Status
Available
Series
Collection
Publication
CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform (2016), 516 pages
Description
When Julius overthrew his mother and took control of his clan, he thought he was doing right by everyone. But sharing power isn't part of any proper dragon's vocabulary, and with one seat still open on the new ruling Council, all of Heartstriker is ready to do whatever it takes to get their claws on it, including killing the Nice Dragon who got them into this mess in the first place.
User reviews
LibraryThing member Narilka
No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished is the third in Rachel Aaron's Heartstriker series. The book picks up immediately where book two left off. At this point I can't give a synopsis without spoilers.
Julius has done what no other dragon has dared to do: he has overthrown Bethesda, taken over the clan and
While there are only two plot threads, the story takes a lot of twists and turns and is quite an emotional ride. The first thread is from Julius's point of view as he takes on the impossible task of getting his family in line. He is quite unprepared for just how treacherous, plotting and literally backstabbing his family is. All the Heartstrikers assembled in one place is the ultimate recipe for chaos and insanity is the main course! It's a good thing he has a few family members on his side to help keep him safe and maintain a semblance of order. This leaves Marci alone to fend for herself in the mountain, which is the other plot thread. Marci is finally learning about what the nature of her spirit and just what his appearance means to the world so she sets out to acheive her full potential as the first possible Merlin since magic returned. Marci's bond with Ghost grows and it's a fascinating.
Given that the entire Heartstriker clan has been called to the mountain, there are dragons everywhere. All the favorites from the previous books are back. Bob, Chelsie, Amelia and Justin all play important roles in the story. Especially Chelsie. Chelsie's backstory is finally filled in and we're given a fairly large bombshell that the reader is able to figure out though Julius stays naively clueless as to what it all means. I'm pretty sure this will be very important in book 4. There are some great new additions too. I particularly loved and had my heart go out to F-Clutch and their horrible situation. There are also plenty of dragons who disagree with Julius and a few that attempt to seize the apparent opportunity during the chaos. Dragon family politics are vicious!
I continue to enjoy the heck out of this little self published series. I'll be moving on to book 4 very soon. The book has a dramatic ending that, while not quite a cliff hanger, definitely left me wanting more immediately.
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did it all without killing her! His idea is to have the clan ruled by a council so every dragon has a voice. But sharing power isn't part of a dragon's vocabulary. Also near impossible is getting the entire clan together to vote on filling the last council seat without killing each other. Julius definitely has his work cut out for him. And the clock is ticking. Algonquin, the spirit of the lakes, has declared war on dragon-kind and the clan is sitting ducks until they can fill that final council seat.While there are only two plot threads, the story takes a lot of twists and turns and is quite an emotional ride. The first thread is from Julius's point of view as he takes on the impossible task of getting his family in line. He is quite unprepared for just how treacherous, plotting and literally backstabbing his family is. All the Heartstrikers assembled in one place is the ultimate recipe for chaos and insanity is the main course! It's a good thing he has a few family members on his side to help keep him safe and maintain a semblance of order. This leaves Marci alone to fend for herself in the mountain, which is the other plot thread. Marci is finally learning about what the nature of her spirit and just what his appearance means to the world so she sets out to acheive her full potential as the first possible Merlin since magic returned. Marci's bond with Ghost grows and it's a fascinating.
Given that the entire Heartstriker clan has been called to the mountain, there are dragons everywhere. All the favorites from the previous books are back. Bob, Chelsie, Amelia and Justin all play important roles in the story. Especially Chelsie. Chelsie's backstory is finally filled in and we're given a fairly large bombshell that the reader is able to figure out though Julius stays naively clueless as to what it all means. I'm pretty sure this will be very important in book 4. There are some great new additions too. I particularly loved and had my heart go out to F-Clutch and their horrible situation. There are also plenty of dragons who disagree with Julius and a few that attempt to seize the apparent opportunity during the chaos. Dragon family politics are vicious!
I continue to enjoy the heck out of this little self published series. I'll be moving on to book 4 very soon. The book has a dramatic ending that, while not quite a cliff hanger, definitely left me wanting more immediately.
