Only now, the lore is threatened. Our main character, Ben Garston, the Red, heartbroken and Jack Daniels loving dragon seems to be the only remnant intent on maintaining the pact and peace on Earth as we know it. Through a variety of encounters with different cults and creatures; vampires and unicorns, it seems everyone is after the sacred harp with the power to wake all remnants from their slumber and break this historical agreement.
Full of descriptive action and a fantastic cast of creatures, the book suffers from a confusing introduction, trying to fill everyone in on events up until now in a relatively short space of time. There are lots of similes and metaphors showered throughout the story, but some are often over explained and the amount of speculation that Ben does throughout makes up a lot of the writing. I did sometimes think that the story could've been told in half the page length.
Nevertheless, the plot is a solid one, the twists by characters you don't necessarily see coming and the second half of the book really comes in to it's own and had me gripped until the conclusion, leading nicely into the third instalment. Ben's relationships with the other characters is well written. I especially enjoyed the episodes between him and the recently awoken, and very pissed of White Dragon. Their relationship reminds me a lot of that between the The Master and The Doctor in Doctor Who.
Apart from my slight annoyance at the occasionally over descriptive writing which at times feels a bit pandering - I don't need your metaphors and similes explained at every turn - the plot and characters make up for this and it is an enjoying modern take on the fantasy genre. Recommended for fans of Ben Aaronovitch, Doctor Who, Harry Potter etc. Now the premise of this universe has been set up, I have extremely high hopes for any subsequent books in this series and I'm looking forward to reading the next, Burning Ashes.
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