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The Pride
Thousands of years ago in the shadow of a vast mountain range, a race of dragons awoke. Not knowing who they were, where they came from or how they fell asleep in the first place, the dragons began to make a place for themselves in the world. Perhaps the most magnificent of this new race was Agathon. In a time of unprecedented peril for their kind, the dragons turned to Agathon to save their species from the constant human threat. Thus, the great plan was born. Today, life for Petros Renault couldn't be more perfect. As he prepares to graduate from university and head off to an elite post-graduate program he's also preparing to ask the girl he loves to marry him. Everything was perfect, until the headaches came. Struggling to understand the whats and whys of the pain which became his new reality, Petros discovers his mysterious connection to an ancient race thought only to be the stuff of legends and myth.
- GenresFantasy
310 pages, Paperback
Published February 24, 2016
12 people are currently reading
46 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
March 15, 2016
I had posted this review previously on Amazon and then it was mysteriously removed without any notification of any kind nor reason for its removal.
This is probably the worst book I've ever read
By Mofo - February 29, 2016
This is probably the worst book I've ever read. Other reviewers have beat me to the punch on certain matters, but I have to agree on their concerns. I cannot recommend this book on any level to anyone.
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD:
The story is painful to comprehend, the characters are unrelatable as they are unbelievable, the appeal is at worst, on par with the worst of Michael Bay's Transformers films and at best a Mark Millar graphic novel (Also not a good thing).
No one could convince me that this was every outlined more than once -- if at all -- and possibly never proof-read or reviewed by anyone else before even deciding to publish. I also found two typos that should have easily been caught.
In reality the book consists of two stories -- at least for the first half of the book -- one set in the past and the other in the present. One of these stories has a future, the other does not.
One story follows a group of dragons who awaken with a severe case of amnesia yet recall just enough terminology to communicate and name things. No explanation other than that. As time goes by they discover humans who use weapons and see them as vastly different than the other animals found in nature. Out of nowhere, the dragons or dra'acheck as they refer to themselves find that they can morph instantaneously into the human form and go completely undetected as nothing more than such. Oh yeah, and they can breath fire too -- a dragon staple. Also, fire has little to no effect on dragons unless they are dead, in which in basically turns them into ash almost instantly, or at least it's inferred as such. But those are just minor details. The story primarily revolves around a particular dra'acheck named Agathon who is a well rounded -- if generic -- leader type who helps his own kind with hunting ground disputes and even mating advice. As centuries pass, humans become more advanced and begin to hunt and kill the dra'acheck babies (hatchlings) and pose a threat to the survival of the dra'acheck. The dragons begin to kill off humans, or at least destroy their villages and huts while they are out while Agathon is given the role as leader in an official capacity. During the whole time they have been able to transform into human form though, they have lived as amongst humans in disguise to learn more about them for long periods of time, yet -- even up to the present -- they don't understand certain human traits. That's where it becomes difficult to believe that not only could they not understand humans after so long, but that they would not appear awkward or alien in behavior to humans. To sum up the rest, Agathon is stuck in bureaucratic tape and knows that humans aren't bad -- or at least most of them -- and that they pose a threat to his kind, as his kind discusses killing them off or fleeing to try and find new land away from humans. He presents the plan to live amongst them in human form full-time. Yeah, that's the big plan. Some of his kind had been doing that for a while and yet it had only been presented now after several centuries or so. It's stupid.
I'll admit the mythos works in some respects. It would make for a decent backstory, prequel type stuff, for a film like Dragonheart. The only reason this portion was interesting was because of the pressure being put on the protagonist. It was the classic tale of being caught between a rock and a hard place. Superman in the Kingdom Come storyline is such an example.