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LibraryThing member Larou
Whenever a new novel by Rachel Aaron is released, there is a lot of squeeing at Maison Larou. Things were no different when No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished came out a couple of days ago. This time, however, a bit of grumbling was mixed among the squees as I’d always assumed that The Heartstrikers
A new novel by Rachel Aaron is also reason to drop everything else I may currently be reading in order to tackle her most recent offering, and that’s what I did this time, too. No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished (I really do love the titles she comes up with for this series) continues right where One Good Dragon Deserves Another left off, with Julius – aka the Nice Dragon aka the Dragon Gandhi (okay, I believe he is only called that once in the novel but it’s a title that is becoming increasingly appropriate as events unfold) finding out that his New Dragon Order won’t be quite as smooth and easy to establish as he had hoped. But then, he is probably the only one who is at all surprised at it, and even as intrigue and infighting among the Heartstriker clan reach new heights, the reader slowly realizes that the focus of this series is actually shifting away from the dragons towards human magic and its implications, with Marci, Julius’ human partner, maybe not completely taking centre stage but becoming as least as important a protagonist as Julius. So we not only find out on the dragon side of things what Chelsie’s secret is (it’s never explicitly spelled out, but the author heaps up so many clues that it’s obvious that reader is supposed to guess it) but on the human side we learn about more about Merlins and why everyone is so keen to have one.
Overall I have to say that I did not like No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished quite as much as the previous novel in the series. It seems to me to suffer somewhat from middle book syndrome – i.e., when everything is said and done and in spite of all the hectic activity, there is not all that much really happening in this volume and the author seems mostly concerned with getting all of her pieces in place for the end game. Also, there is not enough Bob in this installment (admittedly, there obviously can never be enough Bob, but even so, he is very much in the background this time). Which does not mind that this is a bad novel, quite to the contrary, it is fun as always, just does not quite reach the dizzying heights of reading glee which One Good Dragon Deserves Another scaled. And it should be added that one notices this only after finishing the novel and thinking about it – I believe that Rachel Aaron could not write a dull book if her life depended on it, and No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished is exactly the kind of compulsive and emotionally engaging page-turner that one has come to expect from her.
There was some more grumbling on my part at the end, because there’s a cliffhanger there, and I strongly dislike cliffhangers and think that their use should be punishable by law. At least it’s not the hanging-from-a-cliff-by-their-fingernails kind of cliffhanger, but more the WTF-just-happened-I-want-to-know-what-this-means-right-away kind. But that is a very minor niggle, and needless to say, the fourth volume can’t come fast enough for me.
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would be a trilogy only to find out that it will take four or maybe even five volumes until all the mysteries will be revealed. Of course, this also means at least one more novel in the series, so the grumbling was very short-lived in the end.A new novel by Rachel Aaron is also reason to drop everything else I may currently be reading in order to tackle her most recent offering, and that’s what I did this time, too. No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished (I really do love the titles she comes up with for this series) continues right where One Good Dragon Deserves Another left off, with Julius – aka the Nice Dragon aka the Dragon Gandhi (okay, I believe he is only called that once in the novel but it’s a title that is becoming increasingly appropriate as events unfold) finding out that his New Dragon Order won’t be quite as smooth and easy to establish as he had hoped. But then, he is probably the only one who is at all surprised at it, and even as intrigue and infighting among the Heartstriker clan reach new heights, the reader slowly realizes that the focus of this series is actually shifting away from the dragons towards human magic and its implications, with Marci, Julius’ human partner, maybe not completely taking centre stage but becoming as least as important a protagonist as Julius. So we not only find out on the dragon side of things what Chelsie’s secret is (it’s never explicitly spelled out, but the author heaps up so many clues that it’s obvious that reader is supposed to guess it) but on the human side we learn about more about Merlins and why everyone is so keen to have one.
Overall I have to say that I did not like No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished quite as much as the previous novel in the series. It seems to me to suffer somewhat from middle book syndrome – i.e., when everything is said and done and in spite of all the hectic activity, there is not all that much really happening in this volume and the author seems mostly concerned with getting all of her pieces in place for the end game. Also, there is not enough Bob in this installment (admittedly, there obviously can never be enough Bob, but even so, he is very much in the background this time). Which does not mind that this is a bad novel, quite to the contrary, it is fun as always, just does not quite reach the dizzying heights of reading glee which One Good Dragon Deserves Another scaled. And it should be added that one notices this only after finishing the novel and thinking about it – I believe that Rachel Aaron could not write a dull book if her life depended on it, and No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished is exactly the kind of compulsive and emotionally engaging page-turner that one has come to expect from her.
There was some more grumbling on my part at the end, because there’s a cliffhanger there, and I strongly dislike cliffhangers and think that their use should be punishable by law. At least it’s not the hanging-from-a-cliff-by-their-fingernails kind of cliffhanger, but more the WTF-just-happened-I-want-to-know-what-this-means-right-away kind. But that is a very minor niggle, and needless to say, the fourth volume can’t come fast enough for me.
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LibraryThing member krau0098
This is the third book in the Heartstrikers series. There are five books planned for this series. This was the best book yet of this series, so much happens and so many new threads of story are set in motion. I was impressed with how some of the previous story elements came together in this book
I listened to this on audiobook and this series continues to be very well done. Adam does a great job with different character voices and of conveying emotion. I would definitely recommend listening to this series on audiobook if you like audiobooks.
A lot of big things are going on in this book. Julius is trying to complete the Heartstriker council of which both he and Bethesda will be part of. They need a third dragon and getting all the Heartstriker dragons to vote on that is...complex. Then there is a whole bunch of background around Chelsea, which was awesome to learn about.
Much of the story involves Marcy and Ghost. Things get incredibly complicated when Marcy is asked for a big favor from Amelia. Then when Marcy has to journey back to the DFC to help Ghost things get pretty intense.
I love the world-building in this series, it’s just so broad and complete. I enjoy all the characters a lot too. This is the part of the story where we finally see some of Julius’s hard work starting to pay off. The book is action-packed and was impossible to stop reading.
Overall this was an amazing read that I really really loved! I would recommend to urban fantasy fans. This has been a fantastic series with excellent world-building, complex characters, and an unbelievably engaging plot. Highly recommended!
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and with the new story elements added. There are spoilers ahead for those who haven’t read previous book in the series.I listened to this on audiobook and this series continues to be very well done. Adam does a great job with different character voices and of conveying emotion. I would definitely recommend listening to this series on audiobook if you like audiobooks.
A lot of big things are going on in this book. Julius is trying to complete the Heartstriker council of which both he and Bethesda will be part of. They need a third dragon and getting all the Heartstriker dragons to vote on that is...complex. Then there is a whole bunch of background around Chelsea, which was awesome to learn about.
Much of the story involves Marcy and Ghost. Things get incredibly complicated when Marcy is asked for a big favor from Amelia. Then when Marcy has to journey back to the DFC to help Ghost things get pretty intense.
I love the world-building in this series, it’s just so broad and complete. I enjoy all the characters a lot too. This is the part of the story where we finally see some of Julius’s hard work starting to pay off. The book is action-packed and was impossible to stop reading.
Overall this was an amazing read that I really really loved! I would recommend to urban fantasy fans. This has been a fantastic series with excellent world-building, complex characters, and an unbelievably engaging plot. Highly recommended!
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LibraryThing member pwaites
No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished solidifies my love for this urban fantasy series. I went out and got the fourth book practically as soon as I finished.
This book is the third installment in the series (go to Nice Dragons Finish Last if you’re just starting), and it’s a series you really need to
At the end of the last book, Julius overthrew his mother’s authoritarian rule and established a council to lead the Heartstriker clan. It’s an entirely new move for dragons, and most of the family is convinced it won’t work. In fact, fractions are already forming to try and destroy Julius and gain their mother’s favor. Julius has his work cut out for him if he’s going to stay alive and make this new council system work.
Meanwhile, Marci is exploring her magic and connection to Ghost. A delegation from the UN arrives with an interest in her — they think she may be the next “Merlin,” whatever that means. Marci’s connection to Ghost is something special and nothing like it has been seen in thousands of years. This whole thread delves deeper into the magical world building of the series. The Heartstriker books have always had great world building, and I’m really enjoying these new additions about how magic and spirits work.
While the world building may have started out my favorite aspect of the series, I think the characters have surpassed it. They’re just so lovable! The Heartstriker books are basically one of those series where you quickly come to adore so many of the characters, including the supporting cast. I really started to love Chelsie in the last book, but we dive deeper into her character and past here. I couldn’t be more pleased! Oh, I also really loved Amelia and Svena’s frenemies type relationship.
Compared to the other books, No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished may have fewer action scenes, as a greater deal of the book is taken up with dragon politics/family drama (for dragons, they’re one and the same). You might think this would be boring or slow the pace down, but no. I ended up staying awake until 1 AM to finish it. I sort of regretted my decision the next day when I felt completely terrible, but at the time I was just to enthralled by the story to go to bed.
No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished ends on a cliffhanger that left me with a desperate craving for the next book, and I plan on reading it soon. In summary, No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished is another excellent installment in a phenomenal series. Really, these books are a ton of fun, and I’d highly recommend them.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
This book is the third installment in the series (go to Nice Dragons Finish Last if you’re just starting), and it’s a series you really need to
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read in order. Seriously, No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished starts less than twenty-four hours after book two ended. Oh, and forewarning, spoilers will for the previous books will follow.At the end of the last book, Julius overthrew his mother’s authoritarian rule and established a council to lead the Heartstriker clan. It’s an entirely new move for dragons, and most of the family is convinced it won’t work. In fact, fractions are already forming to try and destroy Julius and gain their mother’s favor. Julius has his work cut out for him if he’s going to stay alive and make this new council system work.
Meanwhile, Marci is exploring her magic and connection to Ghost. A delegation from the UN arrives with an interest in her — they think she may be the next “Merlin,” whatever that means. Marci’s connection to Ghost is something special and nothing like it has been seen in thousands of years. This whole thread delves deeper into the magical world building of the series. The Heartstriker books have always had great world building, and I’m really enjoying these new additions about how magic and spirits work.
While the world building may have started out my favorite aspect of the series, I think the characters have surpassed it. They’re just so lovable! The Heartstriker books are basically one of those series where you quickly come to adore so many of the characters, including the supporting cast. I really started to love Chelsie in the last book, but we dive deeper into her character and past here. I couldn’t be more pleased! Oh, I also really loved Amelia and Svena’s frenemies type relationship.
Compared to the other books, No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished may have fewer action scenes, as a greater deal of the book is taken up with dragon politics/family drama (for dragons, they’re one and the same). You might think this would be boring or slow the pace down, but no. I ended up staying awake until 1 AM to finish it. I sort of regretted my decision the next day when I felt completely terrible, but at the time I was just to enthralled by the story to go to bed.
No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished ends on a cliffhanger that left me with a desperate craving for the next book, and I plan on reading it soon. In summary, No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished is another excellent installment in a phenomenal series. Really, these books are a ton of fun, and I’d highly recommend them.
Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
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LibraryThing member whatsmacksaid
SUCH a good book. Make sure you have the fourth one on hand, though, because the ending is a doozy.
LibraryThing member kmartin802
Bethesda has been defeated but that doesn't mean that forming a council will be smooth sailing for Julius. Bethesda is still working to sabotage everything from behind the scenes and changing centuries of clan behavior isn't something that can happen overnight. Especially when it is the youngest
Julius is buried deep in dragon politics and Marci is left on her own in the mountain with massive problems of her own to solve. She and Ghost have made pledges to each other but neither really knows what they are dealing with. When the UN in the person of General Emily Jackson who is head of the United Nations Magical Disaster Response Force and Sir Myron Rollins who is the undersecretary of magic for the UN come to see her, they have a proposal and some information that could change everything.
It seems that Ghost might be a Mortal Spirit who has appeared at least 50 years before schedule and the Marci might be the first Merlin on this new age of magic. If she is, then she might have the power to stand up to spirits like Algonquin and dragons too. The UN wants to put her under its protection while it is determined if she is the Merlin. Accepting means leaving Julius and their new relationship behind. But staying in the mountain is harming Ghost because their isn't enough magic to feed him.
Marci is torn between Julius and Ghost. And Julius is struggling equally hard to bring his vision of a changed dragon clan to life. They are both under tremendous pressure.
This story was filled with dragon politics and dragon secrets. Julius wants to make everything better but he has to survive a number of assassination plots before he can even try. And then there is Bob who has plots of plans of his own and Julius is his favorite tool...
This was an great story excellently narrated by Vikas Adam. I was totally immersed in the story from the first word to the last.
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and least valued member of the clan who is advocating for the change.Julius is buried deep in dragon politics and Marci is left on her own in the mountain with massive problems of her own to solve. She and Ghost have made pledges to each other but neither really knows what they are dealing with. When the UN in the person of General Emily Jackson who is head of the United Nations Magical Disaster Response Force and Sir Myron Rollins who is the undersecretary of magic for the UN come to see her, they have a proposal and some information that could change everything.
It seems that Ghost might be a Mortal Spirit who has appeared at least 50 years before schedule and the Marci might be the first Merlin on this new age of magic. If she is, then she might have the power to stand up to spirits like Algonquin and dragons too. The UN wants to put her under its protection while it is determined if she is the Merlin. Accepting means leaving Julius and their new relationship behind. But staying in the mountain is harming Ghost because their isn't enough magic to feed him.
Marci is torn between Julius and Ghost. And Julius is struggling equally hard to bring his vision of a changed dragon clan to life. They are both under tremendous pressure.
This story was filled with dragon politics and dragon secrets. Julius wants to make everything better but he has to survive a number of assassination plots before he can even try. And then there is Bob who has plots of plans of his own and Julius is his favorite tool...
This was an great story excellently narrated by Vikas Adam. I was totally immersed in the story from the first word to the last.
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LibraryThing member Tikimoof
Slow start, but aaaaaaaaah that ending????
Language
Original language
English
Physical description
516 p.; 6 inches
ISBN
1535289988 / 9781535289986
Local notes
When Julius overthrew his mother and took control of his clan, he thought he was doing right by everyone. But sharing power isn’t part of any proper dragon’s vocabulary, and with one seat still open on the new ruling Council, all of Heartstriker is ready to do whatever it takes to get their claws on it, including killing the Nice Dragon who got them into this mess in the first place.