The Waking Fire (The Draconis Memoria #1)

Anthony Ryan is a great writer. He has great ideas. But he lacks the ability for whatever reason to create convincing characters and a coherent plot. The Waking Fire meanders all over, trampling what could have been a very fun plot. Dragons are there, but always in the background as human enemies are the heart of the story. Which detracts greatly from its charm. The characters themselves are wholly hollow with not a one proving particularly engaging or likable. You have essentially a cast of Mary-Sues and Marty-Stus who succeed no matter what and always by the skin of their teeth. There is little to no learning curve. Also the magic system is quite interesting but poorly explained and rarely utilized in a meaningful manner. It feels like more of an afterthought used to progress plot points than anything meaningful.

There are few works that I have read that meld guns and Dragons together without quickly becoming tedious and imprpbable. The world created by Ryan in this novel is properly constructed and the \”magic\” system if it could be termed as such is very much jn keeping with the \”dawn of the industrial age\” dynamic of the story. Good characters, developed sufficiently to allow one to root for them. The book is a good read and I am on to the next in the series with no hesitation.

The start of the Draconis Memoria series is not bad but I did encounter some speed bumps while reading this first entry. Namely the slow first half off the book and one point of view character who just seemed out of place. Now also let me start off by saying that this book is nothing like Anthony Ryan\’s first series, so if your looking for something like that then this may be a miss for you. However, I like different and this was just that. It has a lot of the elements I want in a High Epic Fantasy series. This first novel laid a great foundation and I can see the great potential. My pros for this series so far, the world building, the unique magic system, and the direction of the story so far. The world building that Ryan has crafted is magnificent. I am incredibly intrigued by the politics and overall workings of world. That includes the magic system. Now the magic system is something quite different, (it is not your typical magic) it focuses on the use of Drake\’s blood. Which is pretty awesome. My middle of the road feeling is the story, yes it is in my pros but I also have some cons when it comes to the story. The first half of the story was very foundational. It was definitely geared for introducing the world and the POV characters however as much as I enjoyed Lizanne and Clay, Hilemore is a puzzling POV. I didn\’t really understand why he was in this story, yes even after 600 pages I am still trying to see where he fits into the story. All in all I really enjoyed The Waking Fire by Anthony Ryan and I cannot wait to dive into the rest of this series. Which I am going to do right now.

Ryan\’s characters tend to be extremely hard without much emotional depth, if any. He could never write Matt Cauthon, for example. However, Ryan is absolutely incredible at creating amazing, brutal worlds in which it\’s immediately apparent that such coldness is necessary. If you want that kind of harshness with well developed characters, you\’re better off going with Joe Abercrombie. I personally find that far, far less satisfying, though it does seem to provoke more conversation.

To say I was less then enchanted with the end of Mr. Ryan\’s last outing; would be putting it mildly. I gave this book a shot due to the treasure I found in his first book. I\’m so glad I did. The waking fire grabbed me and didn\’t let go. I can\’t wait to read the next installment. I just hope the author avoids the same mistakes he made in Queen of Fire… Well thought out magic system, battles that kept me awake past the time I wanted to go to sleep, and characters that kept me wanting more…what else could I ask for?

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