The other and far inferior story revolves around a young college kid named Petros whose name may as well be Mr. Perfect. The kid is incredibly smart -- or at the very least, studious -- stronger than anyone -- to a point he fears hurting people by being to rough -- and knows how to satisfy the ladies and they all know it. THIS IS ACTUALLY IN THE BOOK. Not only that, but we learn later that he came from money and he has the perfect woman in his life and proposes to her and he got accepted to a medical school for his PHD that is fully paid. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A REAL PERSON? He also appears to have no character flaw to speak of, the closest equivalent is that he might only become a researcher -- boo-hoo. Oh, and his parents and their loving relationship is what he wants in his life. He begins to notice odd things -- super senses like super hearing -- and begins to have headaches. His father tosses him one night so high up into the air that he morphs into a dragon form and comes to realize what he is. Yeah, it turns into Teen-wolf without the humor. To sum it up, Petros is a human/dra'acheck hybrid who is different than anyone of his kind before, as he can morph without any training unlike others of his kind and has a half dragon/man form as well. But his dad and uncles biggest concern is that he needs to learn how to control his strength and transformation for fear of breaking and killing his fiancee. THAT IS IN THE BOOK. So they begin by training him, by having him dodge attacks. THIS IS IN THE BOOK. Apparently, this is a more effective way of training someone to use their animal/beast form than say, running an obstacle course in a manner we would train a dog to maneuver effectively. Or even just allowing him to learn his form on his own. Then we jump to him suddenly contemplating how sex is suddenly different and new while lying in bed with his girl. THIS IS IN THE BOOK.
WORSE THAN THAT.
All this is in the first half of the book. Literally.
And it's not cohesive. The way I summed it up actually makes sense and is easy to digest by comparison to how the scenes and grammar portray it. To be fair, there is a glossed over subplot about some dra'acheck being attacked and killed while in human form with a unique shaped spear. But at no time is the significance of this brought to the main character during the entire first half of the book. And who the hell is the main character anyway? The two stories mentioned are interwoven and jump between one another through the book making it annoying and difficult to follow. Top on that, there is far too much attention given to throw-away characters.They are even all named, and given strange names to boot. Why the hell should anyone give two sh¡ts about a character's thoughts about the wild of nature only for them to be killed off moments later? I can't remember who the hell anyone is.
Transformers 1 and 2 were the first thing that came to mind while reading this because of the flashback to the far past and then the jump to the present following a kid bestowed with genius from Sagan-knows-where. And then there is some mildly raunchy sexual references to sex itself. Someone had mentioned that this book was borderline sexist, and that might not be too far from the truth. There's definitely a couple hundred CC's of chauvinism injected into a passive reference of objectifying women as nameless, sexual conquests. Though I'm not offended by this, I'm curious as to what a female reader would think.
When the metamorphosis scenes first occur, I could not help but think of the werewolves in Twilight. But then when a dra'acheck is killed in one scene, I began to think of the movie Jumper and the Paladin's that hunt them down. But then later there is scene where they are shown to have a fleet of white vehicles on hand for traveling around in human form and I.... I didn't know what to think anymore, it was True Blood or something.
For that matter, the stories are of different genres entirely. This book doesn't know what it is or who it's for. I tried to visualize this as reality but there were scenes and dialogue that were so cartoonish and unreal that it would project itself as a Saturday morning cartoon in my mind, but then with scenes of dismemberments, nudity, and premarital sex, and just plain badness.
The brightest aspect of this book also happens to be incredibly dim. And that's the grammar and description used to express thoughts and actions. Though clearly where most of the attention went into crafting this unintentional turd, the linguistic brushstrokes were given priority to convey just about everything.
EXAMPLE:
Mofo found it odd that so many would find a bland and detailess book review helpful.
Mofo found it strange that so many would accuse a negative reviewer of having not read the book.
Mofo noticed that the positive reviews dated the same date as the negative reviews were not accused of having not read the book.
Mofo thought himself.
Curious.
That is a slight parody of how portions of the book are written. There are several parts that are exactly that. And the writing is inconsistent as it goes. Some parts are just much worse than others, even within the same narrative timeline.
