Dragon Emperor

Human to Dragon to God

By: Eric Vall

Narrated by: Alex Perone, Marissa Parness

Length: 7 hrs and 28 mins

Publisher's Summary

Evan was just an average guy working as an EMT, but when he puts on an ancient dragon mask, he’s teleported to the magical world of Inati as a powerful black dragon.
 

Now, he’ll have to save a beautiful priestess, rebuild a broken city, and fight a horde of zombie-like monsters led by an ancient demonic evil.
 

If he wins, then the opportunity to build his powers, treasure horde, and empire will await him. If he loses, then his new friends will all suffer fates worse than death.

©2019 Eric Vall (P)2019 Eric Vall

MC is rough shot, and not thought out well

The MC comes off as a 16yr old in the body of a 25yr old EMT. The reactions, the way he talks, the way he acts, and the mannerisms do not fit the character description and the backstory. This is essentially a grown man whose made it to be an EMT and the life experiences that come with it, but when the character comes off as a some weird mix of child and adult that doesn't mix well. Then you throw in the fact that he is now a dragon and the character motivations that go with that don't mix well. I don't think it was well thought, or at least enough... I understand that Eric Valls books have a particular genre in mind/target audience of which I would put myself in. On top of that the speed at which Eric pumps books out is incredible but unfortunately I think in this case haste to make quantity resulted in wasted quality. Disappointing...

Narrator too fast!

The narrator was way too fast and sounds drunk if you try to slow it down. Don't waste your money, this was poorly done on a good story.

Fastest Reader Ever

Super disappointed. I was looking forward to this book coming to audible as Eric usually has some of the best performers for his books. This one, however, sounds like they recorded it then speed it up to 1.5x regular speed. Even when I slow it down, they still are reading it to fast for me to enjoy. Not sure if it was an accident with the upload or what but would like to see it fixed.

Narration was terrible!

The story was pretty good and I am usually a big fan of Vall. Unfortunately the narrator ruined the audible version. Talked way to fast with terrible inflection and reactions. I will not be listening to the next books in the series.

Couldnt finish

I couldnt get past the 8th chapter. The narrator talked much too fast and something is off with the audio. It just doesnt sound very good. The narrator also sounds like he is just reading the book into a mic rather than really putting on a performance. The story is also boring and much of the writing just isnt good. The dialogue can just be awkward at times and totally unnatural. I'm really surprised this is a series.

Mediocre Story, worse performance

I wanted to like it. Turning into a dragon in another world? Fun and exciting, yes? But when everything is rushed with little to no character development, how can you come to care about the story. There was very little world or system development, it was almost as if the author assumed the reader was experienced in the world already. Or at least litRPG type stories in general (which I am) but it would feel odd to first time readers. There was no development of this specific alt world power system. His ‘romance’ with the main female character was hyper rushed and seemed based on nothing. Villains showed up with no development, only to vanish pages later. With little indication of their motivations or anything to make them feel like fully fleshed antagonists. One is even ‘redeemed’ seemingly in the next sentence after declaring that Evan will never win. Evan simply responds with the equivalent of “yes I will” and the villain (apparent compelled to attack) responds with the equivalent of “I believe you can save us.” And through it all, the audio performances are very over-the-top. Over acted. Lines are delivered with unnecessary emphasis. Accents feel cartoonish at best. It feels like the readers should be reading books for 5-6 year olds. And with one lack luster sex scene, this book clearly isn’t for kids.

This is horrible

I have listened to about 10 minutes and its awful. The story is boring and I could almost endure that but the narration is beyond deplorable. The narrator's pacing is way to fast and he sounds like a student hat has been asked to read aloud in class and wants to get it over with as soon as possible. I am very disappointed that this made it to Audible. Usually the QC people are on the ball but this one slipped through. I am getting a refund.

Decent premise, underdeveloped MC

The premise is interesting enough, if not especially original. Still, I'm a sucker for transported-to-another-world stories, but this story just didn't quite land for me, mostly because of the main character. The writing for the MC especially could be much better—he's spontaneously over-emotional, an unabashed pervert, and often takes too long to talk himself through to obvious conclusions, I often found myself wishing he would have said anything other than whatever he just said. And the way he is voiced really magnifies the problem. The way the narrator inflects his words and overacts makes the MC sound cringe-worthy any time he wonders about something, has a realization, or gives himself an internal monologue pep-talk. It also frequently sounds like the MC is a child or going through puberty—a story revolving around a full-grown adult becoming a badass dragon takes a bit of a hit when he acts and speaks like a child. It's like he is physically unable to ask a question without blowing his own mind. He speaks with zero maturity, tact, or subtlety, which makes him an aggravating main character to follow. The female narrator is good, but I honestly don't have much of an impression there because I kept focusing on the male narration and the writing for the protagonist. If you can enjoy a fun/light otherworld adventure about a guy learning to be a dragon despite the above problems, you can have some fun with this one. I've tried listening to the next book and it looks like the same issues continue after this one, so I'm not sure if I'll be reviewing any more of this series.

Finished the first two books and plan to continue

Update: I finished the 3rd book in the series, and I've now given up. Rather than getting better, the whole thing gets worse. Will try to avoid other titles by this author and the voice acting team. Can't say that this is a great series so far, but the story line is interesting. Try the sample narration if you are considering the audio book. I find it a little to fast, and prefer to listen at 75%. Can't say whether it's the writing or the voice acting, but it seems overly dramatic most of the time. Plenty of long expositional monologues delivered like speeches. The cover art emphasizes the supposedly erotic aspects, but they are thankfully few in these early books. Some of the cringiest I've encountered.

Great, narration was too fast though

The plot was good, and the overall world building was interesting. Was short but packed enough information to keep it interesting. Just wish the narrators wouldn’t rush to finish Overall a good read.

great book

another great book by eric vall cant wait to listen to the next book when it's out on audible

Run

I have the ask myself if there is a template for the MC that everyone uses... This is bad, the premise was interesting but the author ruined it, you have a man transforming into a dragon only to be still a Wimpy, loser. The performance was worse, the worst I have heard on audible, I began asking if they did even read the book before recording because the voices don't match the characters at all, this is bad, very bad.

Great start to a great series

Just finished re-listen of this first entry in the dragon emperor series. Very much a great time. While I am a big fan of high fantasy epics, this series definitely is worth the time for some more lighthearted fun. The premise is pretty basic, with the main character being transported into another world and all, but the execution is very good. The world building is good, without any details that break your immersion. The conflict is properly set up, and while the time between the climax of the story and the previous conflict seems to suggest the end of the book a bit early, is still works well. All the characters have understandable motivations, and the only thing I took note of in this area was the sometimes strange dialogue choices of the main character during intense moments. Though this is both rare and a subjective opinion, it did slightly break my immersion when this occurred. This may be due to the presentation not distinguishing between thoughts and dialogue clearly enough, or just due to my own understanding/approach to dialogue. The narrators do a great job with this series. I would name them some of my favorite narrators, and they are a great fit for the series. Marissa Parness does an exquisite job with all the different voices, and while she may be the most notable one of the two in this regard, they both deserve praise in this. Overall great series so far. I have listened to all 11 that have been released at this point in time, and will be getting the next ones when they are released

It is possible to run dragons

The book is a standard isekai/harem series setup, mc travels from earth to take proficed place in new world. The start is fine introduced to mc an MT (ambulance crewman) just to drive home that he is a nice guy who likes helping people. Soon gets drawing into new world as a dragon, an unknown species of black dragon to be specific (I wouldn't have gone with that colour but I'm not the author) with healing breath (yes, a dragon that doesn't breath flames but healing clouds, why is he black again?). You would think this is the setup for a good story but... no. Our poor mc is a lacking. He is meek and frankly naive. Wanting to help so much he passes out from using his healing breath too much. The moments where it is described that he has to keep his dragon instincts in check are just jarring. Between this and Metal Mage I'm looking for a new author.

Best book series of the decade.

A well written story with realistic character reactions as well as a few natural erotic encounters (for you naughty people out there). Now begin the amazing story following a man turned in to "a fucking dragon"!

another amazing eric vall book!

amazing! this series and all the others by Eric Vall! .. definitely recommend! go read :)