Dragon Forged

Blood of the Ancients #1

by Dan Michaelson, D.K. Holmberg

The dragons are gone, leaving behind their essence for those who follow.

Firewater is sacred. Touched by the power of the dragons, those who consume it can become more like those ancient beings. Most become dragon forged, their bodies strengthened to help fight the dangerous creatures attacking the valley.

But firewater didn’t change Rob.

When invaders threaten to destroy his people, what Rob discovers may save all he cares about—and provide the key to forging his own power.

Dragon Forged is book 1 in an exciting new progression fantasy series!

Genres: Fantasy, Dragons, Magic, Fiction, High Fantasy, Ebooks, Young Adult

286 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 12, 2022

Reviews

[Amanda Skalski · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good story, poorly written.

Granted, I don’t believe English is D.K. Holmberg, or Dan Michaelson’s first language, but there is such a thing an an EDITOR who helps in catching all the grammatical errors and punctuation flaws. The storyline is actually rather novel and refreshing. It even kept me struggling onward, past the worst of the translation issues, and that is what most of it is. Some of it just doesn’t translate well! Not using a computer program anyway. They really should have just coughed up for a human editor…

[Julie Malcolm · Rating 2 out of 5]

Found this slow, and quite repetitive. The basics of a good story are here but, don't know, never really found myself caring about any of the characters. No burning desire to read the rest of the series.

[Hanzel · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another day, another progression novel done, hmmmmmm........keep wondering what is inside these books that make them so hard to put down(and each series is what 8 books and more......)Maybe........progress........

Now we have dragons or blood of dragons as the source of ascension or progress, as with all progression novels our hero did not......progress(heheheh.....ughhhh....I need to get out more), this time we have a new source of advancement, blood of dragons or firewater, Robert or Rob(no more asian names), is the only villager unable to advance even after drinking more than his fair share, as the book progresses, more and more ideas are introduced, making this one different from your usual training and training until you explode to your next advancement....

A fascinating and new approach to progressing, and since this has dragon in it, I am really looking forward to how they will incorporate that into levelling up........

[Izzy Krause · Rating 3 out of 5]

Categories rated on a 10 point scale. Averaged and then translated into Star Rating. See CAWPILE by Book Roast.

I read this book as an ebook via Kindle Unlimited.

Interesting concept

The characters in this book were not hard to keep straight at all. While everyone but Rob and his grandmother seemed to be assholes, there was a bit of light and hope for Gasal that was repeatedly dashed. I did enjoy how the world was revealed as Rob came across it, including how the magic system worked. As Rob learned more about firewater and essence, so did we the readers. Backstory was not relayed in chunks, which worked really well for this story. We discovered the world through Rob’s eyes.

That being said, the writing was very hard to get through. I’m not sure if English is a second language, if the main author is really young, or just didn’t
T have the funds to afford an editor who would have caught the repetitious phrasings. I started to mark all the glaringly obvious ones that distracted me from the story, but eventually stopped because of how much was highlighted. The writing style of repeated phrases is why I will not be continuing with this rapid release series. It leads me to believe that these issues were not addressed in later entries.

On the other hand, I was torn in continuing because the premise and the story itself were fascinating. The level of enjoyment was really brought down by the fixable grammar issues.

Characters: 7.3
Atmosphere: 6.8
Writing: 4.2
Plot: 6.4
Intrigue: 7.8
Logic: 5.8
Enjoyment: 5.5

Points: 43.8/70.0
Stars: 3

[Doina Dolgan · Rating 1 out of 5]

Very poor writing style, the semantics of sentences and the vocabulary are just horrible. Throughout the book, you can see almost in every paragraph a different form of the noun "to forge", some 4-5 times per paragraph. This book is just eye-cutting and the first book that I can call terrifyingly bad in all aspects. It's just not worth your time at all.
If I could give it -10 stars, I would.
I absolutely don't understand why such a trash book has that big of a rating.🤦‍♀️

[Holly Cole · Rating 2 out of 5]

ARC review from NetGalley! 📚📚

I wanted to love this book so much, it had so many elements I love, Dragons, Action and Adventure, fantasy, and it just fell flat for me.

I found the writing style hard to follow and the plot very slow moving. It was also very difficult for me to get into. I know this book is going to hit its target audience and be a hit, but it just wasn’t for me.

I’m super appreciative to NetGalley and the Author for giving me the chance to read and review this book

[Gate · Rating 5 out of 5]

Such a pleasant book to read. The story is pretty simple but extremely enjoyable, the pacing is perfect and the characters are really likeable. No fluff, just straight into an extremely solid and well written story.

For the reviews talking about the typos and the grammatical errors, they are blowing it waaaaay out of proportion.

