SPFBO: Dragon’s Price: Rise of the Horned Serpent by Daniel Potter

Quote of the Book

“You will throw them into the safest place possible: down my throat. Try not to do it too often. Fire crystals give me horrible indigestion, a condition that sadly destroyed a large portion of the Third generation,” Yaz’noth said with a horrible smirk. Nobody laughed. “Ronga will assist you in disposing of the live shells.”

Blurb

With a breath, the Dragon ruined everything.

Yaki simply wanted to marry rich and then kill her husband.

Her sister Ishe wished to inherit their mother’s airship and become the world’s youngest captain.

Now the twins are on their own for the first time in their lives. Ensnared by the dragon’s schemes to conquer their homeland. With Yaki grievously wounded, the twins must escape the mountain. Ishe’s got a plan, but if she fails, they might not survive the Dragon’s Price.

A brand new series from the creator of Freelance Familiars. Rise of the Horned Serpent contains Dragons, the occasional naughty word and a cuddly spider. Read it now!  

Personal notes

#SPFBO Round One

SPFBO Note

Please keep in mind these are personal thoughts only. We will update this post as the judges read along and add their opinions. This book has already been eliminated from the competition, but one of us liked it enough to write a full review. You can follow our progress on our SPFBO page.

Jen’s Review – 6/10

Dragons, airships and sky pirates (oh my). This was a fun premise and Dragon’s Price does deliver in that department!

There is a lot to learn in the beginning, as we are dropped onto the airship and into battle against Dragon’s almost immediately – making it quick to the action but it slows a little as we get introduced to the world and crew.
Drop-in action scenes are my least favorite ways to open a book because they do tend to suspend the fight while you are being introduced to characters, the world, and even sometimes the magic. It takes a bit of a knack to keep all that rolling and the pace from lagging. This wasn’t bad, it didn’t lose its pace for long and we were back to the fight and moving along quite quickly, but I did occasionally forget we were fighting Dragons.

***

There is a small but entertaining assortment of characters:

Yaki (nick-named The Flower for her exotic looks) and Ishe (The Rhino for her toughness she mans the guns aboard the ship) are twins. The story is told almost equally between these two. Ishe has a little more screen time because her parts are a bit more proactive and because of that she was my favorite of the two (that could change though because it looks like Yaki will get to have a bigger role in the next book).

They were likeable and I enjoyed their voices – though at times I would mix them up and forget which sister was which.

Madria – (The girls’ mother) cheated the Yaz’noth out of his quicksilver, he retaliates causing the airship to crash in which Yaki is injured and without treatment; fatally. Ishe makes a deal with the Dragon to save her sister in exchange for her retrieving the stolen quicksilver back for him.

Yaz’noth – The Horned Serpent – probably my favorite character of the book. He has a dry sense of humor, very smart and there is something about him that is just so likeable while still feeling like he could easily burn your head off at any moment.

There were other side characters but we don’t spend a lot of time with them, and then there is Blinky, the kitten-eating pet spider (must be from the planet Melmac) who totally stole all the scenes he was in and added all kinds of quirky fun to the story. I don’t even like spiders – especially not spiders that size.

Dragon’s Price is a very quick read and easy to just keep on going.

Opening to each chapter has quotes from in-world reference and historical tomes (Dragon Hunting Without Dying was a favorite) with details about everything from ranking of Dragon’s followers (called The Dragonsworn), Crystals, and information on bonding with a spirits (Chimerage). These helped to answer a few things in brief without having to be told it in-story.

I liked the Crystal Magic; they are alive or a spirit maybe (I wasn’t very clear on that). Yaki is able to commune with them and soothe them or encourage them to direct their power, depending on what the crystals’ main job is. It’s pretty cool.

Like the hints of lore to do with the Death Panther with its mystical, inspired folklore feel.

Great ending – though this is definitely a first book story. This left us with a giant reason to come back and tons of burning questions…so many things that need answers. It felt like a natural place to end but it is a bit of a cliffie.

Other notes

• A few spelling errors and missing words.
• I was somewhat confused about the crystals and how they work are they alive etc…
• Chapters are very short, which usually I like but the pace is fast so they felt even shorter.
• This author is great at bringing animals to life and giving them personalities. I read his book Offleash years ago and it is just as fun.
• Great balance of humor, and fast-paced fun adventure. It’s worth checking out.

Nick’s Review – 4.5/10

I normally love books about dragons.  This one just didn’t connect with me for some reason though.  I thought that the plot was a bit rushed with incredibly short chapters, which I’m not really a fan of.  I also felt like the side characters weren’t sufficiently developed enough for me.  I wanted more explanation about the history behind the events that were taking place and that was really the theme throughout I’m afraid. I simply craved more than what the author gave me.