Synopsis:
Some lies are best left buried deep…
Laoch, a ranger deeply scarred by the Unbeliever Crusades, seeks salvation in the dishonoured elven warrior, Sura. Together, they are thrust into a new conflict when a powerful enemy crashes into a Meister’s alchemical experiment, setting off a wave of fear and magic that ripples throughout the realm.
With Brandshold’s queen and her court awoken to the existence of soul-magic, a thousand years of lies by the Seven Gods’ Houses emerge, the deception forging cracks in the last bastions of faith and the crown against their common foe.
And amid the whispers of an ancient evil’s return, Laoch and Sura are left to face the power of their enemy alone, only for a larger threat to rise from the forest’s depths. One even the Gods fear.
For cast in iron and spiritfire – here be dragons.
Review:
A Dragon of the Veil is a damn fine, if a little esoteric, addition to dragon stories, one in which its lore breaks the mold.
What do a drunkard, a spirit-walking elf outcast, and a scorned woman all have in common? They’re not only Rangers but are forced into a fight to the death with some mummified soldiers in polished armor searching for some ancient dragons to feed some realm-ruining eldritch overlords. Separately, what do a queen’s counselor, a bunch of secretive god worshiping religious leaders, and a handful of alchemists have in common? They scheme and connive breaking 1000 years of religious scripture to stop said ancient dragons from feeding their realm to realm-ruining eldritch overlords.
There be dragons!
Okay, now that that is out of the way, let’s talk about said dragons, and this is where Snape takes us somewhere absolutely fresh with dragons. These aren’t your everyday dragons hoarding treasure, burning knights to a crisp, or shifting into humans. No, these dragons are steampunk metal goliaths that are realm traveling, spaceship-esque, spirits housed in heartstones that seek out spiritfire for these ancient Constructors to feed. And these dragons are hungry.
This story starts off with Loach the drunk Ranger doing some standard Rangerly things with his Ranger buddies, but once a dragon rips through the veil to his land, he and some other Rangers are thrust into a literal fight to the death, race against time sort of plot. And it was awesome. The dragon drops off these armored soldiers with white light/fire weapons, ghostly abilities, and just weird bodies that are crumbling to dust to wipe out Loach’s Rangers left and right as they search for a pair of sleeping dragons. POV characters are POV’ing in one scene, only to kick the bucket in the next, then possibly turned into spirits housed in some ancient god weaponry immediately after (talking weapons alert). It’s weird, it’s action-packed to the brim, it’s frenetic, it’s just damn cool.
There is no lie, the realm-traversing dragon concept was a little confusing at first because we meet this character called The Captain and he is mind-melded with the dragon ship. It was weird (in a great way), and it took me a bit to get the gist of things because there is a lot of lore and worldbuilding trapped in this chapter very early in the book (which might be too dense for some readers right off the bat), but once my tiny little brain wrapped around it all, it was smooth sailing from there.
But aside from all-out action from Loach’s side of the story, there is a ton of political machinations happening. Without going into spoiler territory, there are seven houses of religion (seven gods) and each house has a High Lord, High Lord Penance being our main POV. And these High Lords hold tonnnnnnns of secrets relating to these dragons and the Constructors. Let’s just say, Snape balances action and politicking very well in this book.
This isn’t a very long book, and with all the crazy action, I sped through it. I really enjoyed A Dragon of the Veil and I most certainly plan to start the sequel, A City of Ashes, very soon!
Leave a Reply