The Adamantine Palace
The Memory of Flames series, Book 1
Stephen Deas
Roc
Fiction, Fantasy
*+ (Terrible/Bad)
DESCRIPTION: For centuries, the kings and queens of the realms surrounding the Adamantine Palace have ridden dragons as the ultimate show of power. The bartering and buying of rare viable hatchlings may be costly, the feeding and training moreso, but the value of a fiery beast is greater than their weight in gold, for no soldiers can stand against them... and a tame dragon is undyingly loyal to their rider. Should a dragon ever slip the bonds of the alchemical formulae that keep them docile, however, all Hell would break loose - and the political squabblings and machinations of an ambitious prince and his royal lover have just allowed that to happen.
The dragon Snow is the first of her kind to truly wake to her own mind in generations. Memories of past lives - of fire and death and mortal men crushed like so many ants - drive her to vengeance against those who have enslaved her kin: the alchemists, the dragon-priests, and ultimately the kings and queens whose power centers in the legendary Adamantine Palace.
REVIEW: You may notice, aside from the dragon Snow, a lack of names in the description. That is because I hated them. I honestly, down to my marrow hated every character presented in this story. The degree varied from general dislike to active malicious loathing, but there was not a single human I could even begin to relate to, let alone enjoy spending time around. As a result, most of them remain a jumble of names in my head as I think back on the story, unlikable people doing unpleasant things for entirely selfish and cold-hearted reasons. On top of that, they all seem to have stepped out of a time machine from at least fifty years ago: women use sex to entrap and coerce males whose brains exist solely below the beltline (except for the one dragon-obsessed princess who is portrayed as an immature fool for not sleeping her way to power like a woman oughtta, and the non-royal Outsider whose life is one of prostitution, rape, drug addiction, and zero agency - 'cause, hey, that's why guys read fantasy, I guess?), men generally disparage women even as they rut with wild abandon, everyone's white except for the evil, sly, not-so-subtly Asian "wizards," and despite lip service given to familial warmth, nobody comes closer to the warm end of the emotional scale than rather sketchy loyalty. So, while things kept happening on the page, I couldn't really be bothered to care about any of it. When Snow (a white dragon... is it mere coincidence that the author chose the only pure white dragon in generations to become the "leader" of dragon resistance? In this day and age, I have to wonder...) finally makes her appearance as an independent character - about a third of the way through - I thought I'd finally met someone to relate to... but, no, soon enough she turned into another generally repellent personality, marginally justified by being nonhuman and at least having a reason to not experience the full range of human emotions. (It takes a lot for this confirmed dracophile not to like a dragon in a book, but the author managed that.) Which is a shame, as I liked some of what Deas did with his dragons: savage yet loyal, clever yet impatient, full of secrets and flame, always treacherous to deal with on their own terms, they hearkened back to the less-friendly beasts of elder days, while still being powerfully and distinctly draconic and staunch allies if their trust can be earned. That - and, quite literally, nothing else - spared this a rock-bottom one star rating.
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