| Title | : | Requiems Song (Dawn of Dragons, #1) |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| ISBN-10 | : | 9781927601242 |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | ebook |
| Number of Pages | : | 300 |
| Publication | : | First published March 30, 2014 |
In an ancient world just rising from darkness, they are everywhere. Some wander the plains with clans of mammoth hunters. Others are born in riverside huts. Some live across the ocean where seafaring tribes are discovering the secrets of bronze and writing in clay. Everywhere their curse is the same--people who can grow wings, breathe fire, and take flight as dragons.
And everywhere, they are hunted. They hide in forests and caves, dispersed. Many are alone, unaware that others exist. They are shunned, afraid, dying . . . until a group of these lost souls binds together and stands tall.
A blacksmith in a world of stone tools. A mammoth hunter exiled from her tribe. A traveling juggler and a wandering warrior. An elderly druid and an outcast prince. They are weredragons. They are cursed and hunted. Together they will forge a new tribe, a home for their kind. A dawn of dragon rises. The nation of Requiem is born.
Requiems Song (Dawn of Dragons, #1) Reviews
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These notes apply pretty much for the whole series.
Some good things:
- Daniel Arenson can make a battle feel very alive and exciting - lots of action and imaginative description of how a battle might play out.
- The concept for the series, with people who are persecuted because they can shift between a human and dragon form, is rich with potential and pretty interesting.
- The description of demons and dragons was quite visually stimulating, I could definitely see these creatures.
That is all.
Seriously.
I came in to the series (I read the 3 books in the Dawn of Dragons series, which is the 1st trilogy in the World of Requiem) thinking I would get some really fascinating literature about people and dragons in a sort of high fantasy, and will admit that setting it in the bronze age could really pose some interesting challenges and limitations for the characters.
And boy, was I thoroughly disappointed.
The author's technique and execution of a concept which had great potential. I've seen a number of people complain about the ultraviolence of the book and series in general. The violence itself was not an issue for me - it was the fact that the only time anything actually happened was in battle scenes. Outside these, basically nothing but whining, or if something interesting like rebuilding a home/nation or even just some meaningful conversation occurred, it only received a pitiful few pages before the author flooded the world with another desperate attack. It's a shameful display of an inability to write or develop anything remotely interesting when the only time anything happens is during a fight. Life exists outside battle, even during wartime. This was basically left unexplored - all down time was basically spent in preparation for the next battle, or was glossed over in a matter of a page or two. That the author has some sort of revulsion to explore the (sometimes lengthy) passages of time between fights is at once annoying to read and kind of sad.
On a very direct note, the author has clearly only one concept of how people cry - STINGING TEARS. It becomes exceedingly tiring to open a book and see characters cry on nearly every page, but that is only compounded upon when the descriptor of this action is nearly always "his/her eyes stung". There are a plethora of ways to describe a character crying - does this need to be the one used literally 98% of the time? On top of this, it's when EVERY character is subject to this, it completely annihilates any individualism. The characters became exceptionally boring because all they ever do is cry or fight - their individual characteristics either have no chance to shine, because they're all slight tweaks of the same whiney, teary base, so they all look like the exact same person with differing physical characteristics. Not interesting whatsoever, and I had no desire to connect to any of them.
Furthermore these characters are driven far too much by ultimate imperative. It seems every action is one of "I must do this for my loved ones/my nation/the earth itself", with events that are not necessarily of utmost importance being treated like "end of the world" situations. The actual importance of these events is diminished with great speed, because every action is at this 10/10 level of imperative. As such, after about 3 "ohmygodtheworldisending" events, you just stop caring. There's no buildup, no literary foreplay - it's just driving in at full speed and leaving you sitting there after the event wishing that something interesting would happen, rather than just being bombarded by increasingly meaningless action. All you get for slogging through battle after battle is a few pages of clunky exposition, or teary-eyed whiny characters thinking about just how dire their situation and clutching desperately at any hope that they'll wake up the next day just to see everything come crashing down again.
The concept for the series is interesting. I wish the execution had anything remotely interesting to speak of. -
This is the first book I've read of Daniel Arenson, and it will be the last. Just because you throw words together with a little bit of dragons and magic doesn't make a fantasy artist, and Arenson is no artist.
Too much violence, too little plot, too much emotion, not enough character development. The events are not believable, the script is filled with discrepancies. There are details that do not make sense, for example saying that someone was punched in the cheek but then in the next sentence their nose was bleeding. I doubt the author had ever been punched or knows anything about the physical body because if you get punched in the cheek your nose doesn't bleed. Other details that do not line up.
And again, the violence? What an author writes is a reflection of who they are. I understand that violence is needed sometimes, but the amount of raw, unfiltered abuse in just the first four chapters of this book...how can someone sit down and write about that much abuse? It is a poor reflection of the authors character. -
Excellent Plot!
The title didn’t suggest anything to me at all in the beginning but as I read the book it became clear to me that it was a song of freedom for the weredragons. This was my first fantasy read and I’m not disappointed. I tend to read books that leans closer to reality and shy away from books that are difficult to imagine or out of my comfort zone. For the first half of the book I was hooked on to the different imagery and characters in the book, but after that I was terribly disappointed because of several reasons:
The details were too vivid and gory
Nothing seemed to be going on well for the weredragons and only three chapters were dedicated to their small victories. I wished there were more moments like that which would have equalised the monotony of evil.
The book fits well into the fantasy genre and is written from the point of view of weredragons who are looking for the ‘escarpment’ which is their home. The weredragons believe they possess the magic to shift which others call as a curse. The writing tends to weigh heavily down the reader because of its cruelty and wrath, however, the language is clear and convincing.
Will I read the next book in the series? Maybe.I feel I need to be really really inspired to read the next book. If you are *unlike me* a fantasy book lover, i am sure you’ll love it.
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I'm not sure what to think about this book, like many of the other reviewers here.
Although I read this book in one sitting, it was mainly because I had a seven-hour train journey to get through, and, honestly, the writing is fairly decent, for the most part.
There are several other good parts of the story:
- the idea is very unique. People who can turn into dragons is something that hasn't been done often before and, unlike other reviewers, I feel that the hatred towards them isn't that unrealistic. Let's face it, how many people wouldn't be afraid and try to at least contain people who could turn into flying. Fire-breathing death machines.
- the descriptions of the imagination behind the was very interesting and it allowed a clear mental image.
Although not a pro as such, I didn't find anything particularly upsetting with the rude language or gore. It was pretty graphic at times, but no one was claiming this book is for children.
And now for the negatives:
- the repetition. Whilst most of the book is fairly well written, there were several points where I was reading the exact same sentence as before. I don't care how one character's sister doesn't count as a woman, she's more like a warthog, especially when it's the third time I've heard it.
- the rules of turning into a dragon are fairly vague. It's established fairly early on that ropes or chains prevent a character from turning into dragon if they don't want to face dismemberment, but clothes transform as well and are present after transformation as well. One character's sword transforms with him, but another's homemade spear doesn't. What's even worse is that the author acknowledges this, with a promise of a later explanation which never comes.
Similarly at the end
- character development. Not much of it, and what does exist is forced. I especially hated
This book wasn't awful; I did manage to read the whole thing, but there were certain aspects that really held it back. So long as such things don't bother you, and you want an easy read, I would recommend this. Otherwise, I'd look for something else. -
Daniel Arenson became my favorite fantasy author since the day I read "song of Dragons"
I think even if you did not read the first trilogy you can still love this new one.
The story sounds very prehistoric. Rocs, Sabertooth tigers and I havent seen mammoths yet but I am sure they will appear in the next book.
This the beginning of the Vir Requis and how built their empire. Five dragons joined forces to create a home for those who can grow wings, breath fire and fly as dragons. It is really interesting seeing how the Vir Requis went from living in the wild to raising the first columns of Requiem.
I felt like I was reading a history book about Requiem. It feels very real, like it really happened.
Five star review for Daniel Arenson. Either these books will become a movie or a tv show on scfi channel.
"May our wings forever find your sky Daniel." -
5.3.2017 - 3,5*
Člověk by řekl, že kniha tak brutalní a přesto s dobrým dějem, skvělými bojovými scénami, tak živými popisy (a věřte mi, místy bych se bez toho obešla. Třeba jen... démoni? Oh my.) a charaktery, kterým fandíte a sledujete je se zatajeným dechem, taková kniha by ode mě měla dostat pět.
Ne?
Problém je, že ta kniha je tak brutální a zaměřená na akci, a pouze akci, že to opomíná vše ostatní. Charaktery jsou fatalistické a drží jednu myšlenku, a pokud se na chvíli odvrátí od své nenávisti/pomsty/zahořklosti nebo zášti, padne deprese a to není zas o tolik lepší. Ano, většina knihy je napsaná v bezvýchodné situaci, ale damn, život přeci jen není o beznaději.
