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The Iron Dragon #2
The Dragon Hunters
Book by Genesse, Paul
- GenresFantasy
441 pages, Hardcover
First published May 15, 2009
3 people are currently reading
71 people want to read
About the author
Paul Genesse
28 books111 followersA toy castle is what sent Paul Genesse over the edge and into madness. Dragons and castles gave him reason to live from elementary school through college at Northern Arizona University. He loved his English classes, but pursued his other passion and earned a bachelor’s degree in Nursing Science in 1996. He’s a registered nurse in a cardiac unit where he works the night shift keeping the forces of darkness away from his patients. He’s also worked as a copyeditor, a proofreader for a small press, and a video game consultant on the Living Arcana iPhone game.
Paul’s ten short stories have been published in various anthologies and the first two of his novels in the IRON DRAGON SERIES, THE GOLDEN CORD and THE DRAGON HUNTERS are out now. Both feature covers by world famous fantasy artist, Ciruelo Cabral.
Paul loves teaching writing to people of all ages, and is the editor of the free Writers’ Symposium Ezine, dedicated to “Helping Writers Write.” To sign up for the ezine or watch a video about the IRON DRAGON SERIES, visit him online at paulgenesse.com.
Paul’s ten short stories have been published in various anthologies and the first two of his novels in the IRON DRAGON SERIES, THE GOLDEN CORD and THE DRAGON HUNTERS are out now. Both feature covers by world famous fantasy artist, Ciruelo Cabral.
Paul loves teaching writing to people of all ages, and is the editor of the free Writers’ Symposium Ezine, dedicated to “Helping Writers Write.” To sign up for the ezine or watch a video about the IRON DRAGON SERIES, visit him online at paulgenesse.com.
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Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews
October 12, 2017
I remember my first airplane trip. I pushed up the plastic window cover with my pudgy hand and watched as the world dropped away. In an instant we left everything I new behind and soared through the skies. Reading The Dragon Hunters, by Paul Genesse (Book two of the Iron Dragon Series), reminded me of that experience.
Genesse has created an amazing fantasy world filled with fascinating characters, deadly forests, and dangerous skies. Instead of staying in the realm of the familiar that he has so wonderfully created, he introduces his band of brothers to new terrains. There they face unexpected challenges to body, soul, and their internal paradigms.
The story follows a carefully crafted emotional journey, with appropriate rises and falls in action, while steadily pushing forward to the end goal. Facing the Dragon they are Hunting. Or is that the end goal after all? What is fear unless we give it power to scare us? Dragon Hunter’s examines what makes a man or woman. What choices bind our fate. And what opportunities we have to change it all. It caries lessons worth learning while it also entertained me to the end.
Genesse has created an amazing fantasy world filled with fascinating characters, deadly forests, and dangerous skies. Instead of staying in the realm of the familiar that he has so wonderfully created, he introduces his band of brothers to new terrains. There they face unexpected challenges to body, soul, and their internal paradigms.
The story follows a carefully crafted emotional journey, with appropriate rises and falls in action, while steadily pushing forward to the end goal. Facing the Dragon they are Hunting. Or is that the end goal after all? What is fear unless we give it power to scare us? Dragon Hunter’s examines what makes a man or woman. What choices bind our fate. And what opportunities we have to change it all. It caries lessons worth learning while it also entertained me to the end.
February 3, 2023
Nothing is ever earned in these books. Every other chapter ends with someone on the brink of death or has actually seemed to die, only for the next chapter them to be miraculously saved by something and move on like nothing ever happened. I would also find a new editor if I were this author. The typos and redundant wordings are grating. I appreciate the world building, but if it weren’t for my OCD and the fact that there’s only one released book left, I’d have given up on these books a long time ago. The author is obviously passionate about his material but is very immature at his craft.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
May 24, 2009
The Dragon Hunters is the sequel to Paul Genesse's surprising hit The Golden Cord and the second book in his Iron Dragon series. It follows Drake and his two Drobin companions, Thor and Bellor, as they continue their journey to find Bellor's lost brethren and destroy Draglune, an ancient and dangerous dragon foe, once and for all. But as they travel they discover that some parts of the world are not as they should be: Drobin cities are responding to resistance against their rule with genocide while cultists who worship Draglune and his dragon servant Verkahna as gods sacrifice themselves for a cause that seems right, but is fraught with lies and deceit. The farther Drake and his companions travel away from the comparative safety of the Thornclaw forest, the more they realize that Draglune's influence is rapidly expanding, creating more enemies to hinder their journey and to threaten the stability of the Drobin empire and even Drake's home and family.
The Dragon Hunters takes off right after the end of The Golden Cord and drags us through a troubled world of demonic monsters and collapsing society. Perhaps what is most interesting about this particularly installment is that Genesse has taken us into new arenas to meet cultures previously unknown to us, displaying his excellent worldbuilding skills. Moving from a dangerous forest to an equally dangerous desert, Genesse takes us on a wild journey of magic, dragons, questionable characters, and inner turmoil.
And that, perhaps, is what is so striking about this novel in comparison to the last. While The Golden Cord certainly touched on the emotional and ethical questions Drake had to ask himself while aiding Thor and Bellor, this novel shatters Drake's connection to his home with brutal directness. The golden cord between he and Jaena--his wife-to-be--is weakened and ripped away by forces both within and outside of Drake's control. As a result, we get the sense that Drake is not and never was fully aware of himself as a person, that there are things even he is learning about himself, and that his journey is not just one to do the right thing, but to discover more about himself and his destiny. Of course, Drake isn't the only one that experiences a rupture of this sort. Thor and Bellor equally share in the burden of cultural splitting. Here the connection to the characters is stronger, more impacting, because the reader is so invested in Drake and his companions that we cannot help but be affected by the emotional roller coaster that they experience.
The Dragon Hunters isn't a perfect book. While I loved the world, parts of the novel seemed to be overly drawn out. This may be personal preference in adventurous fantasy, but I wanted things to move quicker, particularly in the middle. Of course, I am willing to acknowledge that this is simply a factor that is present in all middle novels and perhaps something that is unavoidable when one expects the same speed and vision of a previous book. Certainly The Dragon Hunters is an action packed novel--the title itself should be an indicator--and I expect that the action and intrigue of Genesse's world will continue to grow and develop over the course of the next few books.
One of my favorite parts of this novel has to be how Genesse created a particularly terrifying character out of Verkahna--a dragon we met in the previous book who certainly had her physical appeal as a horrifying creature, but never quite had that emotional terror working for her. Through her we learn not only about how the dragons of Genesse's world operate--culturally and psychologically--but also how cunning they can be, so much so that even I began to question whether my preconceived notions about his dragons that I adopted from the first book were valid. Even at the end I wondered whether dragons were evil or good, and maybe this question will be answered in the next book. It's hard to say.
All in all, The Dragon Hunters was a wonderful read. I loved the action, the characters, and the world, as I did with the first book. While this novel isn't without flaws, it is certainly worth reading, and if you are a fan of adventurous fantasy, this series is perfect for you. I've called his work "fun fantasy," because it's the kind of work that doesn't allow itself to be bogged down by the trappings of the genre or by negative storytelling. The story is meant to be exciting and interesting because of its characters and action.
As with the first book, the cover art for The Dragon Hunters is absolutely gorgeous and I suspect that the novels that follow will continue in this trend. Hopefully Genesse will have as much success with The Dragon Hunters as he did with The Golden Cord.
If you'd like to learn more about Paul Genesse, you can check out his website here. You can find The Dragon Hunters here at Five Star Press (or on Amazon, or anywhere else, most likely) and the previous book, The Golden Cord, here.
(Note: I avoided commenting on the writing itself in this review because I read an advanced uncorrected proof. It would be wrong of me to complain about things that most likely were changed in the editing process.)
The Dragon Hunters takes off right after the end of The Golden Cord and drags us through a troubled world of demonic monsters and collapsing society. Perhaps what is most interesting about this particularly installment is that Genesse has taken us into new arenas to meet cultures previously unknown to us, displaying his excellent worldbuilding skills. Moving from a dangerous forest to an equally dangerous desert, Genesse takes us on a wild journey of magic, dragons, questionable characters, and inner turmoil.
And that, perhaps, is what is so striking about this novel in comparison to the last. While The Golden Cord certainly touched on the emotional and ethical questions Drake had to ask himself while aiding Thor and Bellor, this novel shatters Drake's connection to his home with brutal directness. The golden cord between he and Jaena--his wife-to-be--is weakened and ripped away by forces both within and outside of Drake's control. As a result, we get the sense that Drake is not and never was fully aware of himself as a person, that there are things even he is learning about himself, and that his journey is not just one to do the right thing, but to discover more about himself and his destiny. Of course, Drake isn't the only one that experiences a rupture of this sort. Thor and Bellor equally share in the burden of cultural splitting. Here the connection to the characters is stronger, more impacting, because the reader is so invested in Drake and his companions that we cannot help but be affected by the emotional roller coaster that they experience.
The Dragon Hunters isn't a perfect book. While I loved the world, parts of the novel seemed to be overly drawn out. This may be personal preference in adventurous fantasy, but I wanted things to move quicker, particularly in the middle. Of course, I am willing to acknowledge that this is simply a factor that is present in all middle novels and perhaps something that is unavoidable when one expects the same speed and vision of a previous book. Certainly The Dragon Hunters is an action packed novel--the title itself should be an indicator--and I expect that the action and intrigue of Genesse's world will continue to grow and develop over the course of the next few books.
One of my favorite parts of this novel has to be how Genesse created a particularly terrifying character out of Verkahna--a dragon we met in the previous book who certainly had her physical appeal as a horrifying creature, but never quite had that emotional terror working for her. Through her we learn not only about how the dragons of Genesse's world operate--culturally and psychologically--but also how cunning they can be, so much so that even I began to question whether my preconceived notions about his dragons that I adopted from the first book were valid. Even at the end I wondered whether dragons were evil or good, and maybe this question will be answered in the next book. It's hard to say.
All in all, The Dragon Hunters was a wonderful read. I loved the action, the characters, and the world, as I did with the first book. While this novel isn't without flaws, it is certainly worth reading, and if you are a fan of adventurous fantasy, this series is perfect for you. I've called his work "fun fantasy," because it's the kind of work that doesn't allow itself to be bogged down by the trappings of the genre or by negative storytelling. The story is meant to be exciting and interesting because of its characters and action.
As with the first book, the cover art for The Dragon Hunters is absolutely gorgeous and I suspect that the novels that follow will continue in this trend. Hopefully Genesse will have as much success with The Dragon Hunters as he did with The Golden Cord.
If you'd like to learn more about Paul Genesse, you can check out his website here. You can find The Dragon Hunters here at Five Star Press (or on Amazon, or anywhere else, most likely) and the previous book, The Golden Cord, here.
(Note: I avoided commenting on the writing itself in this review because I read an advanced uncorrected proof. It would be wrong of me to complain about things that most likely were changed in the editing process.)
July 25, 2017
++++
7am approx.
7am approx.
January 21, 2017
Starting off, I will say I enjoyed The Dragon Hunters because of the unique perspective of fantasy races and setting. There is more to the book, and the series, but the feel is refreshing.
The second installment of The Iron Dragon series, The Dragon Hunters, by Paul Genesse start where The Golden Cord finishes. The story picks up like you're moving on to the next chapter. It is a continuation of the story, not just an installment of what the characters are doing.
The story moves along with Drake, Thor, and Bellor as they trek through another part of the world of Ae'leron. They are the characters we left at the end of the first book, not suddenly greater heroes that developed between acts. We are with them as they are developing their abilities and overcoming their weaknesses. The character development of the three main characters is strong and moves the story.
Along the way the band becomes fuller as they are joined by a young wizard, Dabarius, who breaks many of the molds that fantasy has come to attach to the profession. He is not an elderly man, but an energetic younger one who knows how to use his hands in a fight and is willing to do so. But, don't think this is the sword wielding wizard like Gandalf, Dabarius is his own man.
They are guided into the desert later in their journey by Bree. Her motives are in question as our heroes know she is going against the traditions of her people. The question of trust keeps tension in the story as they travel into the lands Drake has never considered existing.
The world they are travelling through is broadened beyond the unique forest we were introduced to. There are new lands, customs, and people. As readers, we are on the journey with the characters as they discover what lies over there. The descriptions of the lands stays as fresh as in the first book.
The Dragon Hunters gives us the story of the hunt for the dragon-wyvern Verkahna—who made her first appearance in the previous installment. She could be a strong ally, or just a step needed to be taken in defeating the enemies.
I enjoyed Genesse's second book into this tale. Even with the book being around 400 pages I read it with ease. A great read for young and old. Younger readers (teens) along with older ones will find a new arrangement to the fantasy structure than what is regularly presented.
There are plenty of twists and turns, which I found enjoyable. Some of them were expected, and some were not. Best of all, I found all of them fit with what the characters would have done.
With turning over the last page I found myself wondering about the clues left about what could happen next. Many routes are open to the team of dragon hunters and I am looking forward to see which direction our storyteller leads us.
Originally published on guildmastergaming@blogspot.com.
The second installment of The Iron Dragon series, The Dragon Hunters, by Paul Genesse start where The Golden Cord finishes. The story picks up like you're moving on to the next chapter. It is a continuation of the story, not just an installment of what the characters are doing.
The story moves along with Drake, Thor, and Bellor as they trek through another part of the world of Ae'leron. They are the characters we left at the end of the first book, not suddenly greater heroes that developed between acts. We are with them as they are developing their abilities and overcoming their weaknesses. The character development of the three main characters is strong and moves the story.
Along the way the band becomes fuller as they are joined by a young wizard, Dabarius, who breaks many of the molds that fantasy has come to attach to the profession. He is not an elderly man, but an energetic younger one who knows how to use his hands in a fight and is willing to do so. But, don't think this is the sword wielding wizard like Gandalf, Dabarius is his own man.
They are guided into the desert later in their journey by Bree. Her motives are in question as our heroes know she is going against the traditions of her people. The question of trust keeps tension in the story as they travel into the lands Drake has never considered existing.
The world they are travelling through is broadened beyond the unique forest we were introduced to. There are new lands, customs, and people. As readers, we are on the journey with the characters as they discover what lies over there. The descriptions of the lands stays as fresh as in the first book.
The Dragon Hunters gives us the story of the hunt for the dragon-wyvern Verkahna—who made her first appearance in the previous installment. She could be a strong ally, or just a step needed to be taken in defeating the enemies.
I enjoyed Genesse's second book into this tale. Even with the book being around 400 pages I read it with ease. A great read for young and old. Younger readers (teens) along with older ones will find a new arrangement to the fantasy structure than what is regularly presented.
There are plenty of twists and turns, which I found enjoyable. Some of them were expected, and some were not. Best of all, I found all of them fit with what the characters would have done.
With turning over the last page I found myself wondering about the clues left about what could happen next. Many routes are open to the team of dragon hunters and I am looking forward to see which direction our storyteller leads us.
Originally published on guildmastergaming@blogspot.com.
April 14, 2011
THE DRAGON HUNTERS by Paul Genesse kept my attention from beginning to end. I thought I knew what was going to happen, but I was pleasantly surprised with how everything fit together. I am growing more attached to characters from THE GOLDEN CORD, but I also enjoyed the new characters that we met in this story.
Though the idea behind the book is fairly straightforward, kill the king of the dragons, the other plot elements intertwined are very intriguing. The rift between the dwarves and the humans become much more apparent in this book and I really felt my sympathies drawn to the various groups. I am really curious to see how all of the plot lines will be resolved by the end of the series.
While the plot gets more and more intricate with this book, so do the characters. I enjoyed the addition of a new human to the band of hunters and although I didn't agree with all of his methods or choices, I liked the difference of personalities. None of the characters felt like cardboard cutouts with only their names being different. Paul Genesse gives us a variety of motives, personalities, and opinions in the characters that keeps the story moving forward with their own development not just within the plot. I look forward to the next book in the series.
Though the idea behind the book is fairly straightforward, kill the king of the dragons, the other plot elements intertwined are very intriguing. The rift between the dwarves and the humans become much more apparent in this book and I really felt my sympathies drawn to the various groups. I am really curious to see how all of the plot lines will be resolved by the end of the series.
While the plot gets more and more intricate with this book, so do the characters. I enjoyed the addition of a new human to the band of hunters and although I didn't agree with all of his methods or choices, I liked the difference of personalities. None of the characters felt like cardboard cutouts with only their names being different. Paul Genesse gives us a variety of motives, personalities, and opinions in the characters that keeps the story moving forward with their own development not just within the plot. I look forward to the next book in the series.
March 12, 2011
This is book two in my friend Paul's series. It's a really neat story with mean twists, a fast pace, and tons of action. It also sneaks in some sharp commentaries about how cultures get along and what motivates people to do what they do. I'm very proud of Paul, and I hope this one is a hit for him. If you enjoy stories about stalwart heroes doing their best under adverse conditions, this is going to be one you'll want to check out. This installment of the Iron Dragon series really broadens and deepens the readers understanding of the world, and of the characters.
August 12, 2009
I absolutely loved this book. It was a true thriller. I felt involved with each character. I wanted to know more behind their emotions, actions, and choices. I love the take on slavery (loved the whole dwarf cutting humans legs before anything else so they'd be shorter), racial issues, mixing of religions and how religions can be so similar but misunderstood, and so much more. I would recommend this to anyone, not just "fantasy" readers.
August 7, 2012
I just finished reading The Dragon Hunters by Paul Genesse. It's a great read. Genesse has taken the time to develop strong characters and a strong story line. The emotional conflict is real and intense. This is an excellent sequel to his first book. It continues the conflict between the creatures of the void and the land dwellers. Follow Drake, the Drobin, and the wizard on their adventure to find Draglune.
I highly recommend this novel to one and all.
I highly recommend this novel to one and all.
January 23, 2016
Okay, book 2 was much better than "The Golden Cord". It still has more melodrama than I like, but the pace was much better, with lots more action. Despite the fact that there was an overabundance of our little group of "companions" individually being brought back to life after dying, or nearly so, in battle, somewhat pushing the envelope on "willing suspension of belief", I look forward to the next volume.
October 5, 2010
I enjoyed this book equally or possibly better than the first book in this series. I think that Paul has really gotten into stride with this series and I am eagerly looking forward to the next installment.
July 18, 2012
Book two of the Iron Dragon series takes the three companions on a treacherous series of adventures. As they close in on their quarry two more join their quest. Fantastic book. The entire Iron Dragon series is a must have for any fantasy reader.
April 15, 2010
Nicely composed.
May 3, 2011
Even better than the first book!
Kept me reading until late and when I should have been grading papers instead.
Kept me reading until late and when I should have been grading papers instead.
September 17, 2011
This is a phenomenal book. I can't wait for volume three to arrive. Sorry, I'd share but my copy is autographed.
August 16, 2013
It's a great fantasy adventure novel and I love the setting. I just feel that the characterization wasn't quite as good as book 1, but I am very excited for book 3.
April 10, 2014
Again, Paul brings together characters, action and locals in a page-turner
March 5, 2015
Great plot, great characters. A bit more graphic than I like, though, in the love scenes.
September 24, 2016
I started out loving this series, but throwing in an unnecessary love scene with an unpleasant minor character? Not cool.
Displaying 1 - 19 of 19 reviews