[ashbagash28 · Rating 2 out of 5]

Great concept, horrible writing

The idea and premise of the book sounded wonderful.
A boy on the lower rungs of his village hierarchy, teams up with a magical water sprite, a strong willed princess and a warrior who’s come out of retirement. And of course the idea of dragons.

The only positive of this book was that it was a quick read, otherwise I would’ve stopped reading it.
The writing took me back 22 or so years. You’re in English class and assigned a topic for a paper. The teachers usually have either a word or page goal they’d like you to hit. Like five pages or 1,000 words.

If you won the topic lottery, you actually liked what you had to write about. If you didn’t, well, you’re stuck with trying to fluff it up by adding a bunch of nonsense. Such as rewriting the same thing but in a different way. Or saying the same thing over again but having a different character say it.

Anyway, I felt like this author back in the day. Trying to rewrite the same phrases over again so the teacher (or publisher, or reader) thinks I wrote enough.

[Endes · Rating 2 out of 5]

Started off interesting. Could forgive poor depictions because the storyline was good enough. However, it loses the plot when the main character decides to go adventuring within 5 min of waking up from near death. The same words are repeated over and over again 'the sprite danced... hopping from one foot to another... cold washed over him.' And then he meets his adventure buddies who talk as if they're trying to fill out the word count requirement of an essay. Their conversations from page 230 are extremely repetitive and can be reduced to:
Griffin 'I'm so annoyed at being here but ill follow you anyway. Wheres the weapon'
Serena 'You're ignorant. You don't understand. There's no point telling you.'
Rob 'I want to understand'
Serena 'there's no point telling you'

And repeat x10 all the way to end of the book.

[Mrs Amanda Jane Williams · Rating 4 out of 5]

A new start....

I need to find something to keep me entertained whilst recovering from a broken, dislocated hand and the new varient Covid-19, yep a double wamy. To start with I was put off by the amount of times "Dragon forged" was mentioned I was very surprised how captivating the book grew on me to the point that I couldn't wait to read again. PLUS having a series ready for me to continue exploring is great.... A new twist on a much written subject. Highly recommend for those lover's of Dragons, magic and mistory...

[Rebekah · Rating 1 out of 5]

I read through about half of this before I decided it wasn't worth my time. The book is very meandering and repetitive and in dire need of an editor. Honestly, the premise feels very weak. If I took a shot every time the mentioned dragon forged in a sentence, I think I would have killed myself reading it.

I don't get why people rate this so highly. It feels very bland to read. Characters repeat themselves too often, and the dialogue is awkward and uncomfortable most of the time. The only character that had a real personality that didn't feel like cardboard was the grandmother.

[JR Knodel · Rating 4 out of 5]

A stone room is a cave

It took two writers to screw up a book that was going along great. That's the best ending two people collaborating together can come up with. My my ice power. That's novel.... And the essence drinking, diluted dragon sweat in spring water. Well, two people, writers, are responsible for little effort. Publishers must have went on name recognition, did not read book.

[Mike N · Rating 1 out of 5]

I have no idea how this book is so highly rated. It's one of the worst books I've read this year.

Dragon Forged is a much worse version of Will Wight's Unsouled. The writing style is awkward and uninteresting, the characters completely boring, and the plot utterly forgettable.

I more or less skipped all the way to the end of the book to find out whether there was anything that might make it worth going deeper into the series. There wasn't.

[Sandy · Rating 5 out of 5]

thrilling

Rob is actually the main character. He has drunk firewater but did not become dragon forged. A sprite has befriended him and has given him power. He meets Serena and griffin and he they go on a journey to find a dragon weapon. They find it and Rob decides he must go to meet the dragon queen.

[LP · Rating 1 out of 5]

Did you know his arrow flew true and that he could feel the energy? I didn't either

[Neil · Rating 3 out of 5]

This started very well and I was looking forward to an engaging, interesting, fast-paced story, which to be fair, for the most part, it was.

The concept of gaining powers incrementally as you consume Firewater, which is water imbued with Dragon essence, and as such is a very rare substance, is fascinating, especially as the scope and range of those powers are revealed as the story progresses.

I liked the characters, especially Rob and his Grandmother, who are the most fleshed out. The plot is on the whole it is straightforward to follow, and even the limited world-building gives you a good sense of the environment where the story takes place.

However, it does have some serious problems in consistency and continuity, as well as a fair number of grammatical errors, and its over-reliance on several phrases, which are repeated every time certain actions are taken. The result is a story that gets quite irritating at times and baffling at others, which is a shame as there is a decent, interesting story underlying it all that has the potential to be highly enjoyable.

If the next book in the series came up in the Kindle monthly deals for 99 pence, then I would buy it and hope most of the issues listed above have been resolved, otherwise, I don't see myself reading any further in this series.

[River Wolfe · Rating 1 out of 5]

im so upset with the lack of effort from the authors. The plot had such potential, but the lack of editing, which seemed to get worse as the book went on, became such a huge problem.

Is he holding a cask or a casket? Because the word casket was definitely used.

Theres a crack in the wall, and they climb, but they end up in a valley with a huge water source and a bunch of caves? Then they are running, but are they running into a cave or along the shoreline? if they are in a cave, how can they see the shoreline if they have been running away from it?

Also, how many times can you say dragon forged in a single paragraph? Freida McFadden had fewer turtles in her book than a single chapter had the words "dragon forged" in this book.

I had so much hope for this book and was looking forward to reading the whole series. but I am closing this book and never picking up another written by these authors ever again.

As a reader, I am mad that I wasted my time on this book. As a published author myself, I would rather stab myself in the hand with a plastic fork than publish without so much a proof reading and editing multiple drafts. which is exactly what these "authors" did. They spit out words without double-checking their work and just hit the submit button.

[Kurtis Hampton · Rating 2 out of 5]

I want to give this series a better score than I am going to. I have read through the first nine books. There are some significant problems that become increasingly difficult to overlook.

Unfortunately, it seems that there was no editor involved in the creation of these books and at least one of the authors appears to be using speech-to-text dictation. When there is no one to proofread the material, it results in hundreds of distracting issues.

1. The plot is extremely derivative. The names might be different but the process and solution are pretty much the same every time.

2. The vocabulary is generally on the weak side. Even for a young adult novel. You will see the same phrases and words repeated ad nauseam. Occasionally, a phrase will be used in back-to-back sentences.

3. The errors only become more numerous and frustrating. These include frequent spelling errors, grammatical issues, and sound-alike words that are misused. Many of the truly egregious examples come later in the series. To avoid spoilers I will not include them here.

[Susan May · Rating 4 out of 5]

I enjoyed this story. I found it to be very entertaining with surprises a long the way.
Rob lives in a small village with his family. Firewater is a sacred thing. It is said it's touched by the power of the dragons and those who consume it can become more like the ancient beings it came from. Most become dragon forged, their bodies strengthened to help fight the dangerous creatures attacking the valley. But firewater didn’t change Rob even after drinking more than his fair share and he feels like he has disappointed his father because he didn't change like he did. Then his grandmother becomes ill and none of the medicines given to her seem to be helping so he seeks wild firewater to help his grandmother. He ends up finding some with the help of a water sprite and his grandmothers health i0mproves. Firewater is never given to women in the viage, just the men so Rob tries to hide it from everyone. Then invaders come to his village and threaten to destroy his people unless Rob gives them what they want. Again Rob receives help from the water sprite and then Rob discovers may save all he cares about and provide the key to forging his own power.
A great read.

[Janice Holland]

I'm a voracious reader and I read so much that I almost can't afford myself. I'm 75 and there are time when I can't find anything left to read in the type of books I usually pick. By chance I chose something that was a change of pace and I'm honestly completely addicted to this series. When a young boy, Rob, tries to be like the other boys in his village take the steps to become worriers, like their father, Rob finds he isn't able to become Dragon Forged, to gain the physical strength or massive body growth of the other boys. Rob feels the rejection, he feels like a failure and in his effort to try to be something, anything that will make him like the other boys he begins a journey that not only is the start of self discovery but self worth. He is learning how to make the very best of the worst situations while meeting people from places and cultures he never imagined. I absolute love what I've read so far and have every intention of starting to read the series to my grandson. I can't put the books down.

[Corinne K · Rating 2 out of 5]

Plot is basic and full of cliches. I can handle that in most books as long as it is written well. This book was not. In at least three separate instances the author repeats the exact same phrases to describe a person or event. In one of those it is literally the next paragraph. The grammar is also horrible. A few typos is normal for any book but not full blown fragment sentences that are not being used for dramatic emphasis. As far as world building, (just a personal preference) I don't like when characters just gain power without having to truly work for it. In this book you just have to take in "essence" and it automatically makes you more powerful. It was like giving children steroids instead of teaching them to train in order to become better athletes. And then the book just kind of ends. There is no emotional conclusion just a few statements about next steps and then boom, done, see ya in the next book. Biggest problem with that is after reading the first, I have exactly zero desire to read the next one.

