Status
Available
Call number
Series
Genres
Publication
London Orbit 2016
Description
"The New York Times bestselling Raven's Shadow Trilogy was a perfect read for "fans of broadscale epic fantasy along the lines of Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time series and George R.R. Martin's Song of Ice and Fire novels."* Now, Anthony Ryan begins a new saga, The Draconis Memoria ... Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Ironship Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes. Harvested from the veins of captive or hunted Reds, Green, Blues and Blacks, it can be distilled into elixirs that give fearsome powers to the rare men and women who have the ability harness them--known as the blood-blessed. But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening. If they fail, war with the neighboring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly. The Syndicate's last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another breed of drake, far more powerful than the rest, and the few who have been chosen by fate to seek it. Claydon Torcreek is a petty thief and an unregistered blood-blessed, who finds himself pressed into service by the protectorate and sent to wild, uncharted territories in search of a creature he believes is little more than legend. Lizanne Lethridge is a formidable spy and assassin, facing gravest danger on an espionage mission deep into the heart of enemy territory. And Corrick Hilemore is the second lieutenant of an ironship, whose pursuit of ruthless brigands leads him to a far greater threat at the edge of the world. As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war, or drown in its wake. *Library Journal"--… (more)
User reviews
LibraryThing member epweil
Welcome to a fantastic new world of dragons and blood blessed the few people who can drink the blood of the drakes and use it's various properties to preform fantastic feats. As empires clash and war rages an unregistered blood blessed and his companions began a frantic search for the white a
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drakes who's blood legend says can hold either immense power or pure madness. Full of page turning, non-stop action set in a well developed world populated with memorable characters this series is sure to be a hit. Show Less
LibraryThing member Strider66
Pros: great characters, brilliant world-building, variety of action
Cons: lots of close shaves
Claydon Torcreek is a thief who gets roped into being the blue-trance communicator for the Longrifle Independent Contractor Company. The Company’s mission is to find the fabled white dragon, living in the
Lizanne Lethridge is a blood-blessed covert agent of the Exceptional Initiatives Division of the Ironship Trading Syndicate. She’s sent to Morsvale to investigate the former owner of a box that held a device that might aid in Clay’s company’s mission.
Corrick Hilemore is the new Second Lieutenant of the IPV Viable Opportunity. Their ship is trying out a new engine that allows for faster travel, as it takes out a pirate ship.
Meanwhile, the drakes that have been bled for their magical blood for decades, have started acting in strange ways despite their reduced numbers, attacking cities, leaving their hunting grounds, and working together in ways they never have before.
There’s a lot going on in this book. There’s some political intrigue, spy work, sea battles, steampunk style inventing, dragons, dragon blood magic… Told from three POV characters, the book jumps around enough that you’re always on your toes, wondering what will happen next.
The world-building is excellent. There’s real history here. There are several countries with different ways of doing things, past rebellions, corporate greed. Different people from different lands interact in different ways (sometimes as part of the same crew, sometimes as infiltrators).
The characters all felt like real people with real hopes and goals. I enjoyed spending time with all thee POV characters, learning more about them and seeing how they react in different circumstances. Their supporting casts were all really interesting too.
This is partly explained by the end of the book, but there are a LOT of close shaves for the various groups. Enough that it started to feel really manufactured and repetitive. There was a reason for that, but it doesn’t prevent some scenes from feeling a bit fake.
The economics around blood-magic was well done, though it started to drive me nuts hearing how depleted their stores of product were becoming and how expensive it was to buy, and then seeing so much wasted blood as more and more drakes get killed. The magic itself was cool, with each type of drake having a different property. I especially liked that there were limitations on the magic and that there were actual consequences for using it extensively.
At the back of the book is a list of dramatis personae, which I would have referred to a few times had I known it was there. There’s a large cast, and on the ship especially I had to remind myself who was who.
This is an excellent book with a lot going for it. It you love immersive fantasy, pick this up.
Cons: lots of close shaves
Claydon Torcreek is a thief who gets roped into being the blue-trance communicator for the Longrifle Independent Contractor Company. The Company’s mission is to find the fabled white dragon, living in the
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dangerous interior.Lizanne Lethridge is a blood-blessed covert agent of the Exceptional Initiatives Division of the Ironship Trading Syndicate. She’s sent to Morsvale to investigate the former owner of a box that held a device that might aid in Clay’s company’s mission.
Corrick Hilemore is the new Second Lieutenant of the IPV Viable Opportunity. Their ship is trying out a new engine that allows for faster travel, as it takes out a pirate ship.
Meanwhile, the drakes that have been bled for their magical blood for decades, have started acting in strange ways despite their reduced numbers, attacking cities, leaving their hunting grounds, and working together in ways they never have before.
There’s a lot going on in this book. There’s some political intrigue, spy work, sea battles, steampunk style inventing, dragons, dragon blood magic… Told from three POV characters, the book jumps around enough that you’re always on your toes, wondering what will happen next.
The world-building is excellent. There’s real history here. There are several countries with different ways of doing things, past rebellions, corporate greed. Different people from different lands interact in different ways (sometimes as part of the same crew, sometimes as infiltrators).
The characters all felt like real people with real hopes and goals. I enjoyed spending time with all thee POV characters, learning more about them and seeing how they react in different circumstances. Their supporting casts were all really interesting too.
This is partly explained by the end of the book, but there are a LOT of close shaves for the various groups. Enough that it started to feel really manufactured and repetitive. There was a reason for that, but it doesn’t prevent some scenes from feeling a bit fake.
The economics around blood-magic was well done, though it started to drive me nuts hearing how depleted their stores of product were becoming and how expensive it was to buy, and then seeing so much wasted blood as more and more drakes get killed. The magic itself was cool, with each type of drake having a different property. I especially liked that there were limitations on the magic and that there were actual consequences for using it extensively.
At the back of the book is a list of dramatis personae, which I would have referred to a few times had I known it was there. There’s a large cast, and on the ship especially I had to remind myself who was who.
This is an excellent book with a lot going for it. It you love immersive fantasy, pick this up.
Show Less
LibraryThing member kgodey
Anthony Ryan has been on my wishlist for a long time, so I was excited to receive a copy of THE WAKING FIRE from Ace recently. I’ve been reading a lot of books about dragons recently (WITHIN THE SANCTUARY OF WINGS by Marie Brennan, and THE SUMMER DRAGON by Todd Lockwood), so I wasn’t sure I
We follow three protagonists – Lizanne, a covert agent for the Ironship company, Hilemore, a naval officer serving on a cutting-edge new ship, and Clay, a petty criminal recruited by Lizanne’s company for a dangerous expedition. Drake blood, which grants “Blood-blessed” humans special powers, has been dwindling in potency rapidly. To avoid a disastrous economic collapse, the Ironship company is organizing an expedition into the interior of the colonized Arradisian continent to find a fabled new variety of drake. This new White drake isn’t just a simple animal, though, and waking it up proves to be dangerous.
There’s a lot going on this book, all three protagonists have pretty different stories, and I don’t think my summary covered it all. Clay is on a standard fantasy quest, Lizanne’s plot is all about espionage and war , and Hilemore seems like he’s straight out of a more traditional military fantasy. All three of them tie together to tell a larger story about a rational and ordered world that’s suddenly going crazy. The world really pulled me in, there’s a bunch of corporations pursuing profit, a simple but versatile magic system, an ambitious empire, cunning pirates, fearsome warriors, and lots of cool dragons. The action scenes were particularly well-done, I could almost see the movie in my head, and I usually just glaze over those kinds of scenes in books.
I did have a couple of issues with the book, mainly with the characters. Sometimes I felt like they just did stuff, and I didn’t have any insight into why they were making the decisions they did. It was never bad enough to take me out of the story, but unlike more character driven books, I can’t really describe the characters’ personalities, just their actions. The book also wasn’t as tight as it could have been – Hilemore’s story didn’t tie into Lizanne and Clay’s until the last minute, and I’m still not sure what the significance of his experiences is to the larger story. I also hope the initial premise of drake blood losing potency will be explored in future books, it ended up being overshadowed by larger events.
I feel like I’ve read a lot of the great fantasy authors writing today, so I’m always excited to discover someone new, and Anthony Ryan seems like he could definitely be one of them. I’m glad I only have a little over a month until THE LEGION OF FLAME comes out, and I’ve also ordered BLOOD SONG, the first book of the author’s previous trilogy, to help me wait.