I fell asleep after reading the first chapter. I contemplated suicide after the second' The story then picked up every so slightly and I pushed forward, then I noticed I was 40% through the book and nothing had be divulged that informed me that there was anything at stake. The dragons in the past went on to live amongst humans; the end. Mr. Perfect who had everything he could ever want in life became even cooler to himself and everyone else after learning he could transform into a dragon and the sex was better as well; the end. 50% through and now there is a slight superhero element thrown in and even after mentioning the death of Petro's uncle, there is still no gravity to anything. He could have died of natural causes and it wouldn't change anything that happened during the entire first half of the book. I read ahead tad bit more to see the two stories merge finally, but it's far too late in the book to care. This book just wasted my time with mindless dribble and a run-on, go-nowhere story with characters that don't resemble humans in any sense of the word. I made 5 separate attempts to hit that 55% mark, but I'm done with this book. I found myself pacing around with some anxiety trying to force feed myself this rubbish.
If anyone did finish the story, please spoil the latter half for me and just tell me what happens. If it sounds reasonable, I'll muster what strength I have left to try and finish it. But I'm afraid I have met my threshold for pain with this one.
As I mentioned beforehand, I don't know who this is written for. It's not 33 year olds and not women, that's for sure. I'm convinced it's that Michael Bay, Mark Millar audience -- and I don't think it was intended to be -- but I could be wrong.
49 of 59 people found this review helpful
This is probably the worst book I've ever read
By Mofo - February 29, 2016
This is probably the worst book I've ever read. Other reviewers have beat me to the punch on certain matters, but I have to agree on their concerns. I cannot recommend this book on any level to anyone.
SOME SPOILERS AHEAD:
The story is painful to comprehend, the characters are unrelatable as they are unbelievable, the appeal is at worst, on par with the worst of Michael Bay's Transformers films and at best a Mark Millar graphic novel (Also not a good thing).
No one could convince me that this was every outlined more than once -- if at all -- and possibly never proof-read or reviewed by anyone else before even deciding to publish. I also found two typos that should have easily been caught.
In reality the book consists of two stories -- at least for the first half of the book -- one set in the past and the other in the present. One of these stories has a future, the other does not.
One story follows a group of dragons who awaken with a severe case of amnesia yet recall just enough terminology to communicate and name things. No explanation other than that. As time goes by they discover humans who use weapons and see them as vastly different than the other animals found in nature. Out of nowhere, the dragons or dra'acheck as they refer to themselves find that they can morph instantaneously into the human form and go completely undetected as nothing more than such. Oh yeah, and they can breath fire too -- a dragon staple. Also, fire has little to no effect on dragons unless they are dead, in which in basically turns them into ash almost instantly, or at least it's inferred as such. But those are just minor details. The story primarily revolves around a particular dra'acheck named Agathon who is a well rounded -- if generic -- leader type who helps his own kind with hunting ground disputes and even mating advice. As centuries pass, humans become more advanced and begin to hunt and kill the dra'acheck babies (hatchlings) and pose a threat to the survival of the dra'acheck. The dragons begin to kill off humans, or at least destroy their villages and huts while they are out while Agathon is given the role as leader in an official capacity. During the whole time they have been able to transform into human form though, they have lived as amongst humans in disguise to learn more about them for long periods of time, yet -- even up to the present -- they don't understand certain human traits. That's where it becomes difficult to believe that not only could they not understand humans after so long, but that they would not appear awkward or alien in behavior to humans. To sum up the rest, Agathon is stuck in bureaucratic tape and knows that humans aren't bad -- or at least most of them -- and that they pose a threat to his kind, as his kind discusses killing them off or fleeing to try and find new land away from humans. He presents the plan to live amongst them in human form full-time. Yeah, that's the big plan. Some of his kind had been doing that for a while and yet it had only been presented now after several centuries or so. It's stupid.
I'll admit the mythos works in some respects. It would make for a decent backstory, prequel type stuff, for a film like Dragonheart. The only reason this portion was interesting was because of the pressure being put on the protagonist. It was the classic tale of being caught between a rock and a hard place. Superman in the Kingdom Come storyline is such an example.
