character flaws' [check]
and so on. None of it felt organic to the story, it just felt like so much dead weight.
The monks that were supposed to be protecting the Dragon Sphere seemed to be made up of the stupidest people in all of the kingdoms.
They decide to have their sacred items watched over by 2 monks. Not 2 per day, 2. So that the one that was supposed to fight off intruders would always be exhausted and neither of them would have anyone to cover them if they got sick. That made no sense, none. No one can be at their best with only 3 hours of sleep a day. Also, what about if one of them has a heart attack or an allergic reaction to something and dies suddenly if they don't have replacements? Why would they leave their most sacred treasures in the hands of teenagers?
When they chose Donovan for their musician they must have just chosen someone walking by rather than someone that was raised by them and that they monitored the training of because Donovan could not have been a child by the time he arrive at the Abby, let alone been chosen.
These monks also didn't take notice of anything happening inside their Abby. Calderon had a sleeping disorder and fell asleep at inopportune times, how did no monk notice that? How?
Velkyn, maybe he was sly enough not to get caught, but as a young man with no private time or space, that would not have been likely if the monks gave one iota of their attention to those in their walls.
All of the characters were badly written and hard to get to know any like, even their way of speaking was grating, but the three main characters were the worst kind of people.
All three of them were supposed to be intent on taking care of the sphere and none of the three of them gave a damn, they were just bad people.
Velkyn knew his goal in life was to be the protector but he kept leading his woman on, a woman I might add that had no use to the story other than to be a 'flaw' to the monk and to get brutally raped to give Velkyn a reason to stupidly abandon everything, even though he wasn't willing to abandon it for her while she was alive.
I mean when Nydel was dying after being raped Velkyn tells Caulderon not to tell Donovan because he'll be kicked out of the Abby and then he fell asleep while he was supposed to be watching over her.
Then there is Olric, the big bad orc that comes back weaker than a baby that anyone anywhere can kill, even someone that supposedly abhors violence?
I just can't even get into words how unlikeable any and all of these characters were.
I will say that I paid .99 and I thought I was significantly over charged for what this book gave back.
Some of the major annoyances with the story were
1. The cast was too big and too full of unimportant characters.
2. The long, drawn-out narrative
3. The paint-by-number fantasy aspect
4. The ineptitude of the Abby.
5. How overall unlikable the story/characters were.
Some stories thrive with a large cast. This series did not. There were too many characters that were either unimportant, useless or should have been introduced in another book to make this one flow better.
The entire 5 islands priesthood was just too much and convoluted as an example. The gardener, and the extra races. They were not given enough space to be important in this book so they just diluted the story.
This story was incredibly slow, even with fights and 'adventure' at every turn it was all slow. It offered nothing to the overall story and took away the interest in reading another word but I have already picked my DNF for this year, so I kept trudging.
There is, fortunately, an overall story but it got lost in so much BS that I couldn't care less what the actual plot was I just wanted it done.
I think the story started off with a good, strong idea but the author had a checklist of what he thought was necessary for a fantasy book and he made sure that it was cookie cluttered it into the story.
Deadly monsters [check]
many races [check]
Religion [check]
horses [check]
monkdom [check]
warring kingdoms [check]
rape scenes [check]
food scenes [check]
magic [check]
easily fixed 'character flaws' [check]
and so on. None of it felt organic to the story, it just felt like so much dead weight.
The monks that were supposed to be protecting the Dragon Sphere seemed to be made up of the stupidest people in all of the kingdoms.
They decide to have their sacred items watched over by 2 monks. Not 2 per day, 2. So that the one that was supposed to fight off intruders would always be exhausted and neither of them would have anyone to cover them if they got sick. That made no sense, none. No one can be at their best with only 3 hours of sleep a day. Also, what about if one of them has a heart attack or an allergic reaction to something and dies suddenly if they don't have replacements? Why would they leave their most sacred treasures in the hands of teenagers?
When they chose Donovan for their musician they must have just chosen someone walking by rather than someone that was raised by them and that they monitored the training of because Donovan could not have been a child by the time he arrive at the Abby, let alone been chosen.
These monks also didn't take notice of anything happening inside their Abby. Calderon had a sleeping disorder and fell asleep at inopportune times, how did no monk notice that? How?
Velkyn, maybe he was sly enough not to get caught, but as a young man with no private time or space, that would not have been likely if the monks gave one iota of their attention to those in their walls.
All of the characters were badly written and hard to get to know any like, even their way of speaking was grating, but the three main characters were the worst kind of people.
All three of them were supposed to be intent on taking care of the sphere and none of the three of them gave a damn, they were just bad people.
Velkyn knew his goal in life was to be the protector but he kept leading his woman on, a woman I might add that had no use to the story other than to be a 'flaw' to the monk and to get brutally raped to give Velkyn a reason to stupidly abandon everything, even though he wasn't willing to abandon it for her while she was alive.