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wanted to read this one just yet, but I succumbed to the back cover blurb.We follow three protagonists – Lizanne, a covert agent for the Ironship company, Hilemore, a naval officer serving on a cutting-edge new ship, and Clay, a petty criminal recruited by Lizanne’s company for a dangerous expedition. Drake blood, which grants “Blood-blessed” humans special powers, has been dwindling in potency rapidly. To avoid a disastrous economic collapse, the Ironship company is organizing an expedition into the interior of the colonized Arradisian continent to find a fabled new variety of drake. This new White drake isn’t just a simple animal, though, and waking it up proves to be dangerous.
There’s a lot going on this book, all three protagonists have pretty different stories, and I don’t think my summary covered it all. Clay is on a standard fantasy quest, Lizanne’s plot is all about espionage and war , and Hilemore seems like he’s straight out of a more traditional military fantasy. All three of them tie together to tell a larger story about a rational and ordered world that’s suddenly going crazy. The world really pulled me in, there’s a bunch of corporations pursuing profit, a simple but versatile magic system, an ambitious empire, cunning pirates, fearsome warriors, and lots of cool dragons. The action scenes were particularly well-done, I could almost see the movie in my head, and I usually just glaze over those kinds of scenes in books.
I did have a couple of issues with the book, mainly with the characters. Sometimes I felt like they just did stuff, and I didn’t have any insight into why they were making the decisions they did. It was never bad enough to take me out of the story, but unlike more character driven books, I can’t really describe the characters’ personalities, just their actions. The book also wasn’t as tight as it could have been – Hilemore’s story didn’t tie into Lizanne and Clay’s until the last minute, and I’m still not sure what the significance of his experiences is to the larger story. I also hope the initial premise of drake blood losing potency will be explored in future books, it ended up being overshadowed by larger events.
I feel like I’ve read a lot of the great fantasy authors writing today, so I’m always excited to discover someone new, and Anthony Ryan seems like he could definitely be one of them. I’m glad I only have a little over a month until THE LEGION OF FLAME comes out, and I’ve also ordered BLOOD SONG, the first book of the author’s previous trilogy, to help me wait.
Show Less
LibraryThing member iftyzaidi
This was the first doorstopper Fantasy I’ve read in a good long while. And it was a good pick to re-introduce myself to the genre as well. It was action-packed from start to finish. It also benefitted from having interesting and engaging main characters, all of whose stories were fun to read. One
But what about the story itself. It draws heavily upon its influences and there are many of them. It is a story full of exploration of savage lands, or magic and dragons, of battle upon the high seas, and of deadly spies and spy-craft. Imagine a well-crafted mash-up of old boys’ tales such as H. Ridder Haggard’s King Soloman’s Mines and She; of nautical tales such as Patrick O’Brien, some James Bond, all mixed in a steampunk fantastical milieu with dragons. It is a testament to the author’s craft that all these elements work well together to create an action-packed first installment of the Draconis Memoria trilogy.
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of the problems that sometimes arises with doorstopper fantasies that have a big cast of characters, is that certain plot threads are not very interesting and some POV characters don’t hold your interest so that when you come around to a chapter with their story you feel a sense of impatience, wanting to writing to get back to a narrative thread that is more interesting or a character who care about. That isn’t the case here. I cared for all the POV characters and I found all their narrative threads exciting to read.But what about the story itself. It draws heavily upon its influences and there are many of them. It is a story full of exploration of savage lands, or magic and dragons, of battle upon the high seas, and of deadly spies and spy-craft. Imagine a well-crafted mash-up of old boys’ tales such as H. Ridder Haggard’s King Soloman’s Mines and She; of nautical tales such as Patrick O’Brien, some James Bond, all mixed in a steampunk fantastical milieu with dragons. It is a testament to the author’s craft that all these elements work well together to create an action-packed first installment of the Draconis Memoria trilogy.
