Did you buy this book for Magic and Dragons? Get ready to be disappointed. Sure… they both appear in the book, but not how you’re thinking and not nearly enough for the series to be called Dragon Mage. I get it. Its a huge setup for some big payoff later. I just need at least 1% payoff in the first book to make me want to keep going.
Non-Spoiler Pros and Cons:
Pros: The writer has a great start and a really solid concept.
Con: After the initial intro the story grinds to a slow over-explained halt. The “they think this is magic but its just tech” line is abused and abused.
Con: The MC is an emotionless void. *Spoiler within () do not read * – (when his entire crew is murdered except him and his one friend – he just kind-of shrugs it off. He is litterally brought into the Captain’s quarters and the Captain tries to pretend to be his friend shortly after murdering his crew mates and he doesn’t even bring it up… )
Con: Gary Bennett sounds like he is half asleep reading these lines. Its so low energy … it almost matches the character, but not QUITE low energy enough to match the ferocity that is the slow plodding do-nothing that is the MC.
Looks. Dragons and Mages are my jam. He could only have added the word Ninja to more closely hit home with me and I want desperately for this to be amazing. It’s just not a great example of a hero I can pull for. Not to mention that the wheel never developed in any other 100s of millions of planets? Cmon man…