Dreams of Gods & Monsters

Daughter of Smoke and Bone, Book 3

By: Laini Taylor

Narrated by: Khristine Hvam

Length: 18 hrs and 8 mins

Publisher's summary

Two worlds threaten to crumble in the face of a common enemy in the epic conclusion to the New York Times best-selling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy—now with a gorgeous new package!

What power can bruise the sky?

Two worlds are poised on the brink of a vicious war. By way of a staggering deception, Karou has taken control of the chimaera's rebellion and is intent on steering its course away from dead-end vengeance. The future rests on her.

When the brutal angel emperor brings his army to the human world, Karou and Akiva are finally reunited—not in love, but in tentative alliance against their common enemy. It is a twisted version of their long-ago dream, and they begin to hope that it might forge a way forward for their people. And, perhaps, for themselves.

But with even bigger threats on the horizon, are Karou and Akiva strong enough to stand among the gods and monsters?

The New York Times best-selling Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy comes to a stunning conclusion as—from the streets of Rome to the caves of the Kirin and beyond—humans, chimaera, and seraphim strive, love, and die in an epic theater that transcends good and evil, right and wrong, friend and enemy.

©2014 Laini Taylor (P)2014 Hachette Audio

Critic reviews

*In the final book of the Daughter of Smoke & Bone trilogy, Taylor revives the strong interweaving of reality and fantasy that gave the first story such cross-genre appeal."—Publishers Weekly, starred review

"[An] ambitious, gorgeously edgy drama lit up by its coruscating characters and prose."—Kirkus

"New revelations, characters, multiple love stories, and constant plot twists and suspense will not disappoint Taylor's many fans."—Booklist

Fantastic!

This series is the first I’ve actually finished in years. And I’m beyond happy with the story line. Characters. World building. And performance. I’ve fallen so in love with it all I want more from Laini Taylor.

It is well written. The story is paced just right. And gives just enough to keep you waiting for more.

Long book with a long ending

I would like to start by saying I love this universe and the characters within. The first half of this book was right up there with the 5 stars I gave books one and two. Unfortunately, the wrap-up of this story took another 8 hours after the climax. There were a couple transitions that got lost or skipped over, and at least 4 places the story could have ended.

Love this series - one minor audio gripe

I love this series! Started it on a road trip and couldn’t stop listening! Narrator does a great job capturing the essence of the characters and bringing them to life in the audio books. My ONLY gripe is that in book 3 (Dreams of Gods and Monsters), the narrator kept changing her pronunciation of Liraz. Through the first two books, it was pronounced “La-roz”, but in the third book, she kept changing between “La-roz” and “Lee-raz”. At first, I thought a new character had been introduced. Seemingly small gripe - and it is - but it was bothersome. Aside from that, this book and its narration is *chefs kiss*!

Disappointed that this is the last book

I feel like there is so much more of this story/world to explore. The series ends quite open ended. Laini wraps up the main conflict by simultaneously answering and creating more questions and conflict in within universe. I’m satisfied, yet disappointed. I want more!!

An ending for the ages

This story is so full by the time we reach the end. I love everything that the author added and built upon. I had so many chills, even during a reread. This is such a beautiful story.

Not as epic as the first two, but still a must read!

I thought that this book dragged in a few places especially with the explanation of Akiva’s “powers.” With that said, this will always have a place of honor of one of my favorite dystopian romance YA trilogies. Definitely an original premise and the writing is so full of suspense! Loved it!

Don't listen if you like predicting twist and turn

Don't listen if you like predicting twist and turns of a storyline. because man, one of the best roller coasters my heart has ever been on. I was especially surprised about how attached I became to characters who were only in the story breifly. That is not my norm.
Anyway, great story, FABULOUS characters, really beautiful worlds and mythology.

Great ending for a fantastic series

I had read a few reviews stating that this was a disappointing end to the otherwise marvelous trilogy, so my expectations going in were quite low. Now that I've listened to it, I have to disagree! It was not predictable and not cliched, it maintained my interest and fascination for the duration of the story! I loved it! My only critique - the narrator pronounces a few names differently in this last book than she does in the first two, which is distracting. Otherwise, wonderful listen!

great end to a trilogy.

