What do you think?
Rate this book
Dragon Empire Trilogy #1
Scales of Empire
'So much fun ... adorable characters, seductive dragons, narcissist cats, crazy imagination and lots of wisdom' LIAN HEARNAn exciting new adventure filled with diverse characters, strong heroes and heroines and wild creatures from the bestselling author of White Tiger.Corporal Jian Choumali is on the mission of a lifetime - security officer on one of Earth's huge generation ships, fleeing Earth's failing ecosystem to colonise a distant planet.The ship encounters a technologically and culturally advanced alien empire, led by a royal family of dragons. The empire's dragon emissary offers her aid to the people of Earth, bringing greater health, longer life, and faster-than-light travel to nearby stars.But what price will the people of Earth have to pay for the generous alien assistance?In this first book in a brand new series, Kylie Chan brings together pacey, compelling storytelling and an all-too-possible imagined future in a tale packed with action, adventure, drama and suspense.'Scales of Empire is not your average sci-fi adventure. This genderbending inter-stellar romp is full of delightful surprises that kept me enthralled from start to end. I am dragonstruck! TRACI HARDING'So different to her other books, but unmistakably Kylie Chan ...Imaginative, epic, and heaps of fun, while still exploring thought-provoking and important themes.' ALAN BAXTER
416 pages, Paperback
First published March 1, 2018
54 people are currently reading
479 people want to read
About the author
Kylie Chan
26 books590 followersKylie doesn't participate in the Goodreads network. You can find her fanpage on Facebook or visit her website at www.kyliechan.com.
Kylie Chan married a Hong Kong national in a traditional Chinese wedding ceremony in Eastern China, lived in Australia for ten years, then moved to Hong Kong for ten years and during that time learnt a great deal about Chinese culture and came to appreciate the customs and way of life.
In 2003 she closed down her successful IT consultancy company in Hong Kong and moved back to Australia. She decided to use her knowledge of Chinese mythology, culture, and martial arts to weave a story that would appeal to a wide audience.
Since returning to Australia, Kylie has studied Kung Fu (Wing Chun and Southern Chow Clan styles) as well as Tai Chi and is now a senior belt in both forms. She has also made an intensive study of Buddhist and Taoist philosophy and has brought all of these together into her storytelling.
Kylie is a mother of two who lives in Queensland's Gold Coast. She is the best-selling author of the Dark Heavens and Journey to Wudang trilogies, which tell the story of Emma, an ordinary Australian woman thrown into the world of Chinese Gods, martial arts, and magic. Emma must deal with a bewildering variety of Chinese mythological creatures from dragons to the Monkey King as she learns martial arts from her employer John Chen, who is really the God of Martial Arts, Xuan Wu.
Kylie Chan married a Hong Kong national in a traditional Chinese wedding ceremony in Eastern China, lived in Australia for ten years, then moved to Hong Kong for ten years and during that time learnt a great deal about Chinese culture and came to appreciate the customs and way of life.
In 2003 she closed down her successful IT consultancy company in Hong Kong and moved back to Australia. She decided to use her knowledge of Chinese mythology, culture, and martial arts to weave a story that would appeal to a wide audience.
Since returning to Australia, Kylie has studied Kung Fu (Wing Chun and Southern Chow Clan styles) as well as Tai Chi and is now a senior belt in both forms. She has also made an intensive study of Buddhist and Taoist philosophy and has brought all of these together into her storytelling.
Kylie is a mother of two who lives in Queensland's Gold Coast. She is the best-selling author of the Dark Heavens and Journey to Wudang trilogies, which tell the story of Emma, an ordinary Australian woman thrown into the world of Chinese Gods, martial arts, and magic. Emma must deal with a bewildering variety of Chinese mythological creatures from dragons to the Monkey King as she learns martial arts from her employer John Chen, who is really the God of Martial Arts, Xuan Wu.
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
May 30, 2018
Humanity is making its tentative push to the stars with generation ships and the difficult first few interstellar colonies when first contact with an overwhelmingly advanced alien empire occurs.
Corporal Jian Choumalii is part of the Euroterre generation ship project when her and her commanding officer Richard Alto are the first to encounter Shiumo, a space dragon and first contact representative from her mother's Empire. Shiumo is extremely friendly and helpful with her stated goal being to find love, no matter with what species or gender, and to welcome humanity into the Dragon Empire. But is that necessarily a good thing and are the dragons as benevolent as they appear? More to the point, how can humanity deal with the problems facing them without their help?
This starts very promising and then takes a sudden turn into apparent wish-fulfillment Mary Sue territory, but to it's credit, doesn't stay there and explicitly questions the benefits of that wish-fulfillment. The central question around Shiumo and what she offers is a constant back and forth throughout the book, and particularly as the humans get exposure to other members of the Dragon Empire and alien races that set themselves apart from it.
From my point of view this is a uniquely Australian perspective on Empire. What's going on with the Dragons have a specific real world parallel in the context of our relationship with the USA, particularly in . And the far less benevolent alien cats have parallels in the Australian experience as well.
It's not without flaws, as a lot of the scenarios are a little too pat and the ending seems a bit too good to be true (more on this in the next volume to be sure), but the issues around societies standing on their own and allying on their own terms seem very relevant.
Corporal Jian Choumalii is part of the Euroterre generation ship project when her and her commanding officer Richard Alto are the first to encounter Shiumo, a space dragon and first contact representative from her mother's Empire. Shiumo is extremely friendly and helpful with her stated goal being to find love, no matter with what species or gender, and to welcome humanity into the Dragon Empire. But is that necessarily a good thing and are the dragons as benevolent as they appear? More to the point, how can humanity deal with the problems facing them without their help?
This starts very promising and then takes a sudden turn into apparent wish-fulfillment Mary Sue territory, but to it's credit, doesn't stay there and explicitly questions the benefits of that wish-fulfillment. The central question around Shiumo and what she offers is a constant back and forth throughout the book, and particularly as the humans get exposure to other members of the Dragon Empire and alien races that set themselves apart from it.
From my point of view this is a uniquely Australian perspective on Empire. What's going on with the Dragons have a specific real world parallel in the context of our relationship with the USA, particularly in . And the far less benevolent alien cats have parallels in the Australian experience as well.
It's not without flaws, as a lot of the scenarios are a little too pat and the ending seems a bit too good to be true (more on this in the next volume to be sure), but the issues around societies standing on their own and allying on their own terms seem very relevant.
April 16, 2018
More of a 2.5 as this is practically a DNF.
I loved Kylie Chan's White Tiger series and still rank it as one of my most enjoyed series despite calling quits a few trilogies in. I also quite admire Kylie for what she has achieved and continue to follow everything she does on social media.
But this novel wasn't for me - and I'm not quite sure who it is for.
This novel reads like a teenage protagonist stole her friend's ID and snuck through marketing into the adult section. The writing holds little nuance creating a grating voice and a very thin, superficial world that Kylie attempts to show diversity of nationalities and sexual orientation within, but does so through very heavy-handed blows. Unlike the beautiful subtlety of Every Heart a Doorway & Red Sisters that SHOWS these diversities and colourful characters, Kylie forces it down your throat with a self-applauding sentiment.