The other and far inferior story revolves around a young college kid named Petros whose name may as well be Mr. Perfect. The kid is incredibly smart -- or at the very least, studious -- stronger than anyone -- to a point he fears hurting people by being to rough -- and knows how to satisfy the ladies and they all know it. THIS IS ACTUALLY IN THE BOOK. Not only that, but we learn later that he came from money and he has the perfect woman in his life and proposes to her and he got accepted to a medical school for his PHD that is fully paid. THIS IS SUPPOSED TO BE A REAL PERSON? He also appears to have no character flaw to speak of, the closest equivalent is that he might only become a researcher -- boo-hoo. Oh, and his parents and their loving relationship is what he wants in his life. He begins to notice odd things -- super senses like super hearing -- and begins to have headaches. His father tosses him one night so high up into the air that he morphs into a dragon form and comes to realize what he is. Yeah, it turns into Teen-wolf without the humor. To sum it up, Petros is a human/dra'acheck hybrid who is different than anyone of his kind before, as he can morph without any training unlike others of his kind and has a half dragon/man form as well. But his dad and uncles biggest concern is that he needs to learn how to control his strength and transformation for fear of breaking and killing his fiancee. THAT IS IN THE BOOK. So they begin by training him, by having him dodge attacks. THIS IS IN THE BOOK. Apparently, this is a more effective way of training someone to use their animal/beast form than say, running an obstacle course in a manner we would train a dog to maneuver effectively. Or even just allowing him to learn his form on his own. Then we jump to him suddenly contemplating how sex is suddenly different and new while lying in bed with his girl. THIS IS IN THE BOOK.
WORSE THAN THAT.
All this is in the first half of the book. Literally.
And it's not cohesive. The way I summed it up actually makes sense and is easy to digest by comparison to how the scenes and grammar portray it. To be fair, there is a glossed over subplot about some dra'acheck being attacked and killed while in human form with a unique shaped spear. But at no time is the significance of this brought to the main character during the entire first half of the book. And who the hell is the main character anyway? The two stories mentioned are interwoven and jump between one another through the book making it annoying and difficult to follow. Top on that, there is far too much attention given to throw-away characters.They are even all named, and given strange names to boot. Why the hell should anyone give two sh¡ts about a character's thoughts about the wild of nature only for them to be killed off moments later? I can't remember who the hell anyone is.
Transformers 1 and 2 were the first thing that came to mind while reading this because of the flashback to the far past and then the jump to the present following a kid bestowed with genius from Sagan-knows-where. And then there is some mildly raunchy sexual references to sex itself. Someone had mentioned that this book was borderline sexist, and that might not be too far from the truth. There's definitely a couple hundred CC's of chauvinism injected into a passive reference of objectifying women as nameless, sexual conquests. Though I'm not offended by this, I'm curious as to what a female reader would think.
When the metamorphosis scenes first occur, I could not help but think of the werewolves in Twilight. But then when a dra'acheck is killed in one scene, I began to think of the movie Jumper and the Paladin's that hunt them down. But then later there is scene where they are shown to have a fleet of white vehicles on hand for traveling around in human form and I.... I didn't know what to think anymore, it was True Blood or something.
For that matter, the stories are of different genres entirely. This book doesn't know what it is or who it's for. I tried to visualize this as reality but there were scenes and dialogue that were so cartoonish and unreal that it would project itself as a Saturday morning cartoon in my mind, but then with scenes of dismemberments, nudity, and premarital sex, and just plain badness.
The brightest aspect of this book also happens to be incredibly dim. And that's the grammar and description used to express thoughts and actions. Though clearly where most of the attention went into crafting this unintentional turd, the linguistic brushstrokes were given priority to convey just about everything.
EXAMPLE:
Mofo found it odd that so many would find a bland and detailess book review helpful.
Mofo found it strange that so many would accuse a negative reviewer of having not read the book.
Mofo noticed that the positive reviews dated the same date as the negative reviews were not accused of having not read the book.
Mofo thought himself.
Curious.