[Theresa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The dragons are gone leaving the humans to fight the blighted creatures in their world by themselves. But they left behind their essence: Firewater which when drank by young boys gives them the size and power of a dragon. But when the son of a mighty dragon forged warrior, Rob Firain drinks it, nothing happens and no one knows why. Even though he’s become a nobody, when his village is endangered by savage invaders, Rob chances everything to save his home.

It’s going to be interesting to see through the series how the different levels of dragon emerge.

Footnote: 1) lots of editing errors (misspelled words, wrong words used or missing) in the e-book version. Needs re-editing.

Fave scenes: following the sprite, the form in the darkness, Rob rescuing the lady and using the dragon wand.

[Arwen Lynch · Rating 4 out of 5]

good overall

I got this book in one of those book giveaways.

I wasn’t expecting to enjoy this as much as I did. The world building leaves something to desired. Why have complicated names for some and plain old names? Like fantasy names and then a name I could find in my own family?

There were a few editing errors.

Okay. Now to the book.

Rob lives in a village where all of his male buddies were like him. During a ceremony, this changes.

He has to tackle a lot including an attack on his village. The choices are surprisingly believable aka not very MarySue.

He meets a girl who immediately leads him into more trouble. Or he brings it to her.

For those who pick it because of dragons? Me too. Note that dragons are a part of it but not alive. (No dragons were hurt in the reading of this book)

Rob realizes something (can’t say. Don’t like spoilers) that helps him win where he thought he’d lose.

I do suggest this book.

[Katarina · Rating 4 out of 5]

Overall, I really loved the magic and characters. The world building is minimal, but I'm expecting more to come as the series continues. My main complaint is the repetitiveness of the same sentences. One of which being how our MMC, Rob, isn't dragon forged so he's much smaller than the others and navigates cramped spaces easier than those who are dragon forged. There were other sentences as well, but those would be spoilers. I will be continuing the series.

I made the mistake of comparing Rob's grandma to my husband's and now I'm emotionally attached to her and I'm terrified 🙃 I'm also really happy that even though the magic makes them really strong, they do tire faster so they aren't too invincible. I also want a pet ravenswolf now ❤️

[Angela D. Napier · Rating 5 out of 5]

Enjoyable and Exciting Read

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. My enjoyment mainly came because it was so different. The powers Ron's people developed from drinking the "fire water" was such a different power source than I have found in other Dragon styled books. These types of different and powerful powers were so different and more powerful in their very nature. However, I disliked the typical attitude of the princess. Like so many nobles she has an unpleasant and uppity attitude. I became both angry and tired of her out down of Rob, even after he saved her many times.

[Suni · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing new view of dragons

Come experience a new view of dragons...Dragon Forged, Dragon Touched, Dragon Mind, Dragon Heart, Dragon Soul to full blown Dragon. When Rob finds out he can't be Dragon Forged by drinking the sacred firewater he feels like he has disappointed his father. When he seeks wild firewater to help his sick grandmother his life completely changes and an adventure begins. Dan Michaelson view of the world of dragons is exciting and keeps you on the edge of your seat.

[TC Dale · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is what you are looking for.

The Blood of the Ancients series is one that should be high on reading list. Finding your place in this world is difficult enough, but when your learning what you're meant to be,sometimes isn't what you expected. Rob's family history of dragon forged is not the same as what he finds out about himself. This story will drag you in, and finding out how he adapts, and learning how the water sprite he befriended as a child, is a great journey... Pick this up and read it. You won't regret it.

[David Leland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bloody Excellent!

Mr. Holmberg is my favorite author for several very good reasons. I read a great deal. I appreciate his elaborate storylines and good use of grammar. So often these days authors dictate to a computer or IPad and this results in words that sound like the dictation, yet are not what was intended. If they had a good checker, the mistakes would have been avoided. Obviously they did not. I am left to wonder if they read their own work. The other possibility is that they don’t know any better.

[Chloe · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book was such a fun read. The worldbuilding was simple and easy to follow, with more complex things added as we go further into the story and we learn with Rob about the full truth about the world he lives in.

I love Rob and how he’s not your standard main character, he’s not physically strong like the rest of the people in his village but he is smart, loyal and brave. He kinda reminds me of Hiccup from httyd.

I really hated Vasin and I wanted to see more about him going mad due to the stealing essence from the blood that Griffin mentioned earlier on in the books.

[Randy Daugherty · Rating 3 out of 5]

Firewater is sacred. Touched by the power of the dragons, those who consume it can become more like those ancient beings. Most become dragon forged, their bodies strengthened to help fight the dangerous creatures attacking the valley.

But firewater didn’t change Rob.

When invaders threaten to destroy his people, what Rob discovers may save all he cares about—and provide the key to forging his own power.
I think the book has potential, parts were great others very slow, but stil a good read.