I mean when Nydel was dying after being raped Velkyn tells Caulderon not to tell Donovan because he'll be kicked out of the Abby and then he fell asleep while he was supposed to be watching over her.
Then there is Olric, the big bad orc that comes back weaker than a baby that anyone anywhere can kill, even someone that supposedly abhors violence?
I just can't even get into words how unlikeable any and all of these characters were.
November 23, 2023
Book: DragonSphere
Read By: Ebook
Author: Richard Fierce
Genre: Fantasy
Recommend: Yes
Spice:🌶️️
< b>Age recommendation: 18-30+ Years
My feelings:
I wanted to like this. But unfortunately, I didn't.
Thankfully it was audio and I was able to finish it quicker than if I had read it.
Read By: Ebook
Author: Richard Fierce
Genre: Fantasy
Recommend: Yes
Spice:🌶️️
< b>Age recommendation: 18-30+ Years
My feelings:
I wanted to like this. But unfortunately, I didn't.
Thankfully it was audio and I was able to finish it quicker than if I had read it.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
July 21, 2024
I decided to give this book a try mainly cause I had nothing to read and I got the book for free at some point.
In the beginning I was wondering if I would ever get through it cause it was rather boring and pointless. It was a classic 2 star book not really worth reading. I even stopped reading and read another book just to get a break. After that I decided to continue though hoping it would get better.
Considering I didn't give the book a 2 star rating... it did.
Eventually the prologue ended and the real story began. After that the book became more readable and enjoyable. I think the story might have been a bit straight forward even if the author decided to drop in some terrifying storyline as well which in this book felt somewhat unnecessary, but maybe it will give more sense in a later book. After all the series seems to be a 4 book series and the book did leave some stones unturned and some threads broken. It's kinda hard to tell if these things will be answered in a later book, but I think it's worth a look.
The book was somewhat exciting in the end even if the main storyline ended a bit abruptly. Then again... hopefully that won't happen in the next book. As said, worth a look even if it's not the best work of fiction I've read the story has potential.
In the beginning I was wondering if I would ever get through it cause it was rather boring and pointless. It was a classic 2 star book not really worth reading. I even stopped reading and read another book just to get a break. After that I decided to continue though hoping it would get better.
Considering I didn't give the book a 2 star rating... it did.
Eventually the prologue ended and the real story began. After that the book became more readable and enjoyable. I think the story might have been a bit straight forward even if the author decided to drop in some terrifying storyline as well which in this book felt somewhat unnecessary, but maybe it will give more sense in a later book. After all the series seems to be a 4 book series and the book did leave some stones unturned and some threads broken. It's kinda hard to tell if these things will be answered in a later book, but I think it's worth a look.
The book was somewhat exciting in the end even if the main storyline ended a bit abruptly. Then again... hopefully that won't happen in the next book. As said, worth a look even if it's not the best work of fiction I've read the story has potential.
May 16, 2025
What worked for me? I think there was the beginning of an interesting world and an interesting plot in here. One that I might have liked to have seen fleshed out with some of my favorite fantasy elements (wizards, priesthood, fighting monks, orcs and elves, dragons, kingdoms at war, etc.) What went wrong? The kitchen sink. So many aspects were shoehorned in that none of them got a chance to breathe. You never really had a chance to care about ANY of the characters, many of which seemed to be there simply to check a box. This book should have been a trilogy introducing new themes and characters and fleshing them out over the course of time. Also, the narration. I listened to the audiobook and the voice actor was Scottish (no, wait for it) and I feel like he was intentionally slowing down and enunciating to make sure the contingent from the States could understand him. The downside is that this made every sentence take forever, with the same inflection, tone, and emotion whether we were celebrating a victory, in fear for our lives, or being led through a that felt more like a plot point than a part of the storyline. All in all, the bones are there, but there wasn't enough meat.
March 10, 2025
A dragon which had been held in a silver sphere by magic for hundreds of years suddenly breaks loose, and he is angry and out for vengeance. The sphere had been entrusted to a group of monks, and the room where it was kept was guarded by a guardian and a musician whose song kept the magic going. However two young monks were ordained into these positions, Calderon and Velkyn, and it was under their watch that the dragon broke loose. Now they were ordered to re-capture his spirit into the sphere before it manifested it's body, as both Kingdoms were under threat if he did. This is an epic adventure story with massive battles fought by sword and sorcery. Two different religious forces are in effect, as well as sorcerers, elves and orcs. Can two simple monks stop this dragon's rampage and save their world? The battle at the end is magnificent, as is the heroism of Calderon who was ready to face the one everyone feared even though he'd never left the walls of his convent before. The book ends on a cliffhanger so the next book is a must read!
August 7, 2024
I really wanted to like this. The premise sounded right up my alley but the execution was just not there. Every time I would think okay so they will be the one to make the story go forward..... Oops their dead... And that ending with the dragon!! Such a let down all that fuss about him being so big and bad... I was honestly rooting for the dragon by the end of it because he at least did something....
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
March 31, 2025
I might have gotten more out of this book if I would have had a hard copy and not listened on audio. The narrator had an Irish accent, I'm guessing. I was so fascinated by the sound of the words that I had a hard time paying attention to the story. About half way through I figured that there was a guardian and a musician, but I felt like the musician who had a sleeping disorder because I figuratively slept through most of it.
January 31, 2022
It’s not a bad book, but it’s simply not for me. The best part was, when it was finished. If I had read it, it would have been a DNF, since it was an audiobook, I just waited it out and did my housework.
August 16, 2022
Dnf. Found it incredibly boring and difficult to invest in
March 18, 2023
so boring.
couldn't finish it. didn't like the story layout and the writing was tiring
couldn't finish it. didn't like the story layout and the writing was tiring
February 14, 2024
war between countries
Many people in this book die by dragon fire and war. People on both sides of good and evil. They defeat the dragon once.
Many people in this book die by dragon fire and war. People on both sides of good and evil. They defeat the dragon once.
May 23, 2024
It read very boring I felt like it was missing something but can’t forgive out what certain chapters and characters was good but then we switch it up and it drugged out
September 10, 2024
How do you make dragons boring?!
September 15, 2024
The story is just to slow for me. I stopped at 1/2 way.
April 22, 2025
3.25 Stars
August 11, 2025
DNF. It was ok up until Chapter 5 where it seemed to info dump and the whole story slowed right down where I didn't have any interest to go further.
August 12, 2014
At its core, Dragonsphere is the story of a magical sphere constructed to trap the soul of a dragon. Go deeper, and you discover a richly woven, plot-driven tale of magic, friendship, and war.
We follow the sphere from the beginning, meeting its creators, its guardians, and those that would misuse it. Along the way, we’re treated to a wide and diverse cast of characters. The world was vast and the author painted a vivid picture of the lands, their people and their customs.
Overall, I found the book hard to put down. From the first page I was drawn in and the next hundred pages flew by. The pace slowed for me in the middle where we learn about Orlek, the priests, and the Five Islands. This was the only section where I had a hard time keeping some of the characters straight and the history lesson of the Five Islands seemed like a bit of an info dump. It didn’t detract from the story, however I did find myself glossing over it and had to go back and reread. The ending, while certainly exciting, felt rushed. It might be more of a personal preference, but I would have liked a slower build. Particularly, Calderon’s part in the resolution felt too sudden. There were several interesting characters introduced late in the story that I would have enjoyed spending more time with.
I would definitely recommend Dragonsphere. It was an impressive, classic fantasy read. There were quite a few nice twists and turns, several of which resulted in a story shift I didn’t see coming. At times, I had no idea where the author might go next and that is a big plus for me. The world building is nicely done. The plot is solid. There is plenty to expound on and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next installment will bring.
We follow the sphere from the beginning, meeting its creators, its guardians, and those that would misuse it. Along the way, we’re treated to a wide and diverse cast of characters. The world was vast and the author painted a vivid picture of the lands, their people and their customs.
Overall, I found the book hard to put down. From the first page I was drawn in and the next hundred pages flew by. The pace slowed for me in the middle where we learn about Orlek, the priests, and the Five Islands. This was the only section where I had a hard time keeping some of the characters straight and the history lesson of the Five Islands seemed like a bit of an info dump. It didn’t detract from the story, however I did find myself glossing over it and had to go back and reread. The ending, while certainly exciting, felt rushed. It might be more of a personal preference, but I would have liked a slower build. Particularly, Calderon’s part in the resolution felt too sudden. There were several interesting characters introduced late in the story that I would have enjoyed spending more time with.
I would definitely recommend Dragonsphere. It was an impressive, classic fantasy read. There were quite a few nice twists and turns, several of which resulted in a story shift I didn’t see coming. At times, I had no idea where the author might go next and that is a big plus for me. The world building is nicely done. The plot is solid. There is plenty to expound on and I’m looking forward to seeing what the next installment will bring.
July 2, 2015
This fantasy novel had some good characters and I really enjoyed the first few chapters. As I continued reading, however, I started to lose interest among the midsection of the book. Things did pick up again towards the end, but unfortunately, due to my lack of interest in the main body, I'm only awarding it 2.5 stars.
I'd like to thank author Richard Fierce for sending me a digital copy in return for an honest review.
I'd like to thank author Richard Fierce for sending me a digital copy in return for an honest review.
December 26, 2023
The dragon's soul has escaped from the sphere and is causing a lot of chaos. Three monks are traveling to try and put it back, but things don't work out as planned. Calderon and Velkyn's life changed tremendously and not without loss. There are lots of intense moments and characters that will not be trusted. Overall, the book was quite great.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews