Title: Mistress of Dragons

Author: Margaret Weis

Series: Dragonvarld #1

Genre: Fantasy

Rating: 2/5 stars

The Overview: Welcome to the Dragonvarld… In Mistress of Dragons we are introduced to a world where political deception, greed, and avarice have lead to a violation of the “hands off” policy of the Parliament of Dragons concerning the affairs of men. Indeed that violation threatens more than policy and order it threatens the freedoms and survival of the entire human race. -Goodreads

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The Review:

Unfortunately even dragons couldn’t save this from mediocrity.

The beginning of the story had me feeling like I was in for an excellent dragon book. But aside from that kickstarting scene, it didn’t contain a lot of dragon action. Granted, there were dragons in almost every scene, but they were in human form and may as well have been slightly more perceptive humans. I do tend to prefer my dragons to be more bestial, but even for human-shifting dragons, these were just okay at best.

The premise of the story sounded interesting, but in execution there were a lot of things that made me scratch my head in bewilderment. Foremost of which is why a human had to be involved in this “grand mission” at all and why the dragons didn’t just buck up and take care of business themselves? But I suppose if that were the case, how would the two main protagonists meet? It’s bothersome when a story feels contrived just to get a character from point A to point B.

I did enjoy the basic flow of the writing style. This is a very relaxed read and one I devoured quickly. I even found myself curious at the end to see where things were going to go next, and that just might get me to pick up the next one if I can find an audio copy on discount (I’m not curious enough to dedicate any of my precious physical reading time).

I read a few reviews before venturing in that cautioned of a possibly triggering scene within the book, which were accurate, so keep that in mind if you plan on reading it.

Overall I wish I’d like it more even though I picked it up knowing it didn’t have the best reviews. Both the plot and the characters were thin, but there were just enough interesting components to make me think I’ll pick up the next one eventually, but it’s definitely not a priority.

Recommendations: with all of the amazing dragon books out there, this is not the place to start. Pick this one up for a very light fantasy read that just happens to have some dragons.

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