That is a slight parody of how portions of the book are written. There are several parts that are exactly that. And the writing is inconsistent as it goes. Some parts are just much worse than others, even within the same narrative timeline.
I fell asleep after reading the first chapter. I contemplated suicide after the second' The story then picked up every so slightly and I pushed forward, then I noticed I was 40% through the book and nothing had be divulged that informed me that there was anything at stake. The dragons in the past went on to live amongst humans; the end. Mr. Perfect who had everything he could ever want in life became even cooler to himself and everyone else after learning he could transform into a dragon and the sex was better as well; the end. 50% through and now there is a slight superhero element thrown in and even after mentioning the death of Petro's uncle, there is still no gravity to anything. He could have died of natural causes and it wouldn't change anything that happened during the entire first half of the book. I read ahead tad bit more to see the two stories merge finally, but it's far too late in the book to care. This book just wasted my time with mindless dribble and a run-on, go-nowhere story with characters that don't resemble humans in any sense of the word. I made 5 separate attempts to hit that 55% mark, but I'm done with this book. I found myself pacing around with some anxiety trying to force feed myself this rubbish.
If anyone did finish the story, please spoil the latter half for me and just tell me what happens. If it sounds reasonable, I'll muster what strength I have left to try and finish it. But I'm afraid I have met my threshold for pain with this one.
As I mentioned beforehand, I don't know who this is written for. It's not 33 year olds and not women, that's for sure. I'm convinced it's that Michael Bay, Mark Millar audience -- and I don't think it was intended to be -- but I could be wrong.
49 of 59 people found this review helpful
August 6, 2018
I’ve noticed recently that a lot of YouTubers have been releasing books that don’t fall into the memoir category. Whilst this was an interesting development, of the books that I’ve read so far from YouTubers, I think they should stick to video-making.
With fiction books I have read and hated recently (here’s looking at you I Am Pilgrim), my feelings of disdain usually come from tropes being recycled and lazy storytelling being factored in. The Pride is one of the first books I’ve read that I hated predominantly because of the writing itself and not the overall plot, though tropes are certainly a’plenty in this book. This is truly a poorly written book and it comes as no surprise that it was self-published. As it was done by way of a fundraising campaign I would have expected quality control to be come in eventually.
John Campea is someone known for his role on YouTube than for his writing. I first heard about the book a couple of years ago and didn’t bother with it as I was not a fan of Campea. Frankly I find him arrogant and his former debating show was a textbook example of everything I hate about modern people’s perception of how debate works. I was curious to see if his book would be better, but I wasn’t about to shell out money when there are proven authors I would rather give my money to. When I discovered the book on Kindle Unlimited I thought it a good time to satisfy what curiosity I hate without directly paying for the book. I am glad I never bought the book.
Campea has been largely critical of other people’s submissions to the world of Pop Culture. There is no problem with that as criticising Pop Culture CAN (I stress can as that’s only when it’s done well, check out video essays by Lindsey Ellis as an example) help offer genuine insight to the industry. When you release your own work though you open yourself up to the same criticisms. When someone is as outspoken as Campea, I don’t see a reason to go easy on him as “this is my passion project”.
I want to make clear that I don’t have a problem with Campea selling his book. If people want to buy it I say go for it and if you’ve got a family to support I can imagine that every penny counts. Personally though I expect something you pay for to have a certain level of quality and it’s only fair to call out that quality when someone is directly making a profit.
The first sign that this book was going to be low in quality was the excessive use of the word ‘and’. It’s a common word and is a good way of adding more to your sentence. I haven’t thought about the use of that individual word since I first learned how to write in school. Though it is a word that can extend a sentence, using it excessively can lead to sentences that simply can’t be read aloud without multiple pauses. Campea really needs to learn how to use commas or other connecting words. The way he writes would be like if I wrote a sentence and I wanted to extend it and wanted to add more words and stuff like adjectives and nouns and other things that make it clear I looked in a thesaurus and tried to make it read smarter and not cliché. I read the book during breaks at work and initially joked to my team leader that I should make a drinking game every time ‘and’ is used more than twice in a sentence. By the end of the first chapter I added the caveat that I would make sure it was beer not whiskey that I should drink. Halfway through that chapter, I swore off the game for the sake of my liver.
