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Dissent
Part one of six of the DRAGON series marks the beginning of a young dragon’s journey of sacrifice, self-discovery, and rise to power. Aeris has spent her life being a good dragon and doing as she’s told, living a quiet sheltered life. But when she becomes curious about her origins, the veil is torn and she learns that she is the center of a deadly game where there are no winners, only survivors.
- GenresDragons
517 pages, Kindle Edition
Published November 21, 2021
28 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
September 24, 2023
Aeris loves her master and would do anything for him. She grew up along him in his family, and her life revolves around him and the social gatherings he takes her to.
She is a domesticate dragon, one of a few who instead of living in clans segregated from humans as most dragons do, or as free albeit second zone citizens in humans towns, are raised by humans. Officially orphaned eggs salvaged so, they are more like pets of the gentry, to be shown off, despised by their own kind and seen by humans as mere objects.
Aside from their loathable treatment, the origins of the domesticates are not always what they should be, as each time wealthy people find themselves competing to own something, providers will pop up to fill the market with whatever methods can achieve the goal. There is a mexican standoff between humans and dragons, should it be brought in full light, it could reignite a conflict that nearly wiped both kinds long ago.
Aeris thinks herself privileged, as her master treats her so well compared to other owners. As she grows up she becomes more aware of things going on around her, yet having been pampered and isolated from the real world life-long, she barely scrapes the surface. But she starts to wonder about her origins and starts her own quest, quite clumsily, and triggers a chain of events that tumble out of control.
Her struggle to understand who she is, while first driven by her misplaced loyalty to her master, ends up causing her awakening. Breaking out of such a mental jail is tedious and it is frustrating to see her going back in circles to her tormentor, yet there is little she can do so long she is captive to her own misplaced feelings. Manipulation is a vicious circle that for some can never be broken, so slowly is still better than never.
For a long part of the story she's always the last one aware of things that do or will affect her greatly, while everyone around is gossiping. This earns her pity or contempt from either humans or fellow dragons, domesticates or not, and causes her to blunder (or being manipulated into blunder) with sometimes spectacular and dramatic results.
Her character is one outstanding element of this book (yet the rest of the cast is interesting and alive too). At first she seems naive and gullible - and in fact, she is, to a barely believable level. As she slowly awakes, she takes her destiny in charge the best she can with what she knows, bravely and with no other choice than to endure the consequence of missteps she barely realizes she made at first. And then comes the day whe truly realizes her condition, and sees the true face of her master.
Freedom however, will come at great cost, combining the mental backlash of realizing how blind she has been with terrible events unleashed by her revolt.
I had a thrilling read following the struggle of Aeris towards freedom, yet the story is crushing. The first book has a cliffhanger end and the following ones are not yet published at this time (yet written but undergoing editing afaik). Some of the trials thrown at the MC felt like overkill, yet they could serve a goal and I can't know until I've read the sequels.
The plot and intrigue is not left to rot either, there are a lot of characters with their own agendas. Guessing who plans what is not easy, leaving space for many possibilities. The storytelling provides a dynamic flow of new events, new paths for action, and is not boring at all.
I've seen some people disliked the occurences of Aeris's caretaker preparing her for social events (bath, perfume, clothing...). It didn't strike me as overweighted. These happen a few times, but there are not pages spent each time and the repetition hammers down how unpleasant some things brought by anthropocentrism can be.
Some words misspelled or swapped and inconsistencies now and then, but inconsequential.
The book has explicit content and profanity (not the whole story happens among the gentry), but even if there wasn't, I think the rather well depicted circle of abuse and manipulation Aeris is victim of is something to keep to a warned adult audience.
The whole book except the epilogue is told from Aeris' pov, 3rd person.
I read the kindle edition published oct 2020, not the old version on royal road. I had a short peek in the old version however and there are important differences in the plot, that could make it unstable, so it's good they were fixed and I recommend going for the last edition, this is not merely a typo/grammar fix.
She is a domesticate dragon, one of a few who instead of living in clans segregated from humans as most dragons do, or as free albeit second zone citizens in humans towns, are raised by humans. Officially orphaned eggs salvaged so, they are more like pets of the gentry, to be shown off, despised by their own kind and seen by humans as mere objects.
Aside from their loathable treatment, the origins of the domesticates are not always what they should be, as each time wealthy people find themselves competing to own something, providers will pop up to fill the market with whatever methods can achieve the goal. There is a mexican standoff between humans and dragons, should it be brought in full light, it could reignite a conflict that nearly wiped both kinds long ago.
Aeris thinks herself privileged, as her master treats her so well compared to other owners. As she grows up she becomes more aware of things going on around her, yet having been pampered and isolated from the real world life-long, she barely scrapes the surface. But she starts to wonder about her origins and starts her own quest, quite clumsily, and triggers a chain of events that tumble out of control.
