A well written adventure into a new and exciting land filled with all kinds of magical, mystical creatures. DragonSin is one of the best in its genre!

Disclaimer: I received a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. ( )

DragonSin is the first book in the Descendants of Twilight trilogy. I won my copy through the LibraryThing Early Reviewers program. There are over 400 pages of adventure set on the fictional planet of Erogoth, which has four moons. A two-page map and a calendar of fourteen months are provided before the first chapter.

Our two main characters are a 16-year-old boy named Cymm Reich and an older girl named Lykinnia. Cymm is from the village of Stallion Rise on the Armak Plains. He and his cousin, Talo, are learning how to be warriors from Old Man Semper. Lykinnia is a priestess of the god Terazhan.

Humans are not the only sentient race on Erogoth. There are also dwarves, elves, hill giants, gnomes, gnolls, etc. They all more or less throve until Ledaedra the Dark, Queen of the Dragons, showed up with a horde of dragons. That was about four centuries ago. The dragons tend to look upon humans as entertaining prey. These dragons don't just
breathe fire - they also breathe chlorine gas (one of the poisonous gasses used against soldiers during World War I).

Three green dragons use their chlorine gas on some of the inhabitants of Stallion Rise in the first chapter. Three who die are Cymm's parents, Ortec and Shay, and his younger sister, Bria.

Chapter 2 starts six days earlier, so we get to know more about Cymm's nice family. This wasn't pleasant, because their horrific fate was already known. The Knights of Kharad need two dozen warhorses, and Ortec's are the best. Cymm goes hunting with his cousin Talo and their mentor, which is why they missed the attack.

Some of the chapters are from Lykinnia viewpoint. She's got an experiment going when we meet her, but the full result isn't known for more than 50 chapters. It's almost another 10 chapters, or almost 360 pages in, before we find out where the book's title comes from. Some of the chapters are from the viewpoint of TetraQuerahn, the dragon who murdered Cymm's family for fun.

Along the way, we get plenty of battles and meet other humans and races. We even get a glimpse of dragon society. Getting revenge is going to take almost all of the book's over 400 pages, but Cymm gets to change a lot along the way.

NOTES:

Chapter 2:

a. Stallion Rise's layout is described.

b. Horsemen's horses have temporary colors branded in their manes. There are three stripes for identification.

c. Syra was Cymm's childhood girlfriend.

Chapter 3: Lykinnia and her experiment are introduced.

Chapter 4:

a. Cymm's birth date is given. It was the 382nd year of the Age of the Dragons when he was born.

b. Cymm was 10 years old when he asked Old Man Semper to train him and his cousin Talo. ( )

There is a lot going on. It is very fast moving with a lot of action. I would have preferred taking a little more time to develop Cymm and his character. There is just too much, too soon. Enjoyable book if you want a lot of action and a standard fantasy protagonist. ( )

ARC. ER-LT. Cymm lives a quiet life as a horseman of the plains until the deaths of his family in a dragon attack. This starts him on the path to becoming a paladin of Terazhan. He will have to learn how to manage his new powers, responsibilities, duties as well as growing up. This is well written, a little rough because it is a first effort, you can tell it was derived from a D&D campaign (something our group always said we were going to do). Worth checking out the next in the series. ( )

Cymm starts out as a boy just about to get to his lifeday, where he would become an adult. Then his life choices took him on an adventure that neither he nor anyone could imagine.

A very readable book. I liked how the plots changes finished an idea as Cymm went on to his next stage of this adventure. ( )