None of the characters are particularly memorable or engaging. I’m writing this review months after reading it and have had to remind myself of characters beyond their archetypes. There’s the old dragon, the hot girlfriend, the concerned father, and the loving mother. They’re very bland and offer little to the story beyond exposition.
Read the majority of the reviews for this book in the community and the big criticism is the main character. This guy is perfect… in universe that is. He’s got the dream job, effortlessly handsome, wealthier than comprehensible and all-around well loved. My first thought reading the book was that Campea was inserting was inserting himself into the story but he has confirmed that he doesn’t see himself in any of his characters. If this is the truth, Campea has succeeded in creating one of the blandest protagonists in modern-day novel writing (I refuse to use the word Literature to describe this book).
There was a cringe moment early on when the main protagonist is being set up. He was happy to exchange “grades for orgasms” and while I imagine that the frat boy life is something that was trying to be described, it felt like it was written by a reclusive gamer’s interpretation of how an outward lady’s man would talk. Campea has said that he does not see himself in any of the characters, so maybe this goes a way to explaining it.
I hate to dog on someone for releasing their project. Campea evidently feels like this was a story worth telling, but considering his background and desire to have people pay not only for a copy of the book but its publication to begin with... a certain amount of quality should be expected which this, quite frankly, did not.
With fiction books I have read and hated recently (here’s looking at you I Am Pilgrim), my feelings of disdain usually come from tropes being recycled and lazy storytelling being factored in. The Pride is one of the first books I’ve read that I hated predominantly because of the writing itself and not the overall plot, though tropes are certainly a’plenty in this book. This is truly a poorly written book and it comes as no surprise that it was self-published. As it was done by way of a fundraising campaign I would have expected quality control to be come in eventually.
John Campea is someone known for his role on YouTube than for his writing. I first heard about the book a couple of years ago and didn’t bother with it as I was not a fan of Campea. Frankly I find him arrogant and his former debating show was a textbook example of everything I hate about modern people’s perception of how debate works. I was curious to see if his book would be better, but I wasn’t about to shell out money when there are proven authors I would rather give my money to. When I discovered the book on Kindle Unlimited I thought it a good time to satisfy what curiosity I hate without directly paying for the book. I am glad I never bought the book.
Campea has been largely critical of other people’s submissions to the world of Pop Culture. There is no problem with that as criticising Pop Culture CAN (I stress can as that’s only when it’s done well, check out video essays by Lindsey Ellis as an example) help offer genuine insight to the industry. When you release your own work though you open yourself up to the same criticisms. When someone is as outspoken as Campea, I don’t see a reason to go easy on him as “this is my passion project”.
I want to make clear that I don’t have a problem with Campea selling his book. If people want to buy it I say go for it and if you’ve got a family to support I can imagine that every penny counts. Personally though I expect something you pay for to have a certain level of quality and it’s only fair to call out that quality when someone is directly making a profit.
The first sign that this book was going to be low in quality was the excessive use of the word ‘and’. It’s a common word and is a good way of adding more to your sentence. I haven’t thought about the use of that individual word since I first learned how to write in school. Though it is a word that can extend a sentence, using it excessively can lead to sentences that simply can’t be read aloud without multiple pauses. Campea really needs to learn how to use commas or other connecting words. The way he writes would be like if I wrote a sentence and I wanted to extend it and wanted to add more words and stuff like adjectives and nouns and other things that make it clear I looked in a thesaurus and tried to make it read smarter and not cliché. I read the book during breaks at work and initially joked to my team leader that I should make a drinking game every time ‘and’ is used more than twice in a sentence. By the end of the first chapter I added the caveat that I would make sure it was beer not whiskey that I should drink. Halfway through that chapter, I swore off the game for the sake of my liver.
