Status Updates From The Princess's Dragon (The ...

Overall rating – 2.8*, with the break down in the comments.

I've been waiting for Sondra's magic abilities to awaken even since it was mentioned she had great talent for it. I even expected them to kick in when Sondra was captured, because wouldn't it'd have been awesome for her to save Tolmac and Derek instead of the other way around? But when she finally uses her magic in the final, the danger had already passed, so it's kinda disappointing and pointless.

The ending was a really strong and heartfelt one, with Tolmac ready to abandon his dragon nature for Sondra, Sondra leaving her family for him, and all my favourite heroes – Elona, Sarai, even Sergen, - getting the happy ending they deserve. Well, not Derek, but he didn't exactly deserve a happy ending after saying that he couldn't forgive Sondra after she said she cared for him, but didn't love him. WTF, dude?

Each time Derek appears on page, I begin to roll my eyes. He was frustrating enough when we began to get his PoV in the second half of the book, but now it seems that he grows more and more macho with every page, as the author never fails to mention how brutal and lethal and deadly he is and how he is capable of taking on several soldiers at once with ease. A little more and he’s turn into Conan the Barbarian.

I simply love Tolmac’s backstory with Ulrick! First, it turns the legend of a mighty hero that defeated the vicious dragon that we hear in the beginning of the book upside down. Secondly, it gives the character of Ulrick so much personality and life, and again, it’s such an interesting twist on the usual ‘wise mentor figure’ trope. Can we have more of Tolmac and Ulrick’s interactions, please?

Sondra is so useless as a protagonist. Alright, she is captured and locked up, weaponless and unable to shapeshift, but I expected her to try one thing or another – to use deception and trick her captors or to stage an escape attempt. She didn’t need to succeed, but she needed to do something. Instead, she is just sitting there mopping and feeling sorry for herself. I bet Tolmac would have to rescue her again.

It’s said again and again that Sondra’s lady’s maid Liliana was her best friend and even ‘really more sister than servant’, but Sondra had spoken to her only about thrice, and each time it was to order her something. The one relationship that’s actually done right is the one between Sondra and Elona as they went from rivals to willing to make amends to tentative allies and then friends.

“I say do anything and everything you can think of because he is absolutely the most gorgeous man in the kingdom.”

A personal pet peeve of mine is when a guy described to be so hot that every single girl wants him. Okay, I get it that he is extremely handsome, but we are all different, don’t you think that not everyone would be attracted to the same type?

Again we reach a pivotal point in the story as Sondra is transformed back into a human, but as with her transformation into a dragon, we hardly see anything. Instead we are told what happened, weeks passing being described in two pages. I don’t think that ‘show, don’t tell’ advise is an absolute, but this is exactly the case when we should see emotions and reactions instead of being told about them.

Derek is a shit, and it's an official announcement now. He earned that title after threatening to execute Elona for spying when she dressed as a soldier and sneaked to the battlefield, and that's probably the worst excuse for such actions. Right, he hadn't actually done anything to her, and Elona is no saint herself, but his only reasons for his attitude was that he didn't like Elona and enjoyed seeing her scared.

The snippets of worldbuilding that we can glimpse are actually pretty interesting – life and death worshipping temples that practice revival magic and necromancy respectively, the old Wizard Wars that left behind ruins and magical mutants, uniquely designed war machines, gigantic battle bone golems. But the thing is, it all remains only hints, because they are not explored or disclosed properly.

Derek treats Elona with contempt and disdain because she humiliated him and mocked his feelings, and that would’ve been a good reason except that it happened when they were fourteen and twelve respectively – and that was what, ten or so years ago? How mature of him.

But why doesn't Sondra remember anything about being tested by the wizards and the plans to send her into the Academy of Magic? She was four when she was tested and eight when she was supposed to go to the Academy, so she was old enough to remember. I personally remember myself at the age of four, at least the most significant events, and I'd suppose the arrival of the wizards would be memorable enough.

When Sondra's sister Elona appeared, my first thought was, 'What a b*tch!' However, after just one chapter I realized that there is more to her character than that of a mean big bully sister, as she is burdened by guilt and unresolved and complex relationship with her family. That doesn't change the fact that Elona is arrogant and haughty, though.

