Dragon Hunters is proof that you can have a sword and sorcery novel containing dragons, scheming and politicking and still make it entertaining without needing to resort to Game of Thrones levels of sex and graphic violence. It was a damned good book and my only real criticism was that some of the character arcs feel a little superfluous.
In the spirit of disclosure I will say at this point that I did not pay for this book as I picked it up from the library. I always feel that it is important to point things like this out; call it a personal quirk.
Dragon Hunters is the second book in Marc Turner’s Chronicles of the Exile series and readers of this blog can find my review on book one. In that I criticised the author for not really giving the characters any depth and being a little too keen to get to the next bit of action. This made the book feel a little transient though still enjoyable. Dragon Hunters corrects many of those flaws and was a much better read as a result.
Again we have the umbrella story structure of multiple story lines converging on the central pillar. In this book we have a more political tale based around Imerle Polivar and her attempt to remain in power as the Emira of the Storm Isles. Essentially the islands are ruled by a group of water mages who remain in power for a set amount of time and then have to step aside. Suffice to say Imerle is not keen on this and plans to use the forthcoming Dragon Day, a festival where a single dragon is released and hunted, to remove rivals. The strands running to it include that of Senar Sol, a guardian who was captured after being chucked through a magical portal by the Emperor from book one, a rival storm lady who wants power herself, a watchman hunting down an assassin, an assassin cult which is scheming for power and a merchant house trying to obtain recompense for a stolen cargo. All of these end up in the same place i.e. confronting Imerle but along the way there are a host of adventures and political scheming.
So the good. Well it is nice to see a fantasy series including a dragon but not making them the absolute focus and relying on them heavily. It’s a refreshing change to not see the easy option being taken and instead they are just used as a plot device rather than plot crutch. The characters are also more fleshed out and it is good to see the Guardians actually get a little bit of back story. Senar is very different from Luker in book one, he is more of a careworn soldier than the roguish Luker and he gets a bit of backstory and character development. The author also resists the temptation to go down the sex route though it is hinted that Marzana and the twins are both somewhat promiscuous. Again it is refreshing to see the Game of Thrones route not being taken and there is no debauchery here. I am not a prude but I do think Thrones overdoes it. The story as well is excellent and I could not see any real plot holes; there is clearly a depth to the story and this time the world itself feels a little more lived in and real. Dragon Hunters improves on book one in every way and we also now start to get a little bit of the wider back story revealed (including who the Exile the series is named for actually is).
The bad? Well I confess it was a surprise to see pretty much every character from book one dropped and gone. It’s a bold move to take away a set of characters which people have invested time in but on balance I think the author pulls it off. Again the story is a little too keen to get into its stride and the early chapter pacing bombards you with names, places and events without any real context. It could easily put someone off but once I had gotten things clear in my head then it was fine. I did thing that the Argenta storyline was a bit weak and it felt like it was a little padded before petering out but I will concede that it does advance the story.
All in all this was a thoroughly enjoyable book and it builds and improves on its predecessor in many ways. This one is more subtle in its story and it benefits from that as a result, but it still retains enough action and adventure to keep people on that side of the fence satisfied. I would recommend this one and it was good enough that I have already checked the next book in the series out of my local library.
If you have read this book then let me know in the comments what you think. As always thanks for reading and, if you have done, for sharing the link to the site.
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