None of the characters are particularly memorable or engaging. I’m writing this review months after reading it and have had to remind myself of characters beyond their archetypes. There’s the old dragon, the hot girlfriend, the concerned father, and the loving mother. They’re very bland and offer little to the story beyond exposition.
Read the majority of the reviews for this book in the community and the big criticism is the main character. This guy is perfect… in universe that is. He’s got the dream job, effortlessly handsome, wealthier than comprehensible and all-around well loved. My first thought reading the book was that Campea was inserting was inserting himself into the story but he has confirmed that he doesn’t see himself in any of his characters. If this is the truth, Campea has succeeded in creating one of the blandest protagonists in modern-day novel writing (I refuse to use the word Literature to describe this book).
There was a cringe moment early on when the main protagonist is being set up. He was happy to exchange “grades for orgasms” and while I imagine that the frat boy life is something that was trying to be described, it felt like it was written by a reclusive gamer’s interpretation of how an outward lady’s man would talk. Campea has said that he does not see himself in any of the characters, so maybe this goes a way to explaining it.
I hate to dog on someone for releasing their project. Campea evidently feels like this was a story worth telling, but considering his background and desire to have people pay not only for a copy of the book but its publication to begin with... a certain amount of quality should be expected which this, quite frankly, did not.
March 8, 2016
As someone who has become a fan of John Campea's, I truly wanted to like this novel. There are some good points to it, the writing is coherent and brisk, the characters are fleshed out and the book doesn't seem overlong at 304 pages.
However, it seems as though Campea has two good books here, melded into one, like a good first novel in a series with the Petros character, followed by a good prequel on how other characters came to be/ what their motivations were from history (a tad ironic, knowing how John Campea generally feels about film prequels). Both are competently written, however there can be large swaths of the book were Petros is competing for time in his own story. The clear inspiration from George RR Martin to focus on the perspective of certain characters for large parts of the chapters was a nice touch, but sometimes left the narrative uneven. The ending also seemed rushed, despite for a time going at a solid pace.
Overall, if you like fantasy, you should probably buy this book, don't just take my word for it. As someone who is not the biggest fantasy reader, there may be something I'm missing. However, John should continue writing fiction, as it seems to be a craft that can suit him with more practice.
However, it seems as though Campea has two good books here, melded into one, like a good first novel in a series with the Petros character, followed by a good prequel on how other characters came to be/ what their motivations were from history (a tad ironic, knowing how John Campea generally feels about film prequels). Both are competently written, however there can be large swaths of the book were Petros is competing for time in his own story. The clear inspiration from George RR Martin to focus on the perspective of certain characters for large parts of the chapters was a nice touch, but sometimes left the narrative uneven. The ending also seemed rushed, despite for a time going at a solid pace.
Overall, if you like fantasy, you should probably buy this book, don't just take my word for it. As someone who is not the biggest fantasy reader, there may be something I'm missing. However, John should continue writing fiction, as it seems to be a craft that can suit him with more practice.
June 23, 2016
Surprisingly enough, I loved this book. Yes, there are typos/grammatical errors abound, to the point I hope John didn't pay someone to edit it for him. Largely they're mixed up pronouns during conversations or words that merely appear the same on a quick run through, yet won't appear on Spell Check. While those sequences completely distract from the story when they're present, I found myself greatly enjoying the story as a whole to the point it might be one of my favorites from this year. The Agathon and Yara storyline is reminiscent of great mythology. Petros' storyline certainly has a Superman feel to it. While I found myself getting annoyed with how perfect Petros is as a character, the guy's literally good at everything not a single flaw, the fact that he's essentially a Dragon version of Superman works for me. That's what this story is at it's core. It's a loving blend of superhero origin story and dramatic Dragon mythology that had me hooked after the first few chapters.
August 28, 2016
First of all I have to admit I was excited to read this book and hoped I would enjoy it as a fan of Collider and John Campea; but I just didn't.