From the very beginning,Sondra was a very annoying and shallow character to follow, but when the PoV shifts to Derek... Jeez, he is even worse! He is so arrogant and sure of himself, and of course he is the only competent person in the court while the king is completely unqualified for any kind of work at all.

Once you think, Solendar’s story is a sad one. He was punished because he chose to live with a mate he had loved instead of the one designed to him, and not only his lover, but the whole species were made mortal to punish him, and the dragons that sided with him were cursed as well. Solendar turning to evil as a result may be unforgivable regardless, but at least his rampage against the Creator is easy to understand.

After spending months in the form of a dragon Sondra thinks of her human family only once, when there is a rift in her relationship with Tolmac and she is thinking of leaving, but guess what? Once she and Tolmac mend their relationship, she forgets them again! And she is so very jealous of Tolmac – not even for other females, but for discovering ‘part of Tolmac’s past that belonged to someone <…> other than herself.'

At least the follow-up battle between the guards and Rubeliara's rebels was written much better. And I totally love how Rubeliara just pointedly ignored Tolmac when he arrived to the scene: after all, he ignored her pleas for help and in her eyes he doesn't deserve her respect. Rubeliara is the boss, I totally love that girl. Can we get some more of her?

Sondra’s battle with the queens should’ve been awesome, since it’s the first time Sondra takes responsibility for someone other than herself and puts her life at risk for what is right. There were many possibilities to make her confrontation with the queens fantastic, but what we got instead? Deus ex machine in the form of magic weapon freeing Sondra from mind control and literally guiding her hand in fight.

“The Circle mimicked human society but perverted everything good and right in human social intercourse.”

Glad you realized this, Sondra, otherwise I would’ve thought you were bashing human society. Sondra learns that Tolmac is actually a god and knows other gods that her people worship, and the only thing that troubles her is that Rubeliara almost succeeded in seducing Tolmac? Get your priorities straight, woman.

Tolmac says that the Circle is evil and corrupted, and while the dragons living there are mind-controlled, what surprises Sondra the most when she meets them is that such 'majestic creatures' as dragons lower themselves to 'mundane labor' as peasants. Because living in cities and working like humans is so terrible, right? After all, Sondra prizes freedom and power of dragon life with no responsibilities above all.

Tolmac clearly states that the dragons don't have emotions such as the need for companionship or love even for their own kind; dragons don't form life-long pairs, but rather mate with a female and part ways again. Yet Tolmac is clearly falling in love with Sondra – I wonder what is it that made him feel so after centuries of contented solitude. Or was Sondra just the first person that he allowed to get close to him?

I'm enjoying Tolmac's PoV much greater than Sondra's, mostly because we deal with centuries old powerful dragon who knows his place in life and what he wants, not a vain and annoying teen. His lessons with Sondra are engaging, mostly because they explain a lot about the world. With portals between worlds, telepathy and dragons traveling between different planes of existence, it's rather a mix of sci-fi and fantasy.

While Sondra is described as being clumsy and less beautiful than her two sisters, she apparently also has smooth skin, waist-length hair and 'shapely rear'. Add being shallow to the list of Sondra's flaws. By the way, how does her dragon form look? All we know is that she is small for a dragon, has golden and violet scales and, apparently, horns starting from her nostrils? What? 

The writing skips to eight days later, and we got nothing on how the change affected her. We don't see her being shaken by her experience or determined to get her humanity back or missing her family. It's as if a minute had passed between her turning into a dragon and meeting Tolmac, not days. Actually, I wouldn't have minded seeing Sondra during that in-between time for character development and world building.

The writing feels so amateurish and chunky, it spends a lot of time describing boring stuff like the royal balls, but during the pivotal episode of the story when Sondra turns into a dragon we barely get any describtion. Her confusion, her fear, her anger – we don't feel any of this as she flees through the woods, pursued by the people she loves.

The protagonist with a love for science would’ve been a hit for me if done properly, but Sondra is studying it not because she is enthralled by the wonder of the natural world, but because she is bitter and spiteful and strives to prove everyone how wrong they are. So far, it’s Sondra’s sister Sarai that has my undisputed love and sympathy.