Don't get me wrong, there are some interesting ideas explored in this novel about the fluid future of humanity and the alternative first contact situations. BUT it is lost amongst all the other political commentary and what I found a rather unlikeable protagonist, for the same reasons Tommy put me off in Who's Afraid.
Mary Sues just get to me - I'm sorry. I'm over the superficial flaws, the unauthentic sassiness, and unearnt respect that these characters demand. If I'm going to spend hours inside someone else's head, I damn well need to be invested in them and all these characters need a good dose of humility.
So, I tried to give this novel my full attention, but I just couldn't justify it in the end.
I loved Kylie Chan's White Tiger series and still rank it as one of my most enjoyed series despite calling quits a few trilogies in. I also quite admire Kylie for what she has achieved and continue to follow everything she does on social media.
But this novel wasn't for me - and I'm not quite sure who it is for.
This novel reads like a teenage protagonist stole her friend's ID and snuck through marketing into the adult section. The writing holds little nuance creating a grating voice and a very thin, superficial world that Kylie attempts to show diversity of nationalities and sexual orientation within, but does so through very heavy-handed blows. Unlike the beautiful subtlety of Every Heart a Doorway & Red Sisters that SHOWS these diversities and colourful characters, Kylie forces it down your throat with a self-applauding sentiment.
Don't get me wrong, there are some interesting ideas explored in this novel about the fluid future of humanity and the alternative first contact situations. BUT it is lost amongst all the other political commentary and what I found a rather unlikeable protagonist, for the same reasons Tommy put me off in Who's Afraid.
Mary Sues just get to me - I'm sorry. I'm over the superficial flaws, the unauthentic sassiness, and unearnt respect that these characters demand. If I'm going to spend hours inside someone else's head, I damn well need to be invested in them and all these characters need a good dose of humility.
So, I tried to give this novel my full attention, but I just couldn't justify it in the end.
December 10, 2017
I was lucky enough to get a pre-release copy of Kylie’s new book, Scales of Empire. So different to her other books, but unmistakably Kylie Chan. Despite strange dragons and self-obsessed cats, this is an entirely human story. Imaginative, epic, and heaps of fun, while still exploring thought-provoking and important themes. Keep an eye out for it!
October 1, 2018
It just dragged on, and on. I have no idea when to pinpoint the exact place the train went off the track. Was it that the main character bounced between knowing that she’s giving up classified information, and thinking that her feelings are real? Or was it when the potato-worshipping space cats showed up like a psychedelic Matt Damon in “The Martian”?
Humans need to breed with aliens to gain interstellar travel. Keep walking. The scale locator thing was pretty cool though.
Humans need to breed with aliens to gain interstellar travel. Keep walking. The scale locator thing was pretty cool though.
April 21, 2018
Over promised and under delivered.
I saw this book at my local library, and the fantastic cover immediately caught my eye. On reading the blurb at the back I was further intrigued...until the last sentence "...- from the bestselling author of White Tiger".
Poop.
I did *not* enjoy White Tiger, so almost put this book back on the shelf. However...cool cover. Intriguing blurb. So I thought I would wipe the slate clean, and give Ms Chan another go, with no prejudice.
And I tried.
I was expecting a sci-fi novel mixed with fantasy. The tale of struggling to terraform a new planet, encountering an alien species, and then attempting to reconcile two (hopefully) vastly dissimilar cultures.
Instead, we get something that reads like a teen fangirl wish fulfil fantasy.
To start, this book read like it was aimed at a much younger audience (I.e. Young adult), despite not being categorised as such in any place that I could see. The characters all came across as very juvenile (including, and especially, the centuries old dragon).
The characters all felt flat, there was no depth or character development. The plot read like "this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened": it fell into the "tell us" rather than "show us" style of writing. Hardly designed to draw the reader in.
We are told the "bad guys" are the "bad guys", but there was not enough evidence as to why they are any worse than the good guys. The good guys have some "bad parts", but these bad parts are either overreacted to (again with little to no explanation, or even internal dialogue) as to what the ramifications of these "bad parts" are, or just "solved" with little more than "oops, ok we won't do it again".
Concepts, characters and locations are just thrown in seemingly for the sole purpose of an individual plot point, and then are seemingly forgotten, never to be touched on again.
There were a few glimmers of promise, but not enough to make up for what I felt to be an overall painful read.
I saw this book at my local library, and the fantastic cover immediately caught my eye. On reading the blurb at the back I was further intrigued...until the last sentence "...- from the bestselling author of White Tiger".
Poop.
I did *not* enjoy White Tiger, so almost put this book back on the shelf. However...cool cover. Intriguing blurb. So I thought I would wipe the slate clean, and give Ms Chan another go, with no prejudice.
And I tried.
I was expecting a sci-fi novel mixed with fantasy. The tale of struggling to terraform a new planet, encountering an alien species, and then attempting to reconcile two (hopefully) vastly dissimilar cultures.
Instead, we get something that reads like a teen fangirl wish fulfil fantasy.
To start, this book read like it was aimed at a much younger audience (I.e. Young adult), despite not being categorised as such in any place that I could see. The characters all came across as very juvenile (including, and especially, the centuries old dragon).
The characters all felt flat, there was no depth or character development. The plot read like "this happened, and then this happened, and then this happened": it fell into the "tell us" rather than "show us" style of writing. Hardly designed to draw the reader in.
We are told the "bad guys" are the "bad guys", but there was not enough evidence as to why they are any worse than the good guys. The good guys have some "bad parts", but these bad parts are either overreacted to (again with little to no explanation, or even internal dialogue) as to what the ramifications of these "bad parts" are, or just "solved" with little more than "oops, ok we won't do it again".
Concepts, characters and locations are just thrown in seemingly for the sole purpose of an individual plot point, and then are seemingly forgotten, never to be touched on again.
There were a few glimmers of promise, but not enough to make up for what I felt to be an overall painful read.
March 15, 2018
This is my 1st Kylie Chan novel, probably wont be mt last as the positives outweigh the negatives. However, I just didnt find it connecting on all levels for me. I loved the concept of space dragons, the fluid sexuality ideas/themes, the characters were well fleshed out. However I fell the plot moved at a snails pace more often then it should have. Definitely more a character study then action heavy scifi. I think The Expanse series is one that comes to mind that combines the 2 well. Has a good ending, and has plenty of directions to explore.
March 19, 2022
4.5 Stars
I received this book for free from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review
I'll admit I was surprised by how much I loved Scales of Empire! I have been meaning to read Kylie Chan's three fantasy series for years and if she writes sci-fi this good, I don't even want to think about how obsessed I'm going to be with her other works...
I'm not sure how to put all my thoughts and feelings about this novel into words coherently but I'm going to try my best. First off, that plot guys! It's been such a long time since I have read such a thrilling beginning to a series. I felt the immediacy and inevitability of every development; like of course that's exactly what has to happen next, DUH! I was absolutely sucked into this book head first; it was so compulsively readable I found myself putting off other tasks to keep going.
