3.5 stars. A decent book, I understand a serial first (which is somewhat obvious in the writing style), action based with a complicated enough plat to keep it interesting and a well written hero, Vellem. Truly I loved Vellem, a geeky hero fascinated by engineering and building things whose also a well known soldier and a good tactician. If anything, he’s a touch too perfect, able to handle intense assassination attempts single handedly.The author gives us another well written fantasy world with warring factions and a mix of old fashioned sword play and firearms. There is treachery all around and a terrorist act forces Vellem into a role as leader that he never trained for nor wanted. His new responsibilities aren’t easy for him to swallow but he does the best he can making decisions that make sense for him while inevitably making mistakes that hurt those around him.We have a cast of good supporting characters from Vellem’s brother and sister in law to the other soldiers and ministers. And there is a set up for what I believe is the next book that looks intriguing.And can I say dragons? Megan Derr has some of the best dragons I’ve ever read. Here they are smaller and much like pets and Vellem’s pet dragon is adorable.Where the book falters is Prince Perdith. He’s a weak, poorly drawn character and I didn’t care for him. The romance moves at a snail’s pace, not unlike other books of hers so that didn’t bother me too much, but Vellem makes a decision that Perdith disagrees with and Perdith treats him horribly over it for no real reason. It made him unlikeable and though Perdith apologizes for it later the damage is done and he’s not salvageable for me.Overall though I enjoyed this story and look forward to the next one. The first part of this book was excellent, up until The Big Tragedy. Everything after that felt unbelievable, disconnected and rushed. I think The Big Tragedy was just too big, it completely changed the entire story line and isn't something characters can just bounce back from. I would have loved the original plot, if Vellem's marriage had gone the way he thought it would at the beginning of the story.That being said, I would still recommend the book to anyone who enjoys m/m fantasy.Meg, dear, I love your books and your stories. But please, please, get an editor who can find missing words!
Do You like book The Engineered Throne (2000)?
took me a little while to get through this book. Not as good as her other ones in my opinion
—Sherry
Kept me entertained and I could not put it down because I wanted to know what happened next.
—Jennifer
I liked the story but the many errors, missing words and misspellings were irritating
—andochicken
Great story. Would have given a 5 star but there were too many grammatical errors...
—NikkiBoo
Brilliant! ... I loved the setting & the characters.I especially like Vellem!!
—worda123
