The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

[lightreads]

The Dragon's Path by Daniel Abraham

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


Interesting. I've been kind of off epic fantasy lately. There was an unpleasant . . . something lingering at the back of my mouth after Dance of Dragons. So you'd think I wouldn't appreciate another traditional epic, particularly the first volume (of five?) which consists of 550 pages of setup. And yet? I really rather did.

He's writing a good balance between traditional elements and reinterpretations of those elements. I mean, it's a safe bet the reader likes the old, bland stuff a little. Most of us do, on some level. But here, the seventeen year old orphan girl turns out to have an unexpected talent, yeah, but it's for banking. Oh, and she's a budding alcoholic. And the semi-climactic abortive action sequence is deliberately secondary to the true climax which is, I kid you not, an audit. Ha.

That's what's good about this book, and what I'm hoping will be very good about this series: it's about war and politics to the extent that war and politics are about money, and it gets how political systems of all kinds actually run -- on wealth, or the lack. And I have never seen another epic fantasy come anywhere near this stuff with as much detail or interest.

However, Daniel Abraham really, really, I cannot emphasize this enough, really needs to stop attempting to make men interesting by killing their wives and daughters. He is otherwise so much better than the old 'accessorize with dead women' routine, it surprises me every time he trots it out.




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Comments

[livingbyfiction]

I think you would like Eliza from Neal Stephenson's Baroque Cycle. Her superpower is primarily investing, but also manipulating the stock market through political intrigue, spying, ciphering, and wiggling her fingers inside of men because she doesn't want to get pregnant. Now that's talent.