Secondly, the characters were off the charts amazing! I've never been one to be easily manipulated with the 'are they good, bad or morally grey' character developments but I honestly have no idea what to think at this point. There are so many nuances in each character and I love that they all believe they are doing the right thing and you can absolutely see why they are so strong in that conviction. This story would be incredibly different if even one character was added or removed.
Also if you are looking for a diverse sci-fi, this is the book for you! I can't talk about the accuracy for a lot of the representation; but just in the main character you have a bi-racial (asian/african I can't find the exact specifics at the moment) woman of colour who is openly bisexual and in a poly relationship with a M/F couple and separate relationship with another woman. There is such a range in this, I can't even begin to list it...
The world-building in 'Scales of Empire' is phenomenal, futuristic Earth its scary how quickly your brain accepts this future as the result of our current situation and the decisions that humanity is making. I also loved the nod to the humble potato as a galactic food stuff!
My only criticism is that I found certain elements jarring when they were initially introduced but I think that is due largely to my own fault in not reading the blurb and promotional material as thoroughly or as accurately as I should.
If you want a book to smile, laugh, cry and scream with, PICK THIS UP!
I received this book for free from the publisher through Netgalley in exchange for a fair and honest review
I'll admit I was surprised by how much I loved Scales of Empire! I have been meaning to read Kylie Chan's three fantasy series for years and if she writes sci-fi this good, I don't even want to think about how obsessed I'm going to be with her other works...
I'm not sure how to put all my thoughts and feelings about this novel into words coherently but I'm going to try my best. First off, that plot guys! It's been such a long time since I have read such a thrilling beginning to a series. I felt the immediacy and inevitability of every development; like of course that's exactly what has to happen next, DUH! I was absolutely sucked into this book head first; it was so compulsively readable I found myself putting off other tasks to keep going.
Secondly, the characters were off the charts amazing! I've never been one to be easily manipulated with the 'are they good, bad or morally grey' character developments but I honestly have no idea what to think at this point. There are so many nuances in each character and I love that they all believe they are doing the right thing and you can absolutely see why they are so strong in that conviction. This story would be incredibly different if even one character was added or removed.
Also if you are looking for a diverse sci-fi, this is the book for you! I can't talk about the accuracy for a lot of the representation; but just in the main character you have a bi-racial (asian/african I can't find the exact specifics at the moment) woman of colour who is openly bisexual and in a poly relationship with a M/F couple and separate relationship with another woman. There is such a range in this, I can't even begin to list it...
The world-building in 'Scales of Empire' is phenomenal, futuristic Earth its scary how quickly your brain accepts this future as the result of our current situation and the decisions that humanity is making. I also loved the nod to the humble potato as a galactic food stuff!
My only criticism is that I found certain elements jarring when they were initially introduced but I think that is due largely to my own fault in not reading the blurb and promotional material as thoroughly or as accurately as I should.
If you want a book to smile, laugh, cry and scream with, PICK THIS UP!
July 10, 2019
In Scales of Empire, humanity has pretty much destroyed the Earths ecosystem and in a last ditch effort to save ourselves we are heading for the stars. A massive undertaking with each nation sending their own people up, and each planet needing to be made hospitable. It's risky, it will take many years and humanity doesn't have a lot of time left.
Corporal Jian Choumaliis has secured herself a position as security officer on one of Earths generation ships. She is a dedicated soldier, ready to leave her mother, lovers and the child they are expecting to help save humanity. But before they can even get off the ground they make first contact with a being from another planet. A dragon princess no less, who after becoming smitten with Jian decides to help humans reach out into the stars.
' "I hope I didn't leave it too long with your poor colonists. It's very bad manners for the more advanced civilisations to contact the less advanced first, but they were going to die, and I had no choice."
"Bad manners?" Commander Alto said, amused.
"It hurts your self-esteem as a species. You've struggled for so many years to attain many of your society's achievements, and then we show up and can do them fifty times better with no effort at all. Makes everything you've been working for seem a waste of time." '
Scales of Empire has a few things going for it. It's diverse and inclusive. That's probably the part I enjoyed most. The king is transitioning, our mc is ethnically diverse as well as bi, the dragons are pansexual and gender fluid, and Richard's body was heavily damaged saving the kings life so he has prosthetic limbs and more.
Unfortunately for me the story lacked what I would call heart. It felt shallow and while I finished the book I wouldn't be picking up the next one. I didn't think the synopsis was a true representation of the actual plot. I expected some excitement, but whenever the opportunity arose the story kept moving slowly and fell flat. The humour throughout the story wasn't what I would expect from soldiers or an advanced species. I didn't find most of the attempts funny, they seemed tacky. It took away from the story. I felt like it cheapened it. I spent a large portion of the book wondering if it was a satire.
So while there were aspects of the characters traits I enjoyed, overall everything else fell short.
Corporal Jian Choumaliis has secured herself a position as security officer on one of Earths generation ships. She is a dedicated soldier, ready to leave her mother, lovers and the child they are expecting to help save humanity. But before they can even get off the ground they make first contact with a being from another planet. A dragon princess no less, who after becoming smitten with Jian decides to help humans reach out into the stars.
' "I hope I didn't leave it too long with your poor colonists. It's very bad manners for the more advanced civilisations to contact the less advanced first, but they were going to die, and I had no choice."
"Bad manners?" Commander Alto said, amused.
"It hurts your self-esteem as a species. You've struggled for so many years to attain many of your society's achievements, and then we show up and can do them fifty times better with no effort at all. Makes everything you've been working for seem a waste of time." '
Scales of Empire has a few things going for it. It's diverse and inclusive. That's probably the part I enjoyed most. The king is transitioning, our mc is ethnically diverse as well as bi, the dragons are pansexual and gender fluid, and Richard's body was heavily damaged saving the kings life so he has prosthetic limbs and more.
Unfortunately for me the story lacked what I would call heart. It felt shallow and while I finished the book I wouldn't be picking up the next one. I didn't think the synopsis was a true representation of the actual plot. I expected some excitement, but whenever the opportunity arose the story kept moving slowly and fell flat. The humour throughout the story wasn't what I would expect from soldiers or an advanced species. I didn't find most of the attempts funny, they seemed tacky. It took away from the story. I felt like it cheapened it. I spent a large portion of the book wondering if it was a satire.
So while there were aspects of the characters traits I enjoyed, overall everything else fell short.
October 31, 2017
WOW!!! I'm rating this 4.5 stars. This book is completely different to the series I have read before by this author. An epic intergalatic adventure set at a time when Earth is facing their downfall and soldiers are sent out to space to colonise other planets in order to save humanity. The first installment of a new series, I find this to be very promising, a series worth investing in. A story full of diverse characters, dragons and special talents that can either make or break humanity, this was a lot of fun to read and mildly paced so I was able to enjoy the world building and character profiling but was kept on the edge of my seat with action and plot twists. This really t00k me out of this world!!! Special thanks to author Kylie Chan and Harper Voyager Publishers for sending me an Advanced Review Copy in exchange for my honest review. I am really looking forward to reading the final copy now!!!
February 3, 2018
Completely out of this world but strangely grounded. Pansexual, pangendered alien dragons with a penchant for tea and potatoes, and hostile alien cats that are ... well they’re assholes. Nothing like anything I’ve read before, but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Thank you to Kylie Chan and Harper Collins Australia for the advance reading copy.
