Requiem's Song

Dawn of Dragons, Book 1

De: Daniel Arenson

Narrado por: Paul J. McSorley

Weredragons, men call them. Monsters. Cursed ones. People who can turn into beastly reptiles.

In an ancient world just rising from darkness, they are everywhere. Some wander the plains with clans of mammoth hunters. Others are born in riverside huts. Some live across the ocean, where seafaring tribes are discovering the secrets of bronze and writing in clay. Everywhere their curse is the same - they are people who can grow wings, breathe fire, and take flight as dragons.

And everywhere, they are hunted. They hide in forests and caves, dispersed. Many are alone, unaware that others exist. They are shunned, afraid, dying...until a group of these lost souls binds together and stands tall.

A blacksmith in a world of stone tools. A mammoth hunter exiled from her tribe. A traveling juggler and a wandering warrior. An elderly druid and an outcast prince. They are weredragons. They are cursed and hunted. Together they will forge a new tribe, a home for their kind. A dawn of dragon rises. The nation of Requiem is born.

©2014 Daniel Arenson (P)2015 Daniel Arenson

Good story

While I enjoyed the story I did not enjoy the performance. Technically it was well performed yet some of the characterizations got on my nerves. Definitely not a book for children yet the Lyra characterization was, to me, done in a childish sounding manner. This is the one that bothered me the most.

On to the story...It is a great portrayal of self loathing and disastrous consequences. It is a portrayal of struggle and triumph. It is a portrayal of persecution, perseverance, the search for family and carving out a niche with others like one's self and making a place in the world.

Decent story, too many unanswered questions.

Let me start by saying I really did not enjoy the narrator. He is skilled, with a good assortment of voices, but I think his character voice choices were not very good. Particularly the female characters. One of the main characters, who does have a legitimate reason for her voice to sound... Impaired, actually sounds like an adolescent male orc with huge tusks affecting the voice rather than the actual physical explanation.

Okay, story.
I could be wrong, but I believe this is the first book Daniel wrote in this world. With that in mind, I was expecting shallow characters, random, dead-end sub- plots, and clumsy, sloppy prose.

I'm very happy to say this book has none of those problems!

What it does have is a big, sprawling cast, a deep history, and complex characters.

In many ways, I'm reminded of A Game of Thrones, but that I feel there wasn't enough time spent on any one thing.

Just from the way its written, I can see there is a wealth of history and character motivations and magic and I just wish more of it had made it into the book.

As it is, it feels like I've just watched a film adaptation that hints at all these awesome things but doesn't actually explore any of them.

I expect much of this is built on with successive novels, but again, I feel that this story was too big to have been told in a 100k word novel.

Now, for my one true gripe about the story:
The Dragons.

Now, I understood going into it that the story was about were-dragons and not true dragons, so, okay, weird idea, but I get it.

But

Where are the true dragons?
There's not a word in the entire book even mentioning true dragons.

Do they exist?
If not, how can you explain the existence of a were-dragon? It just doesn't make sense to me.

Now, the bigger issue I have, is why would plain, ordinary rope stop a were-dragon from transforming into their dragon form? It doesn't make any sense. The change is magical in nature, how does ordinary rope prevent it?

I kept expecting an explanation, but none ever came.

And why can humans kill them so easily?

I could go on about this, but the short version is I have tons of questions about the Dragons that were not addressed in any way, shape, or form in the book.

In the end, I'm glad I read it, but I don't know if I'll be continuing the series.

This one was good, onto the next book for me.

I enjoyed the story. Narrator is good for the most part, wasnt a fan of some of his voices for female characters, my only real gripe. Came for the dragons and the author delivered. The characters did spend a lot of time in dragon form though they were too scared for half the book. No overbearing or eye rolling love story that you usually find in these types of "people shifting into dragon" books. Every protagonist and antagonist in this book gets agency and is tortured in their own ways and to be honest half the book is them having a horrible life, even the demon has a current tortured life. WARNING The book is graphic which includes abusive sexual themes, psycological and physical torture (not gorey though), extreme pain and deaths. There is the mention of rape but its not detailed. The NEAR rape scenes get detailed and very suspenseful but the act is not followed through, just so the listener is aware that this is in the book. A character is also sexually manipulated. Some people do not want to have this in their books which is fine but you have been warned. It did not ruin the book for me and added a very realistic and believable layer of suspense that, the way this book was written, you truly believed something horrible would happen to any of the main characters (good and bad) no mary Sue's here and most of the main characters do end with their version of a happy ending. Not all doom and gloom.

good book

I own this book as well I love it. it has a good plot a week made story line.

Requiem’s Song by Daniel Anderson. Narrated by Paul J. McSorley

Always LOVED any paranormal books...this book is no different! Awesome to hear it tho! Goes by faster than my reading lol. Definitely advise anyone who loves dragons & paranormal to read and/or listen to this book/series! 👍🏻👍🏻