I love this trilogy. The author tells a cool story about angels who are not angels, monsters who are not monsters, and a good love story or 2.

A bit lengthy... but still so good!

This was by far the hardest book of this series for me to read — that’ snot necessarily a bad thing, although it may sound like one, but I really felt like I needed to give it my full attention and unfortunately as of lately, I just haven’t had the time or mental clarity. If you’re a fan of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone trilogy, I’m sure you’re aware how deep, how detailed, and how complex this series is. It’s not one to be taken lightly and really does require the perfect mood and proper amount of time so when I tell you that it took me a month and a half to finish it, that’s a good and a bad thing all at the same time.

I read the first two books no problem. I actually streamed pretty quickly through DAUGHTER OF SMOKE AND BONE and tried to take my time and really let myself soak in DAYS OF BLOOD AND STARLIGHT. But DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS was a different story. Yes, I decided to really slow myself down and make sure I was really taking it all in, but there were actual weeks where I completely ignored it because I just didn’t have the motivation to pick up such a daunting book. I was overwhelmed by the amount of pages and the time I knew I’d need to read it. Was that the book’s fault? Well, no, but the sheer size of it really did factor in to my reading plans and with time being a pressing issue lately, it was a bit frustrating to me when things felt a little too drawn out.

Laini Taylor’s writing has been beautiful from the start, but DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS was the first book where I felt like the gorgeous, lyric-type prose was getting a bit too drawn out. I usually enjoy the way a plot point is revealed and then we back-track to see how it all evolved, but in some places it felt unnecessary and I was frustrated that I felt like I was reading a whole chapter here or there that didn’t feel entirely necessary to the development of plot or characters. I could chalk that up to my personal impatience or just my experience with reading… I think it was actually a little bit of both.

The introduction of Eliza’s character was not entirely unwelcomed but I wasn’t a fan that she was thrown in as a new main character with POV chapters and everything. I really did like how she fit into the story and it was very exciting to see all of those pieces click together but… I didn’t really enjoy her chapters much at all. The book kicks off with one of Eliza’s chapters and that was actually a really exciting one. I was so excited to see the book start with a bang and I was anxious to get to know more about Eliza, but the more I got to know about her, the less I liked. I didn’t hate her, but I think I would have liked to see her as more of a secondary character because I felt like I lost so much of the focus of Karou and Akiva as well as secondary characters from the previous books (Ziri, Liraz, Mik, Zuze) who were starting to grow into more of a main focus. I think it was too much for me to meet a brand-new character who had such a strong presence in the book, taking over chapters, and also having a strong personality. I wanted to spend so much more time with characters I already knew instead of a brand-new one who wasn’t that important to me and who I wasn’t connecting with.

I really did enjoy the book — I always appreciate how beautiful the writing is and how the books really make me focus on what I’m reading. Everything is so wonderfully detailed, thoroughly thought out, and sort of paradoxically magically realistic. I’m so glad that things were pretty well wrapped up at the end of the book and it was sort of one big sigh of relief to see how everything ended. To be honest, I wasn’t a huge fan of the ending and I felt like some things ended up being glossed over. For example, Eliza’s entire part in the book is explained and then seemingly dropped to make room for Karou & Akiva, which usually I don’t mind since I’m more excited for Karou/Akiva plot, but I felt like I was finally getting answers and then they happened but I didn’t get any detail.

All in all, I did enjoy DREAMS OF GODS AND MONSTERS a lot, but it seemed like this was the book I had the most issues with out of the series. Some things had been weighing on me since the beginning but it was new love and not a big issue to me. Some things didn’t really seem to appear until the last book and I was at a point where I wasn’t in the mood for things to be drawn out. It was a stunning conclusion but I was left just a bit unsatisfied, to be perfectly frank. Maybe it’s just that it still feels unreal that the series is over! Maybe I’m just hoping that Laini Taylor writes more in this universe… (oh please, oh please!!) but I don’t think I was quite prepared for this series to end!