September 6, 2020
Postavka je zanimljiva, štaviše (nažalost) realna i vrlo lepo koketira s trenutno woke idealnom antiutopijom, u smislu da je ekosistem razoren, planeta poplavljena usled ekološke katastrofe, društveni sistem se usled toga promenio i heteroseksualnost i monogamija više nisu norme, već suprotno.
So far so good.
Onda dolazimo do prvog kontakta - koji je napisan besmisleno loše, ravno, plitko i.. jesam li spomenuo da je napisan besmisleno loše?
Ne vredi ulaganja vremena ni za čitanje reklame na koricama.
So far so good.
Onda dolazimo do prvog kontakta - koji je napisan besmisleno loše, ravno, plitko i.. jesam li spomenuo da je napisan besmisleno loše?
Ne vredi ulaganja vremena ni za čitanje reklame na koricama.
December 9, 2022
DNF 5%
Господи, у меня чуть кровь из глаз не пошла.
Господи, у меня чуть кровь из глаз не пошла.
July 11, 2018
This was definitely a Kylie Chan novel, the characters sounded a lot like those in her long-running Chinese fantasy sequence and a lot of the situations seemed familiar. At the start, when humanity makes first contact with telepathic space dragons who promise to fix everything that’s wrong with humanity and Earth, I was rolling my eyes a bit, especially when it all started to get a bit sexy. Things definitely went in unpredictable directions a few times. Without getting spoilery, I’m reminded of the axiom that no primitive culture generally survives contact with a more advanced one. Definitely interested in seeing where this series is going!
December 30, 2018
What a fun, rollicking read! Absolutely unputdownable, absolutely implausible but such fun! Happy to read the next book in the series, but she really needs to write the character Richard out - he is such a wrong fit for the story, such a pouty, sulky, annoying character who - unbelievably! - lowers the tone of the book. Otherwise such a fun read.
April 10, 2018
Spoiler Free Section
I received this book for review from Netgalley and unfortunately I really did not enjoy it. I ended up giving it one out of five stars. For me the writing style was really simplistic and really just told you what was happening instead of showing you, throughout the whole book we really aren't given much description of anything that is going on or of the world in general which made it really lackluster for me.
We really aren't given enough background information about the time and place that this book is set in, we can see the differences as we go on, such as the water levels rising drastically, but we are not told how or why any it happened. It also becomes a bit hard to understand the different countries, and their respective governments and monarchs because we really are given no information. Having more context as to how this time period is different from our own or how certain events occurred would have really made the story more interesting and enjoyable for me as I feel the author just kind of glosses over aspects of the book as if they are common place and doesn't describe how things have come to be like this.
I really didn't enjoy how we are introduced to new characters, such as Edwin who we meet in the beginning, and who we learn about only through their dialogue which really doesn't tell you very much about them at all. This happens quite often throughout the book as characters are just thrown in with little to no explanation as to who they are and they are not given any backstory. I think that overall there were way too many characters added to this novel and most of them had absolutely no impact upon the story and all blur together. All of the characters also have very little amount of differences between them, they really all have the same personality and interact in the same way with others to the point where I forget who is speaking or who they are. The lack of individuality is really unrealistic and kind of makes the story boring as we see the same dialogues and actions over and over again.
Spoiler Section
I really didn't enjoy our main character Jian, to me she seems quite unlikable and I never felt any sort of interest in her or what was going on in her life. When the captain of the Nippon Maru spoke about potential seppuku she said 'charming', which I thought was quite insensitive to the situation that they were involved in. Also how she said that the women who left the Spirit of Britannia project were failures? She really doesn't seem to have much empathy for others which could be due to her military history but I really don't think that it should be a reason to not have any common human decency. She also seems quite blunt which kind of rubs me the wrong way, she at one point tells someone who is struggling with leaving their lives and families that they can 'always quit and go home' instead of giving any support to them and making them feel better through their shared experience. It also doesn't really make sense to me how she can make these remarks but also be kind to her friends in other ways and actually have people liking her.
I also particularly didn't enjoy how we were introduced to Commander Richard Alto who becomes one of our main characters, this is the character that we actually get the most background information about when we meet them but honestly it isn't done any better than the others that were just thrown in. We are told that he was a war hero who jumped on a bomb and saved the five-year-old king... and that's it?? we don't learn anything about who the king is and why he was king so young, why the bomb was put there or by who and all of this information I feel would be quite important and would actually give us some context about the world that we are in.
The characters also seem pretty flimsy in the way that they make decisions without much of a reason for it. The one that really stuck out to me was when Jain meets Commander Vince who hates her immediately because she did her reading for training remotely, he then tries to get her to fail her Wolf planet simulation by making it really hard to live there, but when they make it through he immediately trusts her and they become friends?? It is just really annoying to me how that is the extent of them forming any sort of relationship, people don't usually do that in real life you actually have to build up some form of friendship.
I also don't understand how when the aliens suddenly show up on Earth everyone is just fine with it and they actually say 'she sounds so cute'??! it's kind of crazy, like honestly shouldn't they be cautious and maybe even scared about this situation?! I think that would be a normal reaction. I feel like this happens a lot in this book , people always have unrealistic reactions to what is going on and that really bothers me.
This book had way too many plot points in my opinion and they were all kind of gone over in a very small amount of detail and very quickly. We see many things happen in this book between Shiumo coming to Earth, them starting a new colony on another planet, being attacked by the 'cats', breeding with the dragons, discovering that they are trying to basically assimilate the whole human race into dragon-human hybrids, Jian taking in two alien children to look after, discovering that the humans are then the only race who can fight against the 'cats' and then getting into the Galactic Empire??? I really feel like to make this book better they should have split up all of these points over multiple books and then actually expand on each of them instead of quickly running through everything. A lot of the things that go on in this book are very repetitive and honestly the 'relationship' between Richard and Shiumo is one of those, they constantly go back and forth between hate and love and it gets a little annoying about half way through and it is kind of the epitome of a toxic relationship that Richard keeps being sent back to against his will. There was also absolutely no suspense or build-up to anything in this whole book we were just spoon fed everything which just makes the book a little boring.
I really cannot see how this book is going to continue into a series as it has already done everything that I can think of. With all of the plot that has already happened and over how many years it has happened I really don't know what they next books will be like but I also will never be finding out since I do not at all plan on reading the rest of the series.
I received this book for review from Netgalley and unfortunately I really did not enjoy it. I ended up giving it one out of five stars. For me the writing style was really simplistic and really just told you what was happening instead of showing you, throughout the whole book we really aren't given much description of anything that is going on or of the world in general which made it really lackluster for me.
We really aren't given enough background information about the time and place that this book is set in, we can see the differences as we go on, such as the water levels rising drastically, but we are not told how or why any it happened. It also becomes a bit hard to understand the different countries, and their respective governments and monarchs because we really are given no information. Having more context as to how this time period is different from our own or how certain events occurred would have really made the story more interesting and enjoyable for me as I feel the author just kind of glosses over aspects of the book as if they are common place and doesn't describe how things have come to be like this.
