Review: The Dragon's Legacy

The Dragon's Legacy
Rating: 3/5
Buy or Borrow: Borrow
Source: Copy courtesy of the publisher! 

The last Aturan King is dying, and as his strength fades so does his hold on sa and ka. Control of this power is a deadly lure; the Emperor stirs in his Forbidden City to the East, while deep in the Seared Lands, the whispering voices of Eth bring secret death. Eight men and women take their first steps along the paths to war, barely realizing that their world will soon face a much greater threat; at the heart of the world, the Dragon stirs in her sleep. A warrior would become Queen, a Queen would become a monster, and a young boy plays his bird-skull flute to keep the shadows of death at bay. 

I really wanted to love this book and give it aaalll the stars. There's a badass dragon on the cover, which is gorgeous by the way, and the synopsis sounded right up my street. Dragons...Forbidden City....magic...I needed this book! I had fun reading through all of the character information at the beginning and the background from the different lands...by the time I got to the first page I was so excited and so ready to dive in. 

While all the information at the beginning was a great way to give us a load of information without an info dump, and made sure we went in to the book well prepared...it probably should have been a warning. Don't get me wrong, the book's imaginative and the beginning did pull me in. There's mystery and treachery...but it's at the end of the book that really comes in to play. There's a little bit at the beginning, but things don't really kick up a gear until towards the end of the book. 

I reached nearly half way with this book and I seriously considered putting it down, I'm not really sure what made me keep going, possibly my inability to leave a book unfinished. The different POV's where good, they provided insight in to characters and a look at other settings and what's going on, although a couple of them seemed a bit pointless once or twice I'm assuming the reason for them will come in to play later. The settings are vivid and the storytelling is very well done. I loved the writing, I really did. It brought the settings to life, and the story itself. The history of the world and the world itself is rich and intriguing. I'm definitely curious about this series, there's plenty of intrigue and magic....

....but. We all knew the but was coming. Like I said, half way through I was so close to putting this down. I was bored most likely because I was very confused. There was a lot of information at the beginning of the book...but it wasn't really enough. There are so many characters I kept losing track and getting confused about who was who and who was related to who and what that name or title meant. It was like Game of Thrones, I made it through that and it had waaaay more pages so I figured I could make it through this. The dragon's kept me going. But there where no dragons. Colour me disappointed. I also struggled with keeping everything straight, the plot threads, among many things. I loved the Vash'ai...but I really needed some more information on them and how they're relationship with the female warriors worked. I loved the idea of the female warriors, but I feel like we spent a lot of time with them and I was still confused because some things didn't make sense or weren't fully explained. Plus I was waiting for things to pick up and the intrigue to come in as we discovered who Sulema was. 

Jian, who's one of the other POV's and who we rarely see...was actually the easiest POV for me to read. I knew who he was, what he was, and what the deal was with his plot thread...and when I think back on the book, the rest of it....Sulema, her mother, brother etc, the female warriors...it's all a massive tangle that I still can't seem to get straight. I couldn't tell you much about it to be honest. Which makes me sad. 

The ending of the book was much better. Although I did have to re-read it a few times because I still didn't know who these people where or what their problem was.....and I still don't. All I know is at the end the pace picked up, and there was some hardcore bloody betrayal and stabby times. That intrigued me and how it's going to play out. 

I'm really not sure what I think of this book. On the one hand it has a lot of good things going for it....it's imaginative, vivid, intriguing and trust me...I'm really intrigued. I'm intrigued about these dragon's so often spoken about but never seen...I don't think. I mean there was a bit when I was like...is that a? No? I don't know? I'm intrigued by the ending and to see how it's going to play out. But this book was so hard to get through and when I look back at it, except for Jian's part it's all a messy tangle that I can't really recall much about nor would I be able to explain it. The ending is a lot clearer but I'm still unsure about the motivations and who they are. There's just so many characters...so many threads...I'm just not sure.