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Bound in Black
Galdor the Green, great and powerful leader of the Lifting Plateau dragons, finds himself magically incarcerated-without means of escape-deep within an underground cavern.
Deceived by the dragon, Blaze, once friend and ally, a black scaled, black-hearted liar and master of deception.
A lot can happen to a dragon in a hundred years and the constant emotional turmoil, and starvation, weigh heavy on his heart.
Now, close to the brink of insanity, Galdor is plagued with nightmares over the havoc the deceitful Blaze will inflict upon his lost colony.
Yet, there is hope. The key to his return, lies in his past… with a human sorcerer. And another black dragon.
With his rival safely out of the way, Blaze the usurper is free to advance his coup unchecked. Dragons have become soft under Galdor’s complacent rule. It is up to him to restore his species to their rightful place, using his new found magic to strengthen his position and teach dragons how to really behave. As his magic grows, so does his ambition, and with it an unknown influence of unstoppable power, never before seen on his world.
Once fully ensconced as Galdor’s replacement, Blaze will deal with the hateful humans, and by fang and flame, he will teach them the way of the dragon.
Skies will burn. Dragons will clash. Enemies, old and new, will die.
Deceived by the dragon, Blaze, once friend and ally, a black scaled, black-hearted liar and master of deception.
A lot can happen to a dragon in a hundred years and the constant emotional turmoil, and starvation, weigh heavy on his heart.
Now, close to the brink of insanity, Galdor is plagued with nightmares over the havoc the deceitful Blaze will inflict upon his lost colony.
Yet, there is hope. The key to his return, lies in his past… with a human sorcerer. And another black dragon.
With his rival safely out of the way, Blaze the usurper is free to advance his coup unchecked. Dragons have become soft under Galdor’s complacent rule. It is up to him to restore his species to their rightful place, using his new found magic to strengthen his position and teach dragons how to really behave. As his magic grows, so does his ambition, and with it an unknown influence of unstoppable power, never before seen on his world.
Once fully ensconced as Galdor’s replacement, Blaze will deal with the hateful humans, and by fang and flame, he will teach them the way of the dragon.
Skies will burn. Dragons will clash. Enemies, old and new, will die.
Paperback
Published April 4, 2020
21 people want to read
About the author
Steven De Luca
3 books23 followersI live near Edinburgh, Scotland. Some of my favourite authors are Anne McCaffrey, David Gemmell, Raymond Feist, Philp K Dick and Brandon Sanderson. Too many to list! I've loved writing and self publishing my novel, "Bound in Scales" and learned so much from the process.
From an early age I was an avid reader and always believed I had a story to tell. I mentioned this to my friend, Chris... probably a lot. One day he said to me, "You keep telling me you have a book in you, why don't you just write it?" I accepted his 'challenge' and wrote a novel. A big novel. over 200k words. I looked at it as a practice run and I plan to revisit it. It needs some TLC and a lot of editing. However, I found I had a passion for writing and from the ashes of my previous work, rose the phoenix of my new story. I hope you like it.
From an early age I was an avid reader and always believed I had a story to tell. I mentioned this to my friend, Chris... probably a lot. One day he said to me, "You keep telling me you have a book in you, why don't you just write it?" I accepted his 'challenge' and wrote a novel. A big novel. over 200k words. I looked at it as a practice run and I plan to revisit it. It needs some TLC and a lot of editing. However, I found I had a passion for writing and from the ashes of my previous work, rose the phoenix of my new story. I hope you like it.
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
November 24, 2023
A dive into Galdor and Blaze's story, until it intersects with the trajectory of our two protagonists where we left them in "Bound in Scales".
It was a nice twist how Blaze is first an antagonist, then a villain (damn, some sick sh*t he does for greed of power...) how he is later redeemed.
I spent a part of the book worrying that his drive and origin were going to be a plot hole, but they were not.
The resolution, albeit surprisingly simple, is efficient in the setting of the story.
The Nightstar / Alduce duality continues to grow together with more challenges testing their unique bonding.
As the previous book it is still a pretty good take at the risky topic of transformation and shapeshifting, which are way too often used in fantasy to quickly leverage the abilities of another sapient species without going through the hassle of dealing into what makes it another kind.
Nothing of this here, the opposite. The tf and shifting allow to dive into those differences, what can rub off one onto the other, what can't.