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LibraryThing member Karlstar
Q whole lot happens in this book, so much so that it felt like a complete novel, but it isn't. Dragon blood is the key to magic in this world, but dragons are becoming harder and harder to find. An expedition is put together to go deep into the continent to find the legendary white dragon - the
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ultimate source of power. That likely sounds kind of familiar and it should, but this is fairly well done with good characters and a decent set of sub-plots. Show Less
LibraryThing member Andorion
There are a few things I love to read about in fantasy but I rarely get. First is fantasy set outside the usual medieval timeline. This is being remedied recently by the gunpowder fantasy books by authors like Django Wexler. Secondly I like fantasy focussing on naval themes, naval voyages and naval
So imagine my pleasure and surprise at discovering a book that has all three of these elements! Its set quite forward in time, a rough analogue being late 19th century Europe. Only Sanderson's second Mistborn series has been set in a time like that. (I am excluding steampunk from this categorisation)Plus, this book has dragons. I am a huge dragon fan. And the name of this series is very cool. Draconis Memoria. Safe to say I was hooked from beginning.
Now the world is fairly simple in terms of political alignments - there are two very large continental masses - one ruled by an old-fashioned empire another by a corporate state. But the really important continent - the site of the story is a smaller one to the south. This mostly unexplored wilderness contains drakes - not-quite-dragons. These are immensely valuable because of their blood. Their blood known as the Product is poisonous and corrosive to all except a very few, who are the Blood Blessed. Blood Blessed can temporarily gain powers by drinking Product - powers which are crucial in political and economic struggle. Naturally Drake blood and its control is the principal focus of the competing states.
Mark Lawrence stated in his review that this is an idea and story focussed book and I agree. The world-building is excellent. What is shown is described and built up in great detail. There are also tantalizing hints about entire vistas of world builing that may yet be revealed. The story itself is a slow burn. The book is a long one and its takes its time going through the personal journeys of the three PoV characters. At least two of these PoVs are very enjoyable. The third one is less so, probably due to comparatively lesser storytime which is a pity. I hope this will be remedied in later books.
But the best part of the book is the storytelling. I found the slowburn style to work very well. It allowed the author to work in plot points and develop them gradually. But what is really enjoyable and what grabbed me is the escalation of the story. The last part of this book is increasingly breathless as certain root assumptions are questioned
Overall its an epic story and the further implications of it left my head spinning. The second book can't come soon enough
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warfare. This is very rare and hard to find. Thirdly I like exploration themed fantasy with exploring unknown uncharted areas and making new discoveries. This too is not very prominent in popular fantasy books. So imagine my pleasure and surprise at discovering a book that has all three of these elements! Its set quite forward in time, a rough analogue being late 19th century Europe. Only Sanderson's second Mistborn series has been set in a time like that. (I am excluding steampunk from this categorisation)Plus, this book has dragons. I am a huge dragon fan. And the name of this series is very cool. Draconis Memoria. Safe to say I was hooked from beginning.
Now the world is fairly simple in terms of political alignments - there are two very large continental masses - one ruled by an old-fashioned empire another by a corporate state. But the really important continent - the site of the story is a smaller one to the south. This mostly unexplored wilderness contains drakes - not-quite-dragons. These are immensely valuable because of their blood. Their blood known as the Product is poisonous and corrosive to all except a very few, who are the Blood Blessed. Blood Blessed can temporarily gain powers by drinking Product - powers which are crucial in political and economic struggle. Naturally Drake blood and its control is the principal focus of the competing states.
Mark Lawrence stated in his review that this is an idea and story focussed book and I agree. The world-building is excellent. What is shown is described and built up in great detail. There are also tantalizing hints about entire vistas of world builing that may yet be revealed. The story itself is a slow burn. The book is a long one and its takes its time going through the personal journeys of the three PoV characters. At least two of these PoVs are very enjoyable. The third one is less so, probably due to comparatively lesser storytime which is a pity. I hope this will be remedied in later books.
But the best part of the book is the storytelling. I found the slowburn style to work very well. It allowed the author to work in plot points and develop them gradually. But what is really enjoyable and what grabbed me is the escalation of the story. The last part of this book is increasingly breathless as certain root assumptions are questioned
Overall its an epic story and the further implications of it left my head spinning. The second book can't come soon enough
Show Less
Awards
BookNest Fantasy Award (Nominee — 2016)
Language
Original publication date
2016
ISBN
0356506398 / 9780356506395