I really didn't enjoy how we are introduced to new characters, such as Edwin who we meet in the beginning, and who we learn about only through their dialogue which really doesn't tell you very much about them at all. This happens quite often throughout the book as characters are just thrown in with little to no explanation as to who they are and they are not given any backstory. I think that overall there were way too many characters added to this novel and most of them had absolutely no impact upon the story and all blur together. All of the characters also have very little amount of differences between them, they really all have the same personality and interact in the same way with others to the point where I forget who is speaking or who they are. The lack of individuality is really unrealistic and kind of makes the story boring as we see the same dialogues and actions over and over again.
Spoiler Section
I really didn't enjoy our main character Jian, to me she seems quite unlikable and I never felt any sort of interest in her or what was going on in her life. When the captain of the Nippon Maru spoke about potential seppuku she said 'charming', which I thought was quite insensitive to the situation that they were involved in. Also how she said that the women who left the Spirit of Britannia project were failures? She really doesn't seem to have much empathy for others which could be due to her military history but I really don't think that it should be a reason to not have any common human decency. She also seems quite blunt which kind of rubs me the wrong way, she at one point tells someone who is struggling with leaving their lives and families that they can 'always quit and go home' instead of giving any support to them and making them feel better through their shared experience. It also doesn't really make sense to me how she can make these remarks but also be kind to her friends in other ways and actually have people liking her.
I also particularly didn't enjoy how we were introduced to Commander Richard Alto who becomes one of our main characters, this is the character that we actually get the most background information about when we meet them but honestly it isn't done any better than the others that were just thrown in. We are told that he was a war hero who jumped on a bomb and saved the five-year-old king... and that's it?? we don't learn anything about who the king is and why he was king so young, why the bomb was put there or by who and all of this information I feel would be quite important and would actually give us some context about the world that we are in.
The characters also seem pretty flimsy in the way that they make decisions without much of a reason for it. The one that really stuck out to me was when Jain meets Commander Vince who hates her immediately because she did her reading for training remotely, he then tries to get her to fail her Wolf planet simulation by making it really hard to live there, but when they make it through he immediately trusts her and they become friends?? It is just really annoying to me how that is the extent of them forming any sort of relationship, people don't usually do that in real life you actually have to build up some form of friendship.
I also don't understand how when the aliens suddenly show up on Earth everyone is just fine with it and they actually say 'she sounds so cute'??! it's kind of crazy, like honestly shouldn't they be cautious and maybe even scared about this situation?! I think that would be a normal reaction. I feel like this happens a lot in this book , people always have unrealistic reactions to what is going on and that really bothers me.
This book had way too many plot points in my opinion and they were all kind of gone over in a very small amount of detail and very quickly. We see many things happen in this book between Shiumo coming to Earth, them starting a new colony on another planet, being attacked by the 'cats', breeding with the dragons, discovering that they are trying to basically assimilate the whole human race into dragon-human hybrids, Jian taking in two alien children to look after, discovering that the humans are then the only race who can fight against the 'cats' and then getting into the Galactic Empire??? I really feel like to make this book better they should have split up all of these points over multiple books and then actually expand on each of them instead of quickly running through everything. A lot of the things that go on in this book are very repetitive and honestly the 'relationship' between Richard and Shiumo is one of those, they constantly go back and forth between hate and love and it gets a little annoying about half way through and it is kind of the epitome of a toxic relationship that Richard keeps being sent back to against his will. There was also absolutely no suspense or build-up to anything in this whole book we were just spoon fed everything which just makes the book a little boring.
I really cannot see how this book is going to continue into a series as it has already done everything that I can think of. With all of the plot that has already happened and over how many years it has happened I really don't know what they next books will be like but I also will never be finding out since I do not at all plan on reading the rest of the series.
February 21, 2023
Kicked off as hardcore sci-fi but at some point began reading more like teen fiction. Still a fun read, if you’re prepared to not take it too seriously and look past all the cliches. Reminds me of some of Matthew Riley’s early works: ‘Contest’, comes to mind. Having invested my time in reading the first book in the trilogy, I now feel like I have to read the rest. It’s like looking at a train wreck: you don’t want to stare at it, but you can’t look away, either.
October 8, 2025
*2.5
Format: Audio
Format: Audio
March 20, 2018
Seriously disappointed in this book. It read like a teen girl novel. The characters were flat and undeveloped and one dimensional. The theme and ideas behind it were great but the story itself was told in a childish, unimaginative way. I couldn’t identify or feel sorry for any of them really. Richard is a self absorbed nitwit, Jian is rude and dismissive. Maxwell is the archetypal British soldier. Granted the humans fears are borne out in the end by the Dragons’ duplicity, the way in which the plot unfolded was just so uninspiring. Won’t be wasting my money on the next few books in this series.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
June 10, 2018
This book was... not what I expected.
Having said that, I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting.
I think what so many people find jarring about this book is that it doesn't follow the traditional rules; there is no real, great, major issue to overcome, no straight 'us vs them' scenario and no final 'hooray we saved the day and everyone got medals moment'. I think this was largely because the book is more a reflection of life than literature. Life is a series of ups and downs, set backs and surge forwards, and this book reflects that, showing us, essentially, that shit happens and life goes on.
Scales reads as a diary and follows the months before and after first contact with the alien dragon species from the first person POV of Jian Choumali. The first portion of the book contained a lot of moments which made me laugh, but the tone got more serious and these moments waned. I spent most of the book wondering where the tale was going to take me and simply enjoying the ride.
I think if you are willing to accept the story as a diary, a (future) historical missive, you will enjoy this book.
Having said that, I'm not sure exactly what I was expecting.
I think what so many people find jarring about this book is that it doesn't follow the traditional rules; there is no real, great, major issue to overcome, no straight 'us vs them' scenario and no final 'hooray we saved the day and everyone got medals moment'. I think this was largely because the book is more a reflection of life than literature. Life is a series of ups and downs, set backs and surge forwards, and this book reflects that, showing us, essentially, that shit happens and life goes on.
Scales reads as a diary and follows the months before and after first contact with the alien dragon species from the first person POV of Jian Choumali. The first portion of the book contained a lot of moments which made me laugh, but the tone got more serious and these moments waned. I spent most of the book wondering where the tale was going to take me and simply enjoying the ride.
I think if you are willing to accept the story as a diary, a (future) historical missive, you will enjoy this book.
January 17, 2019
Kylie has written another wonderful series.
I’ll admit, I kept thinking to myself, “What the actual fuck?” when reading certain parts of this (dragon reproduction, the obsession with potatoes, just to name a few), but Scales of Empire was a good read.
Chan always has a fluid writing style that allows for her work to come across as clean, non-jumpy, and concise.
One of my favourite aspects of this novel was that there were so many kick-ass female characters!
Some faults:
- I couldn’t get past the obsession with potatoes, why?
- I think that there needs to be more of a prologue or info dump on what century this book is set in, and how all these things came to pass. I was struggling for the first few chapters trying to wrap my head around it all
- Jian and Shiumo didn’t bone
- The back and forth attitudes of Richard just got a bit repetitive and bland
I’ll admit, I kept thinking to myself, “What the actual fuck?” when reading certain parts of this (dragon reproduction, the obsession with potatoes, just to name a few), but Scales of Empire was a good read.