Her struggle to understand who she is, while first driven by her misplaced loyalty to her master, ends up causing her awakening. Breaking out of such a mental jail is tedious and it is frustrating to see her going back in circles to her tormentor, yet there is little she can do so long she is captive to her own misplaced feelings. Manipulation is a vicious circle that for some can never be broken, so slowly is still better than never.
For a long part of the story she's always the last one aware of things that do or will affect her greatly, while everyone around is gossiping. This earns her pity or contempt from either humans or fellow dragons, domesticates or not, and causes her to blunder (or being manipulated into blunder) with sometimes spectacular and dramatic results.
Her character is one outstanding element of this book (yet the rest of the cast is interesting and alive too). At first she seems naive and gullible - and in fact, she is, to a barely believable level. As she slowly awakes, she takes her destiny in charge the best she can with what she knows, bravely and with no other choice than to endure the consequence of missteps she barely realizes she made at first. And then comes the day whe truly realizes her condition, and sees the true face of her master.
Freedom however, will come at great cost, combining the mental backlash of realizing how blind she has been with terrible events unleashed by her revolt.
I had a thrilling read following the struggle of Aeris towards freedom, yet the story is crushing. The first book has a cliffhanger end and the following ones are not yet published at this time (yet written but undergoing editing afaik). Some of the trials thrown at the MC felt like overkill, yet they could serve a goal and I can't know until I've read the sequels.
The plot and intrigue is not left to rot either, there are a lot of characters with their own agendas. Guessing who plans what is not easy, leaving space for many possibilities. The storytelling provides a dynamic flow of new events, new paths for action, and is not boring at all.
I've seen some people disliked the occurences of Aeris's caretaker preparing her for social events (bath, perfume, clothing...). It didn't strike me as overweighted. These happen a few times, but there are not pages spent each time and the repetition hammers down how unpleasant some things brought by anthropocentrism can be.
Some words misspelled or swapped and inconsistencies now and then, but inconsequential.
The book has explicit content and profanity (not the whole story happens among the gentry), but even if there wasn't, I think the rather well depicted circle of abuse and manipulation Aeris is victim of is something to keep to a warned adult audience.
The whole book except the epilogue is told from Aeris' pov, 3rd person.
I read the kindle edition published oct 2020, not the old version on royal road. I had a short peek in the old version however and there are important differences in the plot, that could make it unstable, so it's good they were fixed and I recommend going for the last edition, this is not merely a typo/grammar fix.
June 17, 2022
A pet dragon's struggle with her master
Raised from the egg by her human master, Aeris could not find it in herself to disappoint him, even while she endures the unpleasantry and humiliation arising from her station as a pet. However, a seed of doubt is planted as Aeris learns more about the world, her master, and herself, culminating in the ultimate act of rebellion that takes away everything Aeris holds dear...
Well, I liked the plot and its development over the course of the novel. The politics between dragons and humans is intriguing, and seeing the world from the perspective of a submissive pet dragon is an unusual experience. However, the writing could easily be improved through more rounds of editing to catch a plot inconsistency (though that was ultimately inconsequential) and randomly missing or misspelled words in sentences throughout the book.
One part I disliked was the occasional sexual content of which there is no warning in the blurb, and I thought it didn't contribute much to the narrative anyway. Thankfully, such occurrences are few and far in between, so it didn't detract significantly from my reading experience.
That said, I did only pick up this book because of the dragon lead character, and I'm quite satisfied with the nearly complete non-human PoV experience. It could be an entertaining read, but be prepared for some occasional unsavory content.
Raised from the egg by her human master, Aeris could not find it in herself to disappoint him, even while she endures the unpleasantry and humiliation arising from her station as a pet. However, a seed of doubt is planted as Aeris learns more about the world, her master, and herself, culminating in the ultimate act of rebellion that takes away everything Aeris holds dear...
Well, I liked the plot and its development over the course of the novel. The politics between dragons and humans is intriguing, and seeing the world from the perspective of a submissive pet dragon is an unusual experience. However, the writing could easily be improved through more rounds of editing to catch a plot inconsistency (though that was ultimately inconsequential) and randomly missing or misspelled words in sentences throughout the book.
One part I disliked was the occasional sexual content of which there is no warning in the blurb, and I thought it didn't contribute much to the narrative anyway. Thankfully, such occurrences are few and far in between, so it didn't detract significantly from my reading experience.
That said, I did only pick up this book because of the dragon lead character, and I'm quite satisfied with the nearly complete non-human PoV experience. It could be an entertaining read, but be prepared for some occasional unsavory content.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews