Almost a 5 star

Z really engaging tale, I wanted to give this one a 5 star but in a few aspects it fell just a tad short. One of these areas is my pet peeve, which is plot errors, which ARE relatively few in this book, and not terribly bad ones at that. The other was though the paradigm seems pretty well developed, the magic system is quite vague. Summoner and Sorcerer, fine, but neither seems able to do much of anything. I suspect that is something that will be resolved in further volumes of the series though, we'll see. ( )

An excellent adventure for my first self-published read!

Although there is something about the style this book is written in that indicates it was self published, it was strangely captivating and later on hard to put down.
The characters and worlds are interesting and fresh, though in some places more explanation would have been good. Very different from your main stream publishers this was a real plus for me. Not as polished as it could have been, some poor word choices and one continuity error (when Dev has the pendant). Still an entertaining read.

As with one of my favourite books, I'd be careful who I recommend this to as it is out of the ordinary, and won't appeal to everyone. I very much enjoyed it, however, and will be looking up the sequels! ( )

The deeper I dive into self-published Fantasy books, the more I find to love. Draykon is no exception to this! Charlotte E. English has successfully managed to mesh a sweeping fantasy world together with vibrant characters, and a very compelling mystery. As a reader I was treated to a story that immersed me so wholly, that I couldn't put it down! Once you're in, there is no coming back.

Draykon tells the story of two very different characters, in alternating chapters. Overprotected by her parents for reasons unknown to the reader, Llandry feels trapped. I honestly didn't feel much for her. Her character was unsociable towards others most times, and I didn't get to know her as well as I would have liked. On the other side of the coin is Lady Evastany Glostrum, who is a strong willed and kindhearted woman. Despite her position as High Summoner, Eva is one of the most practical and down to earth characters you'll ever meet. I adored her. I'd have followed Eva happily for books and books of adventures. In fact I liked her so much, I feel the need to mention that I felt as though Llandry's chapters were somewhat unimportant to the overall story. Just my opinion I know, you be the judge.

The reader follows these two women through the story, and it is so very easy to get lost in the huge and sweeping universe that English builds for her reader. Whole worlds exist inside the pages of this book. Realms of light, realms of dark, and those in between. Awe inspiring, and often terrifying, new beasts are presented for the reader's enjoyment. About half way through the story I felt so small inside of the world of Draykon that I almost wished I had a map. Okay, I did wish I had a map. Perhaps there will be one in the next book? This is high fantasy at it's finest. You aren't just getting a story here, but a whole new world along with it.

The mystery aspect is also incorporated into the overall story amazingly well. As I was navigating the vibrant lands of Draykon, so too was I helping Llandry and Eva uncover the mystery of the "istore" gem. I'll admit that I was about two steps behind them the majority of the book. Although English allows the reader to come along on the journey, she doesn't make it easy to figure out where it is headed, and I loved that. Such a sense of adventure! The ending, well I wouldn't have been able to see that coming if I was clairvoyant. I'm still not a hundred percent sure how I feel about it, but that is a spoiler in the making so I'll stop there. Suffice it to say that I'm eager to get to the next in this series so I can uncover what happens next!

I know this is a longer review so, if you are still with me, I applaud you! It's tough to sum up such a well-written story, with such vivid characters and worlds, in only a few short paragraphs. I'll leave it to you to decide whether or not Draykon is for you. I can tell you that it's a great place to get lost in! Happy travelling my friends.
( )

There will be spoilers in this review.

I wasn't positive what to expect when I began Draykon. Right away there is a map of the fantasy world, and different areas of the world seem to have different versions of day and night. In some places, it's always day. In others, it's always night. And in yet others days and nights come and go like normal.

I liked many of the characters. Eva was good. She was strong, but not impervious to mistakes. I found her attitude towards Vale and marriage refreshing. In many books it's "true love within five minutes" or "they hate each other but really it's true love" and other cliches. In contrast, Eva and Vale were companions. She didn't feel strongly about wanting to marry him, but she didn't complain either. She became engaged because she felt it was the right thing to do for logical reasons, and she and Vale had a comradery. Perhaps it wasn't romantic but it was nice to see a couple who were trying to decide what to do with their lives and not necessarily knowing. They treated each other well and had respect for each other.

The world created for the book is nice as well. It's expansive and consistent. I actually think this is the type of book that would benefit greatly from artwork because I wasn't always sure what everything looked like, and there was quite a bit of stuff. Things like pictures of Llandry's home and of the small animals would have been great.

I'd say the downside for me was Llandry herself. It's not that I particularly hated her - she was all right. I liked that she was a jeweler and had a passion for it.
It was more her anxiety that got to me. Everything she did or experienced she was anxious about. She was a nervous wreck 24/7. It's possible to do this with a character and be fine, but it got in the way for me in this story because her experiences didn't have the excitement of everyone else'. While Eva, Tren and the others were off battling wills with dangerous beasts, Llandry was barely able to handle a friendly stranger visiting her home. It made me want to spend more time with Eva and people who were actively doing something.
Also, in contrast with Eva and Vale's relationship, Llandry brought some cliches to the table. For example, she obviously liked Devary, and when Devary met with a another woman he was amiable with she and Llandry had to be at odds. This sort of thing happens all the time in movies and stories. I much prefered Eva's relationship.
Even when Eva and Tren became close, it was over a period of time and after going through a lot together, so I prefered both of her relationships to Llandry's.

The story was good, though. It was colorful and highly imaginative, and it's obvious a lot of thought went into it. It would be a great read for people who love fantasy. ( )

What initially attracted me to this book was its absolutely gorgeous cover, reasonably interesting-sounding description, and decent reviews. Unfortunately, it didn't work for me, and I ended up spending maybe two months slogging through it.

I wasn't a huge fan of English's writing. It was a little too flowery for my tastes and featured a massive overuse of adverbs. I became very tired of the words “rather” and “quite.” It felt like one or the other of them was used on every single page.

I also became very tired of all the fantasy names – this, from someone who cut her teeth on fantasy. There were weird, almost Lewis Carroll-like names for everything, and I wasn't always sure they were necessary. I didn't need constant reminders that Draykon was set in a fantasy world. “Nivvens” could easily have been called “horses.” The same goes for many of the other things that had real-world equivalents. In some cases, the fantasy names were a little confusing. I couldn't read “whurthag” without imagining a warthog, although I'm pretty sure whurthags had more in common with big cats or other large predators.

I could have put up with English's writing, however, if either the story or characters had grabbed me. That didn't happen. I liked Eva well enough, but I actively disliked Llandry. Whereas Eva was older (maybe in her forties?), competent, and usually had a good head on her shoulders (except for a few blips involving Tren), Llandry was young (20) and appeared to suffer from To Stupid To Live Syndrome. Yes, I know, she had crippling social anxiety and parents that were maybe  a little too overprotective. Even so, I didn't think that completely excused her behavior. Even after she found out people were being killed for having istore, she kept a little piece of it around. She followed after Devary like a puppy, despite the fact that any idiot could see she'd only slow him down. I couldn't understand why he wasn't more angry with her when he learned she'd been following him. I mean, he was on a secret mission to deliver the last known piece of istore to someone who might be able to find out more about it. Llandry was well-known as the discoverer of istore. Having Llandry around was practically like having a giant neon sign saying “you'll probably find some istore here!”

I couldn't decide whether English was trying to set up a future romantic subplot between Llandry and Devary or not. On the one hand, Llandry seemed to have a crush on Devary, even though I don't think she realized it. On the other hand, Devary's behavior towards Llandry felt more like that of an indulgent family member than a potential love interest – not surprising, since he was an old friend of Llandry's mother. At any rate, there was absolutely zero chemistry between Devary and Llandry, and I do hope that was intentional.

Draykon's story didn't grab me any more than its characters did. I think it could have, if maybe 100 pages had been edited out. The occasional interesting event would happen, and then there'd be pages and pages that didn't seem to accomplish much of anything. It felt like most of the book happened in the last 60 or so pages.

The story became a little more interesting to me near the end, and part of me wants to know what happens next in the series. However, I'm not nearly hooked enough to buy and slog through the next book, if it's as much of a drag to get through as this one was.

Extras:

The book includes a color map of the seven realms and a glossary.

(Original review, with read-alikes, posted on A Library Girl's Familiar Diversions.) ( )