Chan always has a fluid writing style that allows for her work to come across as clean, non-jumpy, and concise.
One of my favourite aspects of this novel was that there were so many kick-ass female characters!
Some faults:
- I couldn’t get past the obsession with potatoes, why?
- I think that there needs to be more of a prologue or info dump on what century this book is set in, and how all these things came to pass. I was struggling for the first few chapters trying to wrap my head around it all
- Jian and Shiumo didn’t bone
- The back and forth attitudes of Richard just got a bit repetitive and bland
April 3, 2018
This book is so different to Kylie Chan's other series of books. Its an epic intergalactic adventure set in a time when earth is facing its downfall and soldiers are sent into space to colonize other planets in an attempt to save humanity. I found this book a lot of fun to read and must say I am looking forward to continuing the series and seeing where the story leads.
March 9, 2018
I enjoyed it (finished it in under a week...). Kylie Chan has a unique style...very rapid moving, with very little exposition. Almost dreamlike. Interesting and unique characters and races, and futuristic technology as magic.
Some plot elements are a little reminiscent of Live Free or Die by John Ringo, but only in a general sense (potatoes for maple syrup:) ). And the dragon's capabilities bring to mind McCaffrey's.
I did laugh a lot, particularly at some of the translators, and at various food jokes (bacon is way better than just pork!), and there were many tragic events. Even pages before the end,I still wasn't entirely sure about the motivations of certain important characters.
I'm already waiting for the next book!
Some plot elements are a little reminiscent of Live Free or Die by John Ringo, but only in a general sense (potatoes for maple syrup:) ). And the dragon's capabilities bring to mind McCaffrey's.
I did laugh a lot, particularly at some of the translators, and at various food jokes (bacon is way better than just pork!), and there were many tragic events. Even pages before the end,I still wasn't entirely sure about the motivations of certain important characters.
I'm already waiting for the next book!
July 16, 2023
This is a new series and is quite a departure from her previous books. Corporal Jian Choumali lives on an Earth that has suffered greatly from climate change and is slowly dying. She volunteers for a mission to a new planet but just as it's nearly ready to leave, an alien turns up. This is a real game changer for Jian and the human race. Can humans survive?
This was not what I expected but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The world-building is clear although, sometimes the alien descriptions are a bit fuzzy - I suspect this is on purpose.
I am really looking forward to the next instalment!
This was not what I expected but I thoroughly enjoyed it. The world-building is clear although, sometimes the alien descriptions are a bit fuzzy - I suspect this is on purpose.
I am really looking forward to the next instalment!
March 17, 2018
I was really looking forward to seeing what Kylie might be able to do with fresh new characters, but I was really disappointed. Pace was all over the place, character development was practically non-existant and there was no real climax, nothing to anticipate or look forward to. Such a shame, as this story could have had huge potential.
June 24, 2019
First few chapters, I thought I was going to enjoy this. And then it got more bizarre, and poorly written, and everything I found interesting about the characters was gone. Two stars is probably generous.
December 18, 2017
Ok, this was a weird one. Tea, potatoes and chili? Really?
September 10, 2019
Quite an interesting read. Looking forward to book #2.
March 9, 2018
When I saw Kylie was releasing a new book, I jumped for joy and went into immediate fan girl melt down. This was just such amazing news!
Kylie Chan was introduced to me by a colleague quite a number of years back with her White Tiger series and I devoured those books like the majestic brilliance they are.
I then, like any excited bookworm, made everyone around me read them and join in on this amazing series.
Okay, so this book was set in SPACE.
I have to get this out there first, I absolutely can not stand space books or anything on a space ship. Like, not even in the slightest. For those of you who know me I am a massive Mass Effect fan which is my only deviation from the space boredom that I face. (Garrus is my man, you can't have him haha)
But then I read there was going to be dragons. DRAGONS! Literally one of my favourite things to read about and let's be honest even if Kylie wrote a book about toast I would read it and probably love it because she is such an amazing storyteller in my opinion.
Okay so the story starts out with Jian in a very futuristic Earth that is a few hundred years away from mass destruction and all out chaos from the environment destruction us humans have inflicted on the planet (totally a pressing issue currently). In futuristic time we have become very diverse (yay) and accepting (YAY) of relationships that may not fit the classic mould of society.
We have poly relationships and bi relationships everywhere in this book and I just wanted to jump for joy. About time someone gave representation to positive relationships that expand on the often limited view frame of male and female relations.
We even have some love scenes with DRAGONS and HUMANS! Now don't get too excited, it's not incredibly detailed but enough to get your heart racing for sure. Kylie, we'd love to see a novella of what happens in the bedroom with the dragons or hey that might be coming up in book two!
So, Earth is being imminently destroyed by our crappy choices and Shumino an intergalactic dragon like species has come to our aid. She has the ability to 'fold' which is pretty much like teleportation and can carry immense loads with her.
This means we can travel to other planets and settle there but first we must make it habitable.
Are the dragons going to be allies or have they got something sinister in mind?
Jian is picked by Commander Alto to greet the mysterious alien so she can suss out their intentions with her Psi abilities.
Psi is a term used for humans who can speak telepathically and can interact empathically with other sentient creatures.
Commander Alto, Jian and Shumino quickly make a good trio and we're learning so much about the world outside our own and the advances of other races.
Shumino has a helpful sentient being, quite similar to the stones in the White Tiger, called Marque who is an AI. Marque is single handedly the most efficient assistant ever and quite sassy too.
Marque can remodel your living quarters, synthesise food, fix injuries and pretty much anything you can think of. It can even carry you in an energy bubble and protect you against gun fire.
While getting to know each other it becomes clear the Commander Alto and Shumino share a special connection.
Without giving too much away we follow the trio as we set up colonies over the galaxy to save humanity but that comes with its own problems...
Kylie keeps a good balance between science fiction and science. For instance when setting up colonies the book goes into detail about oxygen, food production and more. It is enough to keep the science of the book factual but not boring to the fantasy reader.
We also run into other species and not all of them are friendly. The infamous CATS quickly become the bad guys and as Kylie says herself, they are arseholes.
The Cats visit a colony and try potatoes, of all things and go on a quest to take them all from us because they taste so amazing.
When the colony refuses, the Cat isn't having any of it and shows its full wrath...
The dragons as well love the taste of potatoes.
It is such a Kylie thing, to incorporate something that we consider mundane or ordinary and see it in an interesting way or prospective.
There is another example of this later in the book but I won't list it because I hate to spoil the plot.
What I loved about this book as well was how damn quotable it is! I have like 20 quotes on my kindle from the advanced reading copy I have that just make me laugh!
In short, I really enjoyed this book and was proven wrong about my aversion to space books. There were some flaws and scenes that were very political, which might be boring to some readers but all up it was an excellent book.
I can't wait to see where the series takes us now that we have the world set up.
Kylie Chan was introduced to me by a colleague quite a number of years back with her White Tiger series and I devoured those books like the majestic brilliance they are.