The Pride is John Campea’s debut novel and to me it not just shows but the entire book seems to lack direction. The writing style feels like it’s written for a young YA audience but some of the content is definitely aimed at adults, such as the language and sex references. The story is confusing and not in the way intended; especially the dragon aspect of the story. Dialogue between characters feels very wooden and unrealistic.
Ultimately I really wanted to like this book BUT JOHN (collider reference) I just couldn't and I have to be honest.
The Pride is John Campea’s debut novel and to me it not just shows but the entire book seems to lack direction. The writing style feels like it’s written for a young YA audience but some of the content is definitely aimed at adults, such as the language and sex references. The story is confusing and not in the way intended; especially the dragon aspect of the story. Dialogue between characters feels very wooden and unrealistic.
Ultimately I really wanted to like this book BUT JOHN (collider reference) I just couldn't and I have to be honest.
February 8, 2019
John has always appeared to be a passionate hard working man & I have watched him at AMC and Collider for a while, & he’s terrific. I want to support him in his writing career. I was sad I didn't enjoy this as much as I wanted to. This is only my personal opinion.
I love the idea, it's both classic and with a difference. As writers, we are taught to provide the same but with a difference. I like the classic take on Dragons, with a slightly different interpretation of them. I especially liked the whole 'regaining of memory' after a long sleep. Then you have the modern contemporary young man, finding out he is different and about to become something special which is a popular trend in media right now. I loved the scene in the alley with Petros & his father. I could see this as a scene in a TV show or film.
So, why did it not work for me? Simply put, I think the writer simply tried too hard. My recommendation would be to simplify it, strip it right back and keep it simple. Focus on fewer characters, a simple straight forward story, grammar, typos and get as much editing and beta reading as possible.
I was not invested in the characters whether dragon or human & couldn’t relate to them & I quickly got confused with all the characters because I hadn’t been given time to get to know them. I struggled to understand what the writer was actually trying to say. In his mind, he knows what he’s seeing, but describes it in such a nonlinear, confusing manner that I kept reading hoping it will eventually become clear.
Too much exposition for me which slowed the pace of the story & I didn’t want the history lessons given in such an obvious 'tell-all' way. I kept thinking “get on with the story”.
The best way I can describe it is that the writer simply thinks we know what he knows, & we don’t.
I had a general understanding of what was going on, but not the depth or emotion because, I was, to a large extent, confused with the grammar & descriptions used to express actions & thoughts.
I thought the book should have been split into two as the tones of the two protagonist's stories felt so different. It was like reading two separate books. Maybe John missed an opportunity here.
I love the idea, it's both classic and with a difference. As writers, we are taught to provide the same but with a difference. I like the classic take on Dragons, with a slightly different interpretation of them. I especially liked the whole 'regaining of memory' after a long sleep. Then you have the modern contemporary young man, finding out he is different and about to become something special which is a popular trend in media right now. I loved the scene in the alley with Petros & his father. I could see this as a scene in a TV show or film.
So, why did it not work for me? Simply put, I think the writer simply tried too hard. My recommendation would be to simplify it, strip it right back and keep it simple. Focus on fewer characters, a simple straight forward story, grammar, typos and get as much editing and beta reading as possible.
I was not invested in the characters whether dragon or human & couldn’t relate to them & I quickly got confused with all the characters because I hadn’t been given time to get to know them. I struggled to understand what the writer was actually trying to say. In his mind, he knows what he’s seeing, but describes it in such a nonlinear, confusing manner that I kept reading hoping it will eventually become clear.
Too much exposition for me which slowed the pace of the story & I didn’t want the history lessons given in such an obvious 'tell-all' way. I kept thinking “get on with the story”.
The best way I can describe it is that the writer simply thinks we know what he knows, & we don’t.
I had a general understanding of what was going on, but not the depth or emotion because, I was, to a large extent, confused with the grammar & descriptions used to express actions & thoughts.
I thought the book should have been split into two as the tones of the two protagonist's stories felt so different. It was like reading two separate books. Maybe John missed an opportunity here.
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