The shifting is seldom used, occurring only a few times for *important* reasons. No such "Ah I'm out of matches, let's turn into a dragon to light that stove. Eh piece of cake ! Now it's cramped, turning back to human. Pop !" sort of sh*t.
It is a dual personality, one dominant by mutual agreement with each form but the other still present.
My only gripe would be the moments where Nightstar finds himself in a possibly doomed situation, and thinks to his friend and brother in blood, it's only right he does. But I found it disturbing he did not spare a thought for his mate in this moment. This made wonder if she's that important, he could be never returning and she would never know what happened to him. Or maybe Nightstar is not ready and in a "oh damn she's serious, she wants hatchlings, let's go on an adventure with my pal" phase of his relation to her, and this is matter for another story :-)
Editing missed a few swapped words now and then ("throws" instead of "throes", that sort of thing) but nothing serious and the errors remain scarce.
I hesitated between a 4 and 5 rating, I'll make it a 4 because of that gripe mentioned above, and because average ratings too close to 5 are always suspicious and may drive readers away - and I certainly don't want that.
It was a nice twist how Blaze is first an antagonist, then a villain (damn, some sick sh*t he does for greed of power...) how he is later redeemed.
I spent a part of the book worrying that his drive and origin were going to be a plot hole, but they were not.
The resolution, albeit surprisingly simple, is efficient in the setting of the story.
The Nightstar / Alduce duality continues to grow together with more challenges testing their unique bonding.
As the previous book it is still a pretty good take at the risky topic of transformation and shapeshifting, which are way too often used in fantasy to quickly leverage the abilities of another sapient species without going through the hassle of dealing into what makes it another kind.
Nothing of this here, the opposite. The tf and shifting allow to dive into those differences, what can rub off one onto the other, what can't.
The shifting is seldom used, occurring only a few times for *important* reasons. No such "Ah I'm out of matches, let's turn into a dragon to light that stove. Eh piece of cake ! Now it's cramped, turning back to human. Pop !" sort of sh*t.
It is a dual personality, one dominant by mutual agreement with each form but the other still present.
My only gripe would be the moments where Nightstar finds himself in a possibly doomed situation, and thinks to his friend and brother in blood, it's only right he does. But I found it disturbing he did not spare a thought for his mate in this moment. This made wonder if she's that important, he could be never returning and she would never know what happened to him. Or maybe Nightstar is not ready and in a "oh damn she's serious, she wants hatchlings, let's go on an adventure with my pal" phase of his relation to her, and this is matter for another story :-)
Editing missed a few swapped words now and then ("throws" instead of "throes", that sort of thing) but nothing serious and the errors remain scarce.
I hesitated between a 4 and 5 rating, I'll make it a 4 because of that gripe mentioned above, and because average ratings too close to 5 are always suspicious and may drive readers away - and I certainly don't want that.
April 21, 2020
I loved "Bound in Scales" and this second book does not disappoint. A brilliant sequel to the first book.
I adore all the new dragons introduced in this second volume, the good the bad and the ugly, and we are treated to some familiar faces from the first book about halfway through which I was not expecting.
A lot of book series lose steam after the first volume, But De luca has managed to progress the plot from the first book, while making the second another stand alone adventure, that could be read on it's own terms, although I recommend reading the first beforehand.
I wont rehash the plot, as you can easily read the blurb for yourself, but suffice to say there are plenty of twists and turns to be had.
Once again, the author paints a vivid world, full of interesting and colourful dragons. The world-building and culture of the dragons is rich and well realised and the writing style is easy to read and not overly complex, although there is still depth to be had if you're looking for it. The humour, present from the first book, is back and there are some darker moments to be had too. The action scenes are breathless, and at times you fell like you are flying right along side the dragons of the Lifting Plateau.
It feels like the author is just getting into his stride with this series, and I have a feeling there will be many more adventures to come with these enigmatic dragons.
If you're a lover of dragon tales, or have read Bound in Scales, or if you just fancy an entertaining and exciting read, I highly recommend checking this out.
I, for one, will be queuing up for a 3rd instalment. Fingers crossed for that one.
I adore all the new dragons introduced in this second volume, the good the bad and the ugly, and we are treated to some familiar faces from the first book about halfway through which I was not expecting.
A lot of book series lose steam after the first volume, But De luca has managed to progress the plot from the first book, while making the second another stand alone adventure, that could be read on it's own terms, although I recommend reading the first beforehand.
I wont rehash the plot, as you can easily read the blurb for yourself, but suffice to say there are plenty of twists and turns to be had.
Once again, the author paints a vivid world, full of interesting and colourful dragons. The world-building and culture of the dragons is rich and well realised and the writing style is easy to read and not overly complex, although there is still depth to be had if you're looking for it. The humour, present from the first book, is back and there are some darker moments to be had too. The action scenes are breathless, and at times you fell like you are flying right along side the dragons of the Lifting Plateau.
It feels like the author is just getting into his stride with this series, and I have a feeling there will be many more adventures to come with these enigmatic dragons.
If you're a lover of dragon tales, or have read Bound in Scales, or if you just fancy an entertaining and exciting read, I highly recommend checking this out.
I, for one, will be queuing up for a 3rd instalment. Fingers crossed for that one.
April 6, 2023
Enjoyable story, glacial pacing
I liked the overall story.
However, the pacing is dreadful until the second half of the book. The first quarter or so retells what happens to Galdor. While more of his character is fleshed out, the gist of his backstory has already been told in the first book. I already know what to expect, and it would have been fine if it hadn't been so many pages of Galdor repeatedly berating himself for ending up where he is or lamenting and despairing in his new situation.
Instead, I wish it had just been an uninterrupted description and point of view from Blaze. At least it was new information on how the character comes to find his new position. Unfortunately, I thought Blaze's chapters also crawled slowly due to choppy flow in dialogue and narration. At one point, the character would say a single line. Then the narrative cuts in to explain why he says it. The dialogue resumes, letting the character's second line through. The narrative interrupts again to explain why the second line is said! It's a repeating pattern throughout the book which I thought made it difficult to follow completely without rereading an entire paragraph at times. If the character is said to be so clever and cunning, I think subtly making his dialogue reflect it would work just as well; let the reader read between the lines instead of explicitly clarifying every intent.
The story pace thankfully picks up in the latter half of the book, and I was glad to see Sunburst and Nightstar return to continue their adventure. I hope their journey continues in a third book, hopefully with a more engaging storytelling pace and less strangely halting placement of commas.
I liked the overall story.
However, the pacing is dreadful until the second half of the book. The first quarter or so retells what happens to Galdor. While more of his character is fleshed out, the gist of his backstory has already been told in the first book. I already know what to expect, and it would have been fine if it hadn't been so many pages of Galdor repeatedly berating himself for ending up where he is or lamenting and despairing in his new situation.
Instead, I wish it had just been an uninterrupted description and point of view from Blaze. At least it was new information on how the character comes to find his new position. Unfortunately, I thought Blaze's chapters also crawled slowly due to choppy flow in dialogue and narration. At one point, the character would say a single line. Then the narrative cuts in to explain why he says it. The dialogue resumes, letting the character's second line through. The narrative interrupts again to explain why the second line is said! It's a repeating pattern throughout the book which I thought made it difficult to follow completely without rereading an entire paragraph at times. If the character is said to be so clever and cunning, I think subtly making his dialogue reflect it would work just as well; let the reader read between the lines instead of explicitly clarifying every intent.
The story pace thankfully picks up in the latter half of the book, and I was glad to see Sunburst and Nightstar return to continue their adventure. I hope their journey continues in a third book, hopefully with a more engaging storytelling pace and less strangely halting placement of commas.
August 3, 2020
Such a fun follow up to Steve's first book (Bound in Scales). An exciting dragon-filled adventure with some great characters and awesomem magic. Highly recommend for anyone who is into dragon lore/worlds.
May 5, 2020
I rarely read fantasy but having read Steven De Luca's fantastic debut, Bound in Scales, I definitely became more open to reading novels in the fantasy genre and I was super-excited to read Steven De Luca's new novel, Bound in Black. It certainly didn't hang around on my TBR list for very long! Don't worry if you haven't read Bound in Scales, as Bound in Black reads very well as a standalone and it introduces us to a completely new colony of dragons.
The story is told in three parts as Galdor, the moot leader of the Lifting Plateau, is tricked and imprisoned by fellow dragon, Blaze. Part One is very much setting the scene and Galdor's imprisonment, with a cameo appearance by our favourite sorcerer, Alduce. When he came into the story, albeit briefly, I felt like I was seeing an old friend who I hadn't seen for years! Alduce helps Galdor to escape his stony prison but the world to which he returns in Part Two is nothing like the peaceful colony he once led. Blaze has become new moot leader and has waged war against the humans, turning once peaceful dragons into fighting machines.
Parts One and Two already had me on the edge of my seat but the pacing and tension are ramped up to the max in Part Three: the inevitable showdown between Galdor and Blaze. Galdor has a little help from his friends and I was absolutely delighted to see some much-loved dragons from Bound in Scales appear in the story. The friendship between Nightstar and Sunburst is stronger than ever and I love how little character quirks of the other rub off on each of them. They definitely steal the show and make me want to read so many more of their adventures.
Bound in Black is fantastic fantasy! I am surprised how much I love these stories of dragons and magic but that's all down to the captivating writing of Steven De Luca. Bound in Black is gripping, captivating and filled with fast and furious fiery fun! I couldn't put it down and I'm already crying out for more! Bound in Black is very highly recommended; I absolutely loved it and could read it all over again right now.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
The story is told in three parts as Galdor, the moot leader of the Lifting Plateau, is tricked and imprisoned by fellow dragon, Blaze. Part One is very much setting the scene and Galdor's imprisonment, with a cameo appearance by our favourite sorcerer, Alduce. When he came into the story, albeit briefly, I felt like I was seeing an old friend who I hadn't seen for years! Alduce helps Galdor to escape his stony prison but the world to which he returns in Part Two is nothing like the peaceful colony he once led. Blaze has become new moot leader and has waged war against the humans, turning once peaceful dragons into fighting machines.
Parts One and Two already had me on the edge of my seat but the pacing and tension are ramped up to the max in Part Three: the inevitable showdown between Galdor and Blaze. Galdor has a little help from his friends and I was absolutely delighted to see some much-loved dragons from Bound in Scales appear in the story. The friendship between Nightstar and Sunburst is stronger than ever and I love how little character quirks of the other rub off on each of them. They definitely steal the show and make me want to read so many more of their adventures.
Bound in Black is fantastic fantasy! I am surprised how much I love these stories of dragons and magic but that's all down to the captivating writing of Steven De Luca. Bound in Black is gripping, captivating and filled with fast and furious fiery fun! I couldn't put it down and I'm already crying out for more! Bound in Black is very highly recommended; I absolutely loved it and could read it all over again right now.
I chose to read an ARC and this is my honest and unbiased opinion.
May 10, 2020
An excellent book not only as a sequel, but even by itself. The structure of the narrative is well written and organized, such that the reader is able to experience the events leading up to the main conflict of the story, rather than being expected to sit through having it explained to them. The structure is split into two distinct halves, switching perspectives in the middle of the story. I was hesitant about this at first, but I found that the story was well suited to this structure.
The author is exceptionally talented at writing characters, and knowing how many to include and how to clearly distinguish their role in the story. The book avoids burdening the reader with any unnecessary characters, but includes enough side characters tied to specific events in the story, smartly inserted throughout the book, to allow the reader to get familiar with and invested in each of them. The main characters in particular are so well written that you would think they were real, having believable motivations and backgrounds rooted in the key elements of the story.
The relationship that the protagonist builds with his friends is truly beautiful. You can feel how they care for each other and best of all you understand why. I feel like I myself am friends with these dragons.
The plot itself is not completely unique in it's themes and events, but the presentation, pacing, brilliant characters, and quality of the writing itself, elevate the book beyond what a plot synopsis might suggest.
It's rare that I find a book for which I truthfully cannot find any significant criticism for. I'm eagerly awaiting the next entry in what I believe is a promising series. The world hints at the possibility for something greater, and more stories to be told.
The author is exceptionally talented at writing characters, and knowing how many to include and how to clearly distinguish their role in the story. The book avoids burdening the reader with any unnecessary characters, but includes enough side characters tied to specific events in the story, smartly inserted throughout the book, to allow the reader to get familiar with and invested in each of them. The main characters in particular are so well written that you would think they were real, having believable motivations and backgrounds rooted in the key elements of the story.
The relationship that the protagonist builds with his friends is truly beautiful. You can feel how they care for each other and best of all you understand why. I feel like I myself am friends with these dragons.
The plot itself is not completely unique in it's themes and events, but the presentation, pacing, brilliant characters, and quality of the writing itself, elevate the book beyond what a plot synopsis might suggest.
It's rare that I find a book for which I truthfully cannot find any significant criticism for. I'm eagerly awaiting the next entry in what I believe is a promising series. The world hints at the possibility for something greater, and more stories to be told.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews