What do you think?
Rate this book
Dragon Temple Saga #2
Shadowed By Wings: Book Two of The Dragon Temple Saga
The Dragon Temple denies the role of dragonmaster to women, but Zarq is convinced that the doctrine allowing it has been deliberately lost to the obscurity of history. She begins a desperate search through the Temple's archives, while enduring the rigorous athletic training required of her apprenticeship. Her fellow apprentices are fiercely competitive, and her overlord, Waikar Re Kratt, has taken an unnerving interest in her. Yet all this pales in comparison to her craving for hallucinogenic dragon venom and her desire to understand the dragons themselves—both of which make her a vessel to receive the ancestral memories of the great beasts. Now, eager for the knowledge only Zarq can uncover, the Temple has her imprisoned and subjected to starvation and torture—all to make her reveal the dragons' deepest secrets....
384 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 2006
10 people are currently reading
253 people want to read
About the author
Janine Cross
5 books27 followersJanine Cross backpacked through the Middle East when she was 18; she milked cows in Israel, sailed down the Nile with a couple of Dutch girls in Egypt, and skinny-dipped around various isles in Greece.
She then bicycled through Asia and the South Pacific, taking one year just to cycle through Australia. Several years and 24,000 kms later, she returned to her hometown of North Vancouver, Canada. Since then, she has competed in martial arts and dabbled in bellydance, rockclimbing, and real estate investments.
She's worked in a chocolate factory and a veterinary hospital, was the president of a writers' association for three years, and helped start a private school. She has two children.
Touched by Venom was voted one of Library Journal's Five Best SF & F Fantasy Books of 2005.
She also writes under the pseudonym Paulette Crosse
She then bicycled through Asia and the South Pacific, taking one year just to cycle through Australia. Several years and 24,000 kms later, she returned to her hometown of North Vancouver, Canada. Since then, she has competed in martial arts and dabbled in bellydance, rockclimbing, and real estate investments.
She's worked in a chocolate factory and a veterinary hospital, was the president of a writers' association for three years, and helped start a private school. She has two children.
Touched by Venom was voted one of Library Journal's Five Best SF & F Fantasy Books of 2005.
She also writes under the pseudonym Paulette Crosse
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews
March 26, 2014
I wasn't sure I was going to bother reviewing the second and third book in this series. I just wasn't sure what I'd say. I liked the book? I hated the book? These books left me reeling, cringing, demoralised and strangely vitalised at the same time? How does one express that?
In reading others' reviews, I sense I'm not the only person struggling to find the appropriate balance. I see a lot of middling reviews, indicative of a lot of emotionally confused readers. I can completely relate. That's where this book shoves its reader, right into the middle on 'how should I feel about that?' The problem is that while it's occasionally obvious, a lot of time it isn't. Not because the things that happen aren't horrid and denounce-able in the extreme, but because so many really, really bad things happen that some bad things just don't seem to rise to level of atrocity anymore (even though in isolation that would definitely be). It's rare for a book to transport a reader there.
A major theme of this book (these books) is the abuse of the powerless by the powerful and it's amazing ability to remain socially invisible to otherwise good people. As an outsider it's hard to imagine how it's rationalised, but it is...everyday. Here, it's just made a little more obvious. We deal with a strict caste system, a violent patriarchy that allows women NO influence in their own lives, slavery, the marginalization of a native populace by a conquering people and the resulting institutionalised racism, economic entrapment, social stigmatisation, a dangerous and far reaching religious organisation, and a ruling class that can no longer understands their duty, blinded as they are by their perceived superiority. This leaves a lot of powerless people, many powerless on numerous fronts, and a myriad of ways for victims to be victimised...traumatised.
In the middle of all this is Zarq, a young powerless woman who trips along and by dint of simply surviving the MANY horrors of her own life and being the right person in the right place at the right time manages to almost accidentally start a revolution. (Ah, the transformative power of even one person willing to sacrifice their all for the greater good!) And she does survive and witness horrors. Thus, the reader deals with them too. Beyond just the basic hardships of poverty and austerity (she spent 10 years in a remote convent as a child) there's kidnappings, rapes, battles, betrayal, attempted assassinations, loss and pitifully few moments of relief. It's all hard on the readers psyche.
The book also treats sex as amazingly mutable. I actually really liked this about it, but we all know sex can tie people in knots faster that just about anything. We deal with consensual and non-consensual (a lot of the latter, though blessedly vague on details) sex of both the hetero- and homosexual (both M & F) variety (In fact, this is the clearest case of institutionalised rape I've ever seen in a book), incest, pedophilia, and even beastiality (though there's no interspecies penis/vagina contact). I can readily imagine a whole host of readers being put off by any one of those, let alone all of them in one text.
So in the end I'm left wondering what I thought of Shadowed by Wings. I certainly didn't enjoy reading it, but having finished it, I'm really glad to have read it. I recommend others do the same.
In reading others' reviews, I sense I'm not the only person struggling to find the appropriate balance. I see a lot of middling reviews, indicative of a lot of emotionally confused readers. I can completely relate. That's where this book shoves its reader, right into the middle on 'how should I feel about that?' The problem is that while it's occasionally obvious, a lot of time it isn't. Not because the things that happen aren't horrid and denounce-able in the extreme, but because so many really, really bad things happen that some bad things just don't seem to rise to level of atrocity anymore (even though in isolation that would definitely be). It's rare for a book to transport a reader there.
A major theme of this book (these books) is the abuse of the powerless by the powerful and it's amazing ability to remain socially invisible to otherwise good people. As an outsider it's hard to imagine how it's rationalised, but it is...everyday. Here, it's just made a little more obvious. We deal with a strict caste system, a violent patriarchy that allows women NO influence in their own lives, slavery, the marginalization of a native populace by a conquering people and the resulting institutionalised racism, economic entrapment, social stigmatisation, a dangerous and far reaching religious organisation, and a ruling class that can no longer understands their duty, blinded as they are by their perceived superiority. This leaves a lot of powerless people, many powerless on numerous fronts, and a myriad of ways for victims to be victimised...traumatised.
In the middle of all this is Zarq, a young powerless woman who trips along and by dint of simply surviving the MANY horrors of her own life and being the right person in the right place at the right time manages to almost accidentally start a revolution. (Ah, the transformative power of even one person willing to sacrifice their all for the greater good!) And she does survive and witness horrors. Thus, the reader deals with them too. Beyond just the basic hardships of poverty and austerity (she spent 10 years in a remote convent as a child) there's kidnappings, rapes, battles, betrayal, attempted assassinations, loss and pitifully few moments of relief. It's all hard on the readers psyche.
The book also treats sex as amazingly mutable. I actually really liked this about it, but we all know sex can tie people in knots faster that just about anything. We deal with consensual and non-consensual (a lot of the latter, though blessedly vague on details) sex of both the hetero- and homosexual (both M & F) variety (In fact, this is the clearest case of institutionalised rape I've ever seen in a book), incest, pedophilia, and even beastiality (though there's no interspecies penis/vagina contact). I can readily imagine a whole host of readers being put off by any one of those, let alone all of them in one text.
So in the end I'm left wondering what I thought of Shadowed by Wings. I certainly didn't enjoy reading it, but having finished it, I'm really glad to have read it. I recommend others do the same.
June 24, 2009
Keeping it real, dragon style. More venom, violence and dragon-sex... but this time I was ready for it.
An online review said it was like "Lord of the Rings set in the Middle East ruled by the Taliban"
Close enough.
An online review said it was like "Lord of the Rings set in the Middle East ruled by the Taliban"
Close enough.
August 16, 2010
This is not a pretty story! It's well done, but it's dirty, gritty, violent and full of despair, yet triumphing against impossible odds. It's one of those stories that you know it's well done, but you're just not quite sure how you feel about it!
March 4, 2018
Sarq sure gets dragged through the mud and then some.
July 18, 2013
People who are squeamish about all the sick and twisted things in the world should steer clear of this book, any R21 movies and change channels whenever they happen across TV documentaries of such violence and perversity, especially those tribal ones.
Am I horrified by the disturbing stuff that goes in in it? Yes.
Do I get off on such things and agree with the stuff in it? Hell to the no.
Then, why, you might ask, do I give it a high rating? Because of the ending, the unconventional way it is written, the reasons for it, and the guts to do it.
In this second installment, Zarq is now an apprentice to the dragonmaster, and as the only girl there the odds against her are sky high. She struggles with her addiction to venom and while I am disappointed in her all too willing acceptance of it and disgusted at how she doesn't seem to act on anything other than self interest and survival, I do understand that the book's culture is different and she's just a lonely, average girl desperately seeking a home or comfort...However, I like how she manages to triumph against such impossible circumstances as a normal person, not as a heroine or saint or noble being. The part about the fight for gender equality rights despite the sickening consequences is pretty amazing as well, and really opens up your perspective on things.
The ending, especially, is the best part of it all and does not disappoint. It makes me curious as to whether Zarq will ever make any real friends that stay with her and if she will ever try to overcome her venom addiction after accomplishing her goals. If you read with an open mind and can get past the grotesque stuff, this book is a raw gem.
Am I horrified by the disturbing stuff that goes in in it? Yes.
Do I get off on such things and agree with the stuff in it? Hell to the no.
Then, why, you might ask, do I give it a high rating? Because of the ending, the unconventional way it is written, the reasons for it, and the guts to do it.
In this second installment, Zarq is now an apprentice to the dragonmaster, and as the only girl there the odds against her are sky high. She struggles with her addiction to venom and while I am disappointed in her all too willing acceptance of it and disgusted at how she doesn't seem to act on anything other than self interest and survival, I do understand that the book's culture is different and she's just a lonely, average girl desperately seeking a home or comfort...However, I like how she manages to triumph against such impossible circumstances as a normal person, not as a heroine or saint or noble being. The part about the fight for gender equality rights despite the sickening consequences is pretty amazing as well, and really opens up your perspective on things.
The ending, especially, is the best part of it all and does not disappoint. It makes me curious as to whether Zarq will ever make any real friends that stay with her and if she will ever try to overcome her venom addiction after accomplishing her goals. If you read with an open mind and can get past the grotesque stuff, this book is a raw gem.
March 7, 2010
Strangely, I was getting nostalgic for those days when, in Korea, I rarely got my hands on the books in a series in order. Maybe I missed the frantic mental coloring-in one has to do when faced with gaps in characters' pasts. Reading things chronologically is so, y'know, passé.
Anyway, I picked up this second book because I'd vaguely heard of the series, and the first few pages that I flipped through had the protagonist being whipped. I can appreciate an author who doesn't spare the rod when it comes to her characters.
Cross might take this to extremes. Zarq is training to be a Dragonmaster despite being a woman; this involves trying to arouse a dragon with your body while he tries to kill you, so that he's in the proper state to go breed with a female. Um. Yeah. There's also drug addiction, (more explicit) bestiality, rape, serious psychological slavery... And these aren't treated as horrors. They're bad things, but they're events that apparently are supposed to just be dealt with, moving on to the next crazy violent disturbing occurrence.
Meanwhile, for some semblance of an overarching plot, Zarq is being haunted by the spirit of her mother, who wants her to find her half-sister -- whom she's sure is dead.
No, I didn't find this sufficient recompense either.
Kind of weirdly fascinating, as in, Did the author really write that? Ugh!, and not terribly written if you just look at the use of the English language, but I'd avoid it. I'm certainly not going to hunt down the other books in this series.
Anyway, I picked up this second book because I'd vaguely heard of the series, and the first few pages that I flipped through had the protagonist being whipped. I can appreciate an author who doesn't spare the rod when it comes to her characters.
Cross might take this to extremes. Zarq is training to be a Dragonmaster despite being a woman; this involves trying to arouse a dragon with your body while he tries to kill you, so that he's in the proper state to go breed with a female. Um. Yeah. There's also drug addiction, (more explicit) bestiality, rape, serious psychological slavery... And these aren't treated as horrors. They're bad things, but they're events that apparently are supposed to just be dealt with, moving on to the next crazy violent disturbing occurrence.
Meanwhile, for some semblance of an overarching plot, Zarq is being haunted by the spirit of her mother, who wants her to find her half-sister -- whom she's sure is dead.
No, I didn't find this sufficient recompense either.
Kind of weirdly fascinating, as in, Did the author really write that? Ugh!, and not terribly written if you just look at the use of the English language, but I'd avoid it. I'm certainly not going to hunt down the other books in this series.
February 13, 2011
I picked this book up somewhere at a discount but still think that I spent way too much on it. It isn't badly written just bad writing. The storyline apparently picks up (this is book 2) as our female character is entered as a sort of dragonmaster apprentice in a kingdom where women aren't even second class.
The back cover sounded good. Actually it sounded really good. So much for truth in advertising.
We had our heroine being whipped, tortured, raped by a dragon, starved, forced into manual labor, threatened with all sorts of punishments, and haunted by a ghost. She was then forced to slave for a dragon and act as a whore for it (and she enjoyed that?!?), all the while supposedly working towards controlling the beasts.
Not a story I will ever reread, nor do I recommend it for anything but lining the bottom of a birdcage.
****
Someone told me I was mistaken about the story.
I wasn't but now I want to add that the writing was repetitive and sloppy: the author used the same phrasing over and over to describe similiar actions.
The back cover sounded good. Actually it sounded really good. So much for truth in advertising.
We had our heroine being whipped, tortured, raped by a dragon, starved, forced into manual labor, threatened with all sorts of punishments, and haunted by a ghost. She was then forced to slave for a dragon and act as a whore for it (and she enjoyed that?!?), all the while supposedly working towards controlling the beasts.
Not a story I will ever reread, nor do I recommend it for anything but lining the bottom of a birdcage.
****
Someone told me I was mistaken about the story.
I wasn't but now I want to add that the writing was repetitive and sloppy: the author used the same phrasing over and over to describe similiar actions.
June 4, 2015
This was a good book with a fast pace. The development of the central character, now in her early 20s, was interesting and brisk enough that I did not find myself skimming pages.
The author's world is a little different than your average fantasy, Tolkien-inspired world. Some of the names, places, holidays, and functions are a bit awkward to pronounce. I wish that the author (or her editor) had included a pronunciation guide.
If you are offended by slavery, homosexuality, bestiality, and pervasive drug use, this book is not for you. If you are looking for Conan-style butchery and page turning action, this book is not for you. There is some action, but the book is not action-packed. Most of the story is told from the perspective of the central character, so there is very little back story of the geo-political climate, and history. The story is fairly simple and straightforward, with little or no side tangents or other story lines for the reader to keep straight. Some might dislike the simplicity of a single central character with only a handful of supporting characters.
The author's world is a little different than your average fantasy, Tolkien-inspired world. Some of the names, places, holidays, and functions are a bit awkward to pronounce. I wish that the author (or her editor) had included a pronunciation guide.
If you are offended by slavery, homosexuality, bestiality, and pervasive drug use, this book is not for you. If you are looking for Conan-style butchery and page turning action, this book is not for you. There is some action, but the book is not action-packed. Most of the story is told from the perspective of the central character, so there is very little back story of the geo-political climate, and history. The story is fairly simple and straightforward, with little or no side tangents or other story lines for the reader to keep straight. Some might dislike the simplicity of a single central character with only a handful of supporting characters.
September 1, 2008
I really have nothing to say about this book... There were some good parts but... for me, nothing mager.
November 25, 2009
Zarq's saga continues, even a little more violent and crazy and venom-addled than before. I got a little confused on who was who at times, but they were all running for that big dragon ...
July 4, 2012
The second book was just as good as the first. I couldn't wait for #3
Displaying 1 - 13 of 13 reviews