Svět, postavy, které rozehrály svou hru, všechny detaily, které autor pečlivě připravil, a veškeré originální myšlenky, které se tam objevují, jsou pak tak nějak... zahozené, zahlcené v neustálém proudu násilí a akce, která jako by nepřestávala.
Nevím, co přesně mi na tom vadí a co by knihu udělalo lepší, ale není to ani příběh, který by ode mě dostal 5*. Ach ano, ponořila jsem se do něj a viděla jeho průběh před očima, postavy byly různorodé a věrohodné, o to divněji se cítím, když tomu nemůžu dát více, než 3*. -
When I started this book, which I did without knowing a single thing prior, I thought that I would be reading songwriting like Eragon turns out I was wrong, though there was an evil king that has a very dark secret and the characters were enjoyable and the concept was interesting it was not only it's own thing but a treat for all dragon lovers.
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I originally rated this book higher, however after a few days of reflection, I realized I didn't really enjoy it at all. I love stories about dragons, but this wasn't so much about dragons (or people who can morph into dragons) as it was about abuse and violence. There might have been one or pages with a happy thought, otherwise everyone (and I mean everyone) was either starved, beaten, locked up, burned, ripped apart, raped, eaten by demons, self-flagellated, or some combination of the above and more. I know that bad things happen in books to propel the storyline along. This was not the case here. By the end, my picture of all the characters was of scarred, bruised and battered people wandering around waiting for the next wave of abuse to come. I can't imagine what tale the author is trying to tell, and I don't care to subject myself to the violence and abuse to continue with the series.
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![[ J o ]](https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/users/1673171874i/4639825._UY200_CR4,0,200,200_.jpg)
[ to review at a later date - perhaps even re-read and review at a later date as well, though not urgent ]
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I’m really glad I started this series. There could be a bit more back story but the action and the storyline are gripping and make you want to know what’s going to happen to the main characters. I’m impressed by the concept and how the author has brought so many magical creatures together and yet made them very distinct in their positions in the story. I’m diving straight into the second book.
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This book was a HUGE surprise. I honestly had very low expectations based on both the cover art and the synopsis. The cover art because, while it's a cool looking dragon, it really made me think this was going to be kind of a cheesy young adult styled novel. Then, when I first started, the main character that it started with was a young girl (10 I think). But that whole idea quickly changed around when
As for the synopsis, maybe it was just poorly written, being about weredragons and whatnot, but it didn't strike me with much confidence. But this book is brutal. There are some pretty awful things going on, though it's really about rising above adversity. The prose is quite good too. The author clearly enjoys describing things, especially nasty demons. And boy are they ever uniquely nasty.
Probably not the deepest of characters and while the plot was fairly original (compared to the myriad of Chosen One fantasy novels at least) it wasn't without fault. Sometimes I thought some parts were dumb or some dialogue was poor, but overall, this book is really good. I struggled to decide whether I would rate it 4 or 5 stars on goodreads, when I'd probably do 4.5, I decided to round up. I will absolutely be reading the next in the series, and maybe all of the series in this universe. I hope they hold up just as well as this one. -
As I got this book for free, I'll give an honest review. I found that with so many POVs, it made the beginning of the book confusing and hard to follow. There wasn't any plot twists and I didn't find the build up tense or exciting, if there was a build up.
The reason why I didn't just give this book a one star is because the concept was, I found, fresh and interesting. Maybe there are other books about weredragons, but as I don't usually read these kinds of books, I don't know. -
There's a lot more vivid gore, violence, and ugly in this book than I generally like to read, but my curiosity for where this story was going won out and I stuck it through. I'm not sure that its enough to have me read more though.
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Too repetitive
Author repeats the same descriptions over and over and over. Felt like it was filler for a short story. Pretty disappointing. -
::Warning:: Lots of swearing. I hate censoring myself so… yeah. Can’t handle swearing don’t read. Also this is a long review.
TLDR; this book sucks, don’t read it.
3/10- Boring. Boring world building, boring prose, boring characters, and boring plot.
This is the third book I’ve read by Daniel Arenson. The first one was Requiem: A Leagacy of Light aka the worst fantasy book I’ve ever read. The second was Moth, a book with agonizingly stupid characters and a nonsensical world. This one was the first book of his I finished. I only finished it because I really wanted to give this author a chance (and I needed something to do while on a trip). I wanted to like this book, but...
Let’s just get into the review.
This book is awfully boring! It’s a prequel series for the rest of the Requiem books, a series that revolves around weredragons. I’ve said this in Arenson’s Legacy of Light review and I’ll say it again here. The idea of people turning into dragons is fucking awesome! I love werewolves and dragons so by combining the two you should get a 10/10 from me. But alas, that is not the case.
The shitty world building:
I gave up on expecting a colorful, well-thought out world from this guy. He has cool ideas, but poor execution. During Legacy of Light, I was disappointed by the fact he does nothing with weredragons. In that book, everyone was a weredragon, however, the world was not built around this idea. It was just a generic medieval world where people still use carriages and horses to travel even though they can fly! With this book, however, I didn’t have that problem. It’s a prequel and prequels usually elaborate on things, but Arenson doesn’t explain shit!
It doesn’t explain anything about the dragon shifters. This would have been a great opportunity to delve into the origin of these people but all we get is that some people are born with the ability because a dragon constellation blessed them. No god, no magical force, nothing. Just stars. Usually, explaining the magic would ruin the magic, but since the persecution and execution of weredragons is the main point of this book, I would like an explaination of where they came from, how they work and why people hate them so much. Who was the first weredragon?
The weredragons can shift just from thinking about it. There’s one character who turns into a dragon even though she thought she was a plain human. Throughout the book, she constantly thinks about becoming a dragon and nothing comes of it until she just… turns into one. Did she unlock something in her brain that prevented her from shifting? Was it trauma that kept it in her? What?! It was never explained!
They can only turn into their full dragon forms.
This is more of a personal pet peeve. My favorite thing about werecreatures is that aspects of the beast linger within the human form. Inhanced senses, increased strength, animalistic behavior etc. Since the weredragons can shift at will, I was waiting for them to grow talons out of their hands, use their inhanced senses, grow wings out of their backs, shoot fire out of their mouths in human form, ANYTHING! But no. They can only shift into full dragons. You may think it’s petty of me to complain about this but there are situations in this book that could have been easily solved if they just called upon aspects of their beast. It also would have made the whole weredragon thing cooler.
They are weak to ropes. Yes… seriously. When they shift they grow but they can’t shift when tied up. It makes sense with chains and iron bindings but rope!? It’s not like the rope is magical or extremely strong. It’s just rope. It should snap when they shift. There’s no real limit to their shifting abilities and the only real weakness they have is a poison (that is only used twice by the villains).
They can’t shift when hurt or tired but that rarely matters in this book. People, even those who are malnourished, would get into huge fights chapter after chapter and they never rest. It’s ridiculous. Arenson doesn’t follow this one rule unless it would make a scene more dramatic.
I’m harping so much about the dragons because they’re the only fantastical element in this fantasy. It’s set during the Bronze Age which is neat but, like the dragons, it’s barely utilized. We don’t get many descriptions of the one city we’re told about. All we get is that they have bronze and that the king is an asshole. It’s lame…
The weak plot:
Basically, weredragons are hunted by weredragon-haters and they need to escape. It’s pretty simple. The villains go to extreme lengths just to get rid of the dragons. It’s not like the dragons pose a real threat. They shift at will and only attack when threatened. If you don’t want your city to burn down, then leave them alone. Prejudice is a very common theme in fantasy because it’s so easy to do that type of plot with fantasy creatures. However, it means nothing when you don’t talk about it. There’s no fight for change. The only option everyone goes to is murder. Kill the dragons, kill the non dragons. Weredragons are good, non-weredragons are bad. Prejudice stems from ignorance. The weredragons make no effort to change the minds of those who hate them. It’s so black and white and uncomplicated.
The best thing about the story is the action scenes. Arenson is pretty good at writing a captivating and exciting fight scene. Unfortunately, he’s not good at writing anything else.
Speaking of…
The Writing:
The 2nd worst thing about this book is the writing. Arenson is trying way to hard be sound epic. If his world was fleshed out and interesting than the grand tone would have felt earned. Sometimes, his descriptions don’t make sense. He over uses adjectives and nonsense metaphors. He’s not good at establishing a scene. He jumps straight into what the characters are doing instead of setting up the scene. This may not bother other people, but it bothered the hell out of me. I had a hard time picturing where characters were and what places looked like. We jump between many perspectives throughout this book. There’s a moment in the beginning that nearly made me put the book down. Ch.1 takes place 10 years in the past for one character. Ch. 2, the king sees his son shift for the first time. In ch.3 we jump 10 years for the character in Ch.1. Ch.4 we follow the king again but it’s a continuation of ch.2. Time passes for one character but not another. It’s jarring.
His writing is agonizingly repetitive. This is a problem with all of his books. It’s like he can’t think of what else to write so he writes the same thing over and over again. Sometimes in the same chapter he repeats information. Jeid Blacksmith is a big, grizzly bear man. His kids call him Grizzly. He has a big, brown shaggy beard and wears furs. He’s compared to a bear. He looks like a grizzly bear. He’s a grizzled guy. He’s a bear-man. Maev’s dragon form is green. She’s a green dragon. A green dragon flies by. Maev is green, guys. She’s fucking green! Laira hasn’t shifted since her mother died. She hasn’t shifted since her mother died guys. Hey! Did you know that Laira hasn’t shifted since her mother died? Well she hasn’t shifted since her mother died. We get it!! You don’t have to keep repeating shit. Your audience is not stupid. Redundant shit like this makes me think this book was not edited.
The switching of perspectives was a bad choice. All the characters are written the same. Now, there’s nothing wrong with static characters. Not all characters have to be dynamic and in this book, I’m okay that most of the heroes are static. The story is not that complicated. However, static characters still have to be interesting. They should still have humanizing traits so the audience can relate to them and/or care for them. Motherfucking Warriors does this and that’s a book series about cats. Each of Requiem Song’s characters have one defining character trait and that trait is repeated over and over and over and over (cont.) again. Raem thinks weredragons are impure. He hates the weredragons because they are impure. Icky weredragons are impure. King Raem doesn’t like them. He doesn’t like weredragons, you guys! DO YOU GET IT?! KING RAEM DOESNT LIKE WEREDRAGONS! THEYRE IMPURE!
This is a clear sign of a bad writer. If you seriously can’t think of more traits to add to your characters and you can’t write those traits without straight up telling the audience, you need help with your story. A second, third or even forth draft is needed. I honestly believe this book is a first draft that ran through spellcheck. This guy delivers information in giant exposition dumps. Sometimes characters straight up say stuff they should already know. And it’s repetitive.
The amount of violence and abuse in this book is insane. I’m not a very sensitive person but if you can’t handle copious amounts of brutal abuse then don’t read this book. I’m okay with dower books, but goddamn! It’s constant! The abuse, the death, the fear, the trauma, the hatred… it’s just too much. A little brevity would have been nice. Have characters rest after battles and make plans for the next. Have them settle down and reflect. Stop throwing horrible shit at them all the damn time.
The descriptions are a mixed bag. There’s a lack of description for some stuff, too much for others and not enough for some others. The only thing we get for description for most of the dragons is their scale color. Sometimes size and the color of their horns is told but I think more vivid imagery would have helped make this fantasy more fantastical. We get the body shape for the draconic prince and grizzly man Jeid but that’s it. By the end, we learn that they have spiked tails. It’s disappointing. Arenson however doesn’t play around with the demon descriptions. They’re honestly great! They’re disgusting, unholy, monsterous! I can actually imagine these freaks of nature very well. There are points where he over describes them. Metaphors, simlies and adjectives are abused as much as the characters. Speaking of, the acts of violence are described in great detail. Some of the imagery made me squirm (a certain vore scene comes to mind). Once again: DO NOT read this book if you are sensitive to violence and abuse. Makes me wonder about Arenson…
The dialogue is godawful. All of the characters talk like the prose: overly grand, redundantly repetitive, and dry. Even a ten year old thinks like an adult. Characters straight up talk out loud to no one when they’re trying to hide. Shut the fuck up! Do you want to get caught?! They simply state their desires and feelings out loud. It’s lazy and I hate it.
The characters:
These characters suck. All of them. Some of them are plain stupid and others are boring. The only character I liked was the Demon Queen Angel. She’s so evil and gross that it made her fun. The other characters have one trait.
Laira is the tramutized and abused lost heir. She watched her mother burn at the stake because Laira got them caught shifting by flying up in the sky, the one thing her mother told her not to do. She is tortured by her chieftain for a decade until one day she finally decides to flee. She’s the most frustrating character. She could have escaped her abusive home anytime and find other dragons but she decided to stay because she grew up in the place. Bitch! Everyone hates you! The chieftain has giant birds that can easily kill a dragon so it makes sense for her not to shift, but she could’ve snuck off anytime. She’s just a pitiful person and of course I feel sorry for her. She’s abused all the damn time! Laira doesn’t have any personality traits other than being abused (which is not a real trait). But we are told she’s a strong woman and that she overcomes even though we don’t see that until the end. I don’t like her. Plan and simple.
Jeid is a grizzly bear-man. He’s a weredragon and wants to create a village full of dragons after his wife and youngest daughter were killed. He’s boring as shit. I skipped his chapters.
Raem is the king of Eteer, the city of bronze. He hates weredragons. That’s his character trait. He’s the father of Laira, Sena and Issari. He banished his wife and Laira, his eldest, because he saw them shifting. He locks away Sena just for shifting. He reguarly beats Issari just for speaking out against him. He kills his dad just for speaking out against him. He summons demons to terriorize his citizens just to weed out the weredragons. After his son escapes with other dragons and his daughter tries to kill him, he randomly snaps and lets the demons murder everyone in the city. He sucks. Raem is written like a complex and deep character but he’s not. He’s just Doc McEvil. Oh and he’s a weredragon. Spoilers I guess. It means nothing.
Zerra is the chieftain of Goldtusk, Laira’s tribe. He’s a walking dick. He hates dragons just because and abuses Laira just because. Hes a bloodthirsty, horny fucker and all he does is treat everyone like garbage. He’s a piece of shit and not worth talking about.
Tanin and Maev are Jedi’s kids. Tanin is a joker who sucks at talking to girls and Maev is the WORST character in the book. She’s supposed to be a headstrong, and tough character, but she’s just a c*nt! She’s constantly runs head first into battle without a plan, she bullies Tanin nonstop, she yells at people who just saved her damn life, and she’s disrespectful to her elders! She’s an unlikabke character. I hate every chapter she’s in.
Sena is the dragon prince and he’s boring. During the last battle, he damn near kills Jeid- whose kids just saved his life- demanding them to take him back to his abusive father. He thinks his batshit insane dad would take him back if he kills a weredragon. Motherfucker, he hates you! He’ll kill you! Sena snaps out of it when Laira hugs him. He sucks. I went from feeling bad for him to hating him in a few seconds.
Issari is the princess and she was fine until the end. I think Arenson had no clue what to do with this character and when he hit a hole he haphazardly filled it with some character destroying bullshit. She’s supposed to be the only non-dragon human. Her father doesn’t immediately kill her because she’s “pure”. She fights off demons by carrying a talisman and banishing them. She laments not being a dragon and I actually liked this about her. It was nice having a non-dragon who was not a complete piece of shit. She’s the kind of ruler her father never was. She cares about her people, dragon or not. She saw the demons her father brought into the world and fought them off to protect her people. She is brave, kind and a good ruler! And guess what… she’s a dragon too! This destroyed her character. All dragons good, non-dragons bad. Issari alone could have bridged the gap between these two groups and could have made the anti-prejudice theme stronger, but no. Arenson made both of her parents weredragons so she has to be one too. What a disappointment...
Finally there’s Angel, The Demon Queen. The only character I liked. She’s an evil bitch and a horrible monster but that’s what made her fun. She’s a demon who does demonic things. I’m a sucker for monsters and the best ones are the intimidating and terrifying ones. Angel fits that description perfectly. I wish her name wasn’t Angel though. It’s so on the nose. “Hur! Her names Angel but she’s a demon! Isn’t that ironic! Herp derp!” Shut the fuck up. Give her a better name.
All in alll, this book sucks. 3/10 boring as sin. Don’t read this book. -
Let me start by saying I really did not enjoy the narrator. He is skilled, with a good assortment of voices, but I think his character voice choices were not very good. Particularly the female characters. One of the main characters, who does have a legitimate reason for her voice to sound... Impaired, actually sounds like an adolescent male orc with huge tusks affecting the voice rather than the actual physical explanation.
Okay, story.
I could be wrong, but I believe this is the first book Daniel wrote in this world. With that in mind, I was expecting shallow characters, random, dead-end sub- plots, and clumsy, sloppy prose.
I'm very happy to say this book has none of those problems!
What it does have is a big, sprawling cast, a deep history, and complex characters.
In many ways, I'm reminded of A Game of Thrones, but that I feel there wasn't enough time spent on any one thing.
Just from the way its written, I can see there is a wealth of history and character motivations and magic and I just wish more of it had made it into the book.
As it is, it feels like I've just watched a film adaptation that hints at all these awesome things but doesn't actually explore any of them.
I expect much of this is built on with successive novels, but again, I feel that this story was too big to have been told in a 100k word novel.
Now, for my one true gripe about the story:
The Dragons.
Now, I understood going into it that the story was about were-dragons and not true dragons, so, okay, weird idea, but I get it.
But
Where are the true dragons?
There's not a word in the entire book even mentioning true dragons.
Do they exist?
If not, how can you explain the existence of a were-dragon? It just doesn't make sense to me.
Now, the bigger issue I have, is why would plain, ordinary rope stop a were-dragon from transforming into their dragon form? It doesn't make any sense. The change is magical in nature, how does ordinary rope prevent it?
I kept expecting an explanation, but none ever came.
And why can humans kill them so easily?
I could go on about this, but the short version is I have tons of questions about the Dragons that were not addressed in any way, shape, or form in the book.
In the end, I'm glad I read it, but I don't know if I'll be continuing the series. -
I honestly don't know how I feel about this book. Requiem's Song was many things, though I'm not sure 'fun' or 'enjoyable' were among them. I actually received this eBook for free after signing up for the author, Daniel Arenson's, mailing list, and I'm a little glad that I didn't spend money on it.
The story predominantly focuses on the rise of Requiem, a tribe composed of people who had been dubbed 'weredragons.' As their name may imply, weredragons are men with the ability to shape-shift into dragons. And no, they don't change during the full moon like werewolves. In truth, they're more like animagus from the Harry Potter series. They can shift at will by drawing upon some kind of inner magic. In truth, I do like the idea. Changing into a dragon sounds like a very cool ability--something worth daydreaming through class about. Unfortunately, a majority of the people in the world of Requiem's Song (its name is never mentioned) would heavily disagree with me, and this is a major problem I have with the book as a whole.
Literally everybody in this book hates weredragons. And I don't mean they just hate them. No, I mean they really f*cking hate them. Normally, I wouldn't have a problem with this because it is admittedly understandable. Dragons are big, strong, and they can breathe fire and do tons of damage. However, Arenson focuses so much on the brutality of the way weredragons are treated that it makes it difficult for me to understand why people hate weredragons so much. All the main characters are treated so poorly and they struggle just to get by on account of their ability to turn into a dragon. They're hunted, abused, and victimized so much, and they never really do anything to warrant the treatment they receive. There's not much depth to it. The people of the city-state of Eteer hate dragons on account of their religion, but the northerners across the sea from Eteer seem to hate weredragons because why the hell not? I mean sure, some people are bound to hate dragons, but everybody? Especially when the dragons have done nothing to hurt anybody? That makes no sense. Hell, the humans act worse than the weredragons. I remember near the beginning of the book when one of the characters, Jeid, flies to a village to try to save someone whom he had been told was a weredragon only to find out that the victim in question was not actually a weredragon, and they had just lured him into a trap. He barely gets away with his life.
Why? Why would they do that? What did he do to you people? There's no apparent rhyme or reason for it. The book never mentions any weredragons terrorizing villages or kidnapping people before. There was no Dragon War, no Dragon Holocaust, no Dragon anything. Why is this happening? Why target Jeid specifically? What has he ever done to anyone in that village? Apparently nothing. They just hate him because, "Ew, dragons." I'd like something a bit more complicated than that. It makes the humans seem very one-dimensional and just plain evil for evil's sake.
And as if that weren't enough, this brutality never stops. Just when you think things are starting to look up for a character, shit happens. Bad shit. Bull shit. Mammoth shit. Any kind of shit you can imagine. It just falls from the sky in big brown clumps and sticks to everything. Especially Laira. I swear there were hardly any redeeming qualities in this book. The characterizations were nothing extraordinary, and there were not enough slow, quiet, or funny moments to give me a break from the fighting and cruelty. Of course, I don't mind action sequences in books, and these action sequences were actually pretty well-written. I didn't have that much trouble envisioning the characters or their environs, and they were very fast-paced. But there were just too many of them for me, and not enough reflection, character-development, or even just sight-seeing. It was just one thing after another. Even if a character finally gets a break for a minute or two, we quickly cut away from that and focus on this other character who's getting his face bloodied again. This book was in desperate need of comic relief. Or hell, not even a comic relief. Just a friendship, a new discovery, a romance, a car ad--anything really. Something to distract from all the brutality. I actually had to resort to making jokes about the book just to get some kind of enjoyment out of it. I didn't really care about any of the characters, so I didn't even feel bad about it.
I also wasn't a big fan of the antagonist, Angel. She's the Queen of Demons.
Angel.
The Queen of Demons.
It's supposed to be ironic, I think, but it sounds silly. I wasn't really intimidated by her. She was just disgusting. And really really horny for some reason. Don't ask, please.
King Raem was also pathetic, both as a person and as a villain. Is he really content to let Angel's demons destroy his city and eat and rape his civilians? He keeps claiming that he's "purefying" his city of the weredragon menace, but it seems to me that anyone with half a brain cell could see that what he's doing is wrong. His character motivation was just weak and conflicting . There doesn't really seem to be a point to his outrage. He keeps saying that weredragons are an abomination unto his god, Taal, but that excuse only goes so far before Raem ends up making himself look like a foolish bigot.
Again, I don't know how I feel about Requiem's Song. It left a bitter taste in my mouth. The writing was decent and the action sequences were much better than those of the last book I read (
The Way of Shadows), but it just wasn't satisfying. Even at the very end, , I don't feel like anything really happened. I think it's because I never really connected with any of the characters, and the only things that really left any kind of impression on me were the cruelty and how disgusting Angel and her demons were. If this book is any indication of what future installments are like, then I think I'll probably just stop here. The other books may be good, but this one did not sell me on that point.
(And I'm sorry, but I can't get over this. Angel, the Queen of Demons? Seriously? Did Arenson really think that sounded okay? Because it's not. *Sigh* I don't suppose there's another villain in the same universe by the name of "Porkie, the Pig King of the Slaughterhouse"? I don't mean to dwell on this, but it's so... stupid.) -
85%
There weren't many books, even short, I've read within 24 hours.
It was also the first time for me with dragon shifters instead of the usual take on dragons. It also has a strong 'witch hunt' vibe with the weredragons being hunted down. Despite the length (shortness?), there's some worldbuilding though much of this book is about fighting, often down to gory detail. Yet, there's something gripping in the tale of a few underdogs thought (and taught to see themselves) cursed and the three main antagonists were the type I loved to hate. Just the same (and it's one of the reasons I'm not going to 5*) I'd like to know more about what caused some of them to have so much hatred for the weredragons. I get that the setting and the hunt for them is similar to witch hunts and it's mostly about fear of the unknown but they seem to have a stronger reason which we don't see. -
No villain (and there are at least 4) has any redeeming qualities. They are cruel, evil, power-hungry, ego-centric, and hypocritical. They seem to do things because they can and because it causes pain to others, and because they feel entitled (either through their hatred, strength, or narrow-mindedness). At no point does the reader feel sympathy for them or their situation, just a constant sense of disgust and disbelief.
Every protagonist has major trauma in their past: abuse, persecution, constantly being hunted. This has led to a lack of self-worth, belligerence, an inability to fit in; yet also, in the end, creates a determination to prevail against the odds.
We see a lot of wounds and poisoning--blood constantly spilled--yet our protagonists continue to survive and fight.
It would be nice to hear another sound besides yowling come from our protagonists when they're hurt, because every time an arrow pierces them, or a claw slashes them, or something rips off a chunk of them, all I can think of is a screaming cat.
Also, the descriptions of the demons becomes truly tedious, given that every description is a repetition of the last. -
There are so many bad reviews about this book that I hesitated to bother with it, but hey, it was a freebie, so no loss other than a few hours of reading time, right?
Well, some of the negative views have merit. This is a brutal, bloody book; the bloodshed is relentless. Arenson's descriptions of the demons are repetitive, annoyingly so.
With that said, I found myself strangely enchanted by the characters. Most of the main characters are better developed than one often finds in this genre. The plot is decent, if somewhat predictable.
Would I recommend paying full price for this book? Probably not. But if you can get it at a steep discount, you'll get plenty of value. -
-One-dimensional characters
-Characters which were not lovable, even the "heroes"
-Weird plot
-Many unnecessary plot elements
-Jumbled writing
-Too many plotlines
-Confusing descriptions
As you can see, I had many problems with this book. I don't think I've ever given a book 1 star before, but there's a first time for everything. If I wanted to compare Requiem's Song to anything, I guess I would say it's like Seraphina, but Seraphina was better executed in a million different ways. Don't read this, read Seraphina. That should be your takeaway from this review. -
This is the beginning!
This is a refreshing take on Dragons and humans! This is also my first weredragon story. :) What I love about this series is that it starts at the beginning of the mythology and world building. Most stories start with a big deal in the middle ages and then go back to the beginning and present the backstory. I so thrilled to be at the beginning! -
Really liked the concept of weredragons and loved the idea of the timeline being Bronze Age! Unfortunately the characters are shallow tropes and abruptly the story abandons all attempt at fantasy 100 pages in and goes full horror-torture-porn. So unless that's your jam, this is some of the worst writing I've encountered in a while.
-
It started out pretty interesting but was very meh by the end. Judging from the first part I'd already bought book 2 so went ahead and continued for that reason alone. I typically don't continue a book I give 3 stars to.