I then, like any excited bookworm, made everyone around me read them and join in on this amazing series.
Okay, so this book was set in SPACE.
I have to get this out there first, I absolutely can not stand space books or anything on a space ship. Like, not even in the slightest. For those of you who know me I am a massive Mass Effect fan which is my only deviation from the space boredom that I face. (Garrus is my man, you can't have him haha)
But then I read there was going to be dragons. DRAGONS! Literally one of my favourite things to read about and let's be honest even if Kylie wrote a book about toast I would read it and probably love it because she is such an amazing storyteller in my opinion.
Okay so the story starts out with Jian in a very futuristic Earth that is a few hundred years away from mass destruction and all out chaos from the environment destruction us humans have inflicted on the planet (totally a pressing issue currently). In futuristic time we have become very diverse (yay) and accepting (YAY) of relationships that may not fit the classic mould of society.
We have poly relationships and bi relationships everywhere in this book and I just wanted to jump for joy. About time someone gave representation to positive relationships that expand on the often limited view frame of male and female relations.
We even have some love scenes with DRAGONS and HUMANS! Now don't get too excited, it's not incredibly detailed but enough to get your heart racing for sure. Kylie, we'd love to see a novella of what happens in the bedroom with the dragons or hey that might be coming up in book two!
So, Earth is being imminently destroyed by our crappy choices and Shumino an intergalactic dragon like species has come to our aid. She has the ability to 'fold' which is pretty much like teleportation and can carry immense loads with her.
This means we can travel to other planets and settle there but first we must make it habitable.
Are the dragons going to be allies or have they got something sinister in mind?
Jian is picked by Commander Alto to greet the mysterious alien so she can suss out their intentions with her Psi abilities.
Psi is a term used for humans who can speak telepathically and can interact empathically with other sentient creatures.
Commander Alto, Jian and Shumino quickly make a good trio and we're learning so much about the world outside our own and the advances of other races.
Shumino has a helpful sentient being, quite similar to the stones in the White Tiger, called Marque who is an AI. Marque is single handedly the most efficient assistant ever and quite sassy too.
Marque can remodel your living quarters, synthesise food, fix injuries and pretty much anything you can think of. It can even carry you in an energy bubble and protect you against gun fire.
While getting to know each other it becomes clear the Commander Alto and Shumino share a special connection.
Without giving too much away we follow the trio as we set up colonies over the galaxy to save humanity but that comes with its own problems...
Kylie keeps a good balance between science fiction and science. For instance when setting up colonies the book goes into detail about oxygen, food production and more. It is enough to keep the science of the book factual but not boring to the fantasy reader.
We also run into other species and not all of them are friendly. The infamous CATS quickly become the bad guys and as Kylie says herself, they are arseholes.
The Cats visit a colony and try potatoes, of all things and go on a quest to take them all from us because they taste so amazing.
When the colony refuses, the Cat isn't having any of it and shows its full wrath...
The dragons as well love the taste of potatoes.
It is such a Kylie thing, to incorporate something that we consider mundane or ordinary and see it in an interesting way or prospective.
There is another example of this later in the book but I won't list it because I hate to spoil the plot.
What I loved about this book as well was how damn quotable it is! I have like 20 quotes on my kindle from the advanced reading copy I have that just make me laugh!
In short, I really enjoyed this book and was proven wrong about my aversion to space books. There were some flaws and scenes that were very political, which might be boring to some readers but all up it was an excellent book.
I can't wait to see where the series takes us now that we have the world set up.
February 1, 2023
Started brilliantly. Had a young female soldier, Jian Choumaliis, a Welsh soldier, assigned to security for a colony project, in a very damaged Earth. She's trying to minimise knowledge about her Psy ability. She's in a three way relationship with a man and a woman, who she's known since school, and the two of them are pregnant.
Then just as she's at the top of the space elevator about to board their ship (which won't leave for two years), a dragon appears with five? colonists from a failed Japanese colony. They have been periodically monitoring our civilisation (thus dragons in our history, and the enjoyment of tea), but the book basically just dies at this point.
It's all WAY too convenient. The dragons want the Earth to work together, but are happy to assist with colonisation projects which are single-country specific. Why?
The dragons won't defend themselves against the Cats, but are happy to sit back and watch them commit genocide against young races. The dragons mate with races, producing Dragonscales, but because they basically impregnate everything in sight, within ten generations, the whole planet is exclusively dragonkind (which is why the Cats hate them), but they won't change their practices.
And they set up colonies which are WAY too dependent on assistance to be feasible. If one Cat can walk into a dome, and split the dome, and almost all the colonists die as a result, then your colonisation system is fucked, and doesn't deserve to continue. Why were the colonists not always wearing breathers at their hips, or in local places? Why isn't the dome able to be easily repaired? Why are so many of their options single points of failure? To actually lose a colony, you should need a full cascade of failures, or you've done the planning totally wrongly.
Also, the dragon keeps going on about how honest she is, but doesn't bother to mention the side effect of being around her, which is to pine away and die if you don't keep her scale near you. That sort of thing is just poor. There was SO MUCH backwardsing and forwardsing - Richard's in love with her, he's not, he is, he's not. Turns out that even though he asked to be allowed to die, asked to be reassigned, and was promised both, he was betrayed by his superiors and sent off on an interstellar mission for 17 years with her. The book ends with his child - who he hadn't approved the conception of - being born from an egg.
But there are more issues. Jian basically reads her partners and realises they're out for what they can get, in terms of the dragon - but so is she, yet she basically breaks up with them because of their feelings.
The Cats are finally fought off with pepper bombs (there's a 17 year jump in the book), which have a much stronger effect on the Cats and the Dragons than on the humans, but NONE of the other races are able to stand small amounts of the stuff, and help out with the plan to prevent further Cat assimilation and destruction of worlds?
There are several mentions of Cats 'Following' the dragons back to worlds - how, if they're folding, and not travelling through space?
Finally, the dragon ambassador for Earth's first contact makes a big deal about her race's integrity, but just flat out LIES about several different things - the ten generations to abolish a race, the ensnarement when she's in love with someone, and a couple of other things. If *I* were the humans negotiating the treaty at the end, I'd have HUGE penalties for any untruths told. And realistically, what incentive do humans have for dealing with the dragons at all? They have Dragonscales who have been impregnated by dragons. Wait 16 years, and they'll have Dragons of their own, and can battle the Cats on their own terms. All they have to do is isolate the Dragonscales and prevent them from impregnating anyone.
This started really well, but ended up being a disappointment.
Then just as she's at the top of the space elevator about to board their ship (which won't leave for two years), a dragon appears with five? colonists from a failed Japanese colony. They have been periodically monitoring our civilisation (thus dragons in our history, and the enjoyment of tea), but the book basically just dies at this point.
It's all WAY too convenient. The dragons want the Earth to work together, but are happy to assist with colonisation projects which are single-country specific. Why?
The dragons won't defend themselves against the Cats, but are happy to sit back and watch them commit genocide against young races. The dragons mate with races, producing Dragonscales, but because they basically impregnate everything in sight, within ten generations, the whole planet is exclusively dragonkind (which is why the Cats hate them), but they won't change their practices.
And they set up colonies which are WAY too dependent on assistance to be feasible. If one Cat can walk into a dome, and split the dome, and almost all the colonists die as a result, then your colonisation system is fucked, and doesn't deserve to continue. Why were the colonists not always wearing breathers at their hips, or in local places? Why isn't the dome able to be easily repaired? Why are so many of their options single points of failure? To actually lose a colony, you should need a full cascade of failures, or you've done the planning totally wrongly.
Also, the dragon keeps going on about how honest she is, but doesn't bother to mention the side effect of being around her, which is to pine away and die if you don't keep her scale near you. That sort of thing is just poor. There was SO MUCH backwardsing and forwardsing - Richard's in love with her, he's not, he is, he's not. Turns out that even though he asked to be allowed to die, asked to be reassigned, and was promised both, he was betrayed by his superiors and sent off on an interstellar mission for 17 years with her. The book ends with his child - who he hadn't approved the conception of - being born from an egg.
But there are more issues. Jian basically reads her partners and realises they're out for what they can get, in terms of the dragon - but so is she, yet she basically breaks up with them because of their feelings.
The Cats are finally fought off with pepper bombs (there's a 17 year jump in the book), which have a much stronger effect on the Cats and the Dragons than on the humans, but NONE of the other races are able to stand small amounts of the stuff, and help out with the plan to prevent further Cat assimilation and destruction of worlds?
There are several mentions of Cats 'Following' the dragons back to worlds - how, if they're folding, and not travelling through space?
Finally, the dragon ambassador for Earth's first contact makes a big deal about her race's integrity, but just flat out LIES about several different things - the ten generations to abolish a race, the ensnarement when she's in love with someone, and a couple of other things. If *I* were the humans negotiating the treaty at the end, I'd have HUGE penalties for any untruths told. And realistically, what incentive do humans have for dealing with the dragons at all? They have Dragonscales who have been impregnated by dragons. Wait 16 years, and they'll have Dragons of their own, and can battle the Cats on their own terms. All they have to do is isolate the Dragonscales and prevent them from impregnating anyone.
This started really well, but ended up being a disappointment.
August 29, 2023
Interesting concepts, very poor execution.
What a pity that the back cover text and the spectacular cover do not represent the quality of the story inside. Reading the back cover, one is led to expect a hard sci-fi story about the struggles of a generation ship, deep intrigue of interplanetary politics, and potential conflict with alien cultures. Instead, we get a badly-written largely Earth-bound story about gender-fluid sex with dragons.
Chan writes in first-person and uses with virtually no exposition or description. This seems to be in fashion – to avoid description or introspection in favour of action, action and more action. But you need to have something happen for that action to be important. There have to be stakes, and this is the novel’s great failing. There are no clear antagonists. What stakes there might have been get waved away by magic technology early on in the book. There’s nothing for the characters to overcome, no stakes, nothing to make us care.
It doesn’t help that it’s so poorly written or edited. Chan has a real problem with telling, rather than showing. Constantly we are told how people are feeling or what their motivations are, rather than inferring this from their dialogue or actions. And if we’re not being told flatly what characters are feeling, events are being described in dialogue – but it’s bad dialogue. “Alien invasion! Look at the size of that ship! It just popped into existence next to the Brittania.” That’s the way Chan introduces the arrival of an alien emissary, the first time humans have ever encountered extraterrestrial life – by having an unnamed extra character announce its appearance. The aliens all speak in unconvincing modern vernacular. The eight-hundred year old princess dragon emissary sounds like a teenager. To top it all off, too often the book falls into passive voice: laser beams shoot through space, rather than people or ships firing them. People fall dead, and the reader has to reverse-engineer what just happened to them because nowhere in the text does it say that someone fired a weapon.
There are some interesting concepts on display, the most intriguing being the idea of spaceships being little more than cargo holds that their dragon pilots drag with them. The dragons can ‘fold’ through space, instantly teleporting themselves and whatever they’re holding to another place. Other species have faster-than-light travel, but this is still far slower than the dragons – a single interstellar journey, which might take a week in relativistic time (for the pilot) takes decades from an external perspective. Probably the most promising element of the book is the sentient AI Marque, even if its capabilities do sometimes verge on being a deus ex machina – I would expect to learn more about Marque in the next books in the series.
Interesting concepts, married with a space-operatic story full of dragons, telepaths, murderous felines and space colonies (and lots and lots of gender-fluid sex) should have resulted in a fun, thought-provoking read. Unfortunately the amateur prose and the failure of the author to fulfil the primary function of a novel – to convincingly convey the narrative of the story – makes it a hard slog. The first in a new trilogy, I won’t be hurrying to pick up the sequel.
What a pity that the back cover text and the spectacular cover do not represent the quality of the story inside. Reading the back cover, one is led to expect a hard sci-fi story about the struggles of a generation ship, deep intrigue of interplanetary politics, and potential conflict with alien cultures. Instead, we get a badly-written largely Earth-bound story about gender-fluid sex with dragons.
Chan writes in first-person and uses with virtually no exposition or description. This seems to be in fashion – to avoid description or introspection in favour of action, action and more action. But you need to have something happen for that action to be important. There have to be stakes, and this is the novel’s great failing. There are no clear antagonists. What stakes there might have been get waved away by magic technology early on in the book. There’s nothing for the characters to overcome, no stakes, nothing to make us care.
It doesn’t help that it’s so poorly written or edited. Chan has a real problem with telling, rather than showing. Constantly we are told how people are feeling or what their motivations are, rather than inferring this from their dialogue or actions. And if we’re not being told flatly what characters are feeling, events are being described in dialogue – but it’s bad dialogue. “Alien invasion! Look at the size of that ship! It just popped into existence next to the Brittania.” That’s the way Chan introduces the arrival of an alien emissary, the first time humans have ever encountered extraterrestrial life – by having an unnamed extra character announce its appearance. The aliens all speak in unconvincing modern vernacular. The eight-hundred year old princess dragon emissary sounds like a teenager. To top it all off, too often the book falls into passive voice: laser beams shoot through space, rather than people or ships firing them. People fall dead, and the reader has to reverse-engineer what just happened to them because nowhere in the text does it say that someone fired a weapon.
There are some interesting concepts on display, the most intriguing being the idea of spaceships being little more than cargo holds that their dragon pilots drag with them. The dragons can ‘fold’ through space, instantly teleporting themselves and whatever they’re holding to another place. Other species have faster-than-light travel, but this is still far slower than the dragons – a single interstellar journey, which might take a week in relativistic time (for the pilot) takes decades from an external perspective. Probably the most promising element of the book is the sentient AI Marque, even if its capabilities do sometimes verge on being a deus ex machina – I would expect to learn more about Marque in the next books in the series.
Interesting concepts, married with a space-operatic story full of dragons, telepaths, murderous felines and space colonies (and lots and lots of gender-fluid sex) should have resulted in a fun, thought-provoking read. Unfortunately the amateur prose and the failure of the author to fulfil the primary function of a novel – to convincingly convey the narrative of the story – makes it a hard slog. The first in a new trilogy, I won’t be hurrying to pick up the sequel.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews