Dragon Quest

The Stone Crown Series, Book 2

By: Ava Richardson

Narrated by: Amy Soakes

Length: 8 hrs and 7 mins

Publisher's Summary

She can save her people - or doom the world.

Narissea faces an impossible choice. Armed with a map discovered in the hidden shrine, she’s forced to lead Inyene’s heir through the wilds of the Plains to claim the ultimate prize. For only the wearer of the Stone Crown can command all dragons and take the High Throne that rules over the three kingdoms.

To place the crown’s power into Inyene’s hands is unthinkable. Yet failure to obtain it means certain death.

But the small band is not alone. Vicious mercenaries seek the crown for their mysterious patron and attack Narissea’s expedition when they least expect it. In the ensuing chaos, the map is torn in two, forcing Narissea to rely on her memories of landmarks and stories passed down by the village elders to make her way through the Plains and its treacherous Sea of Mists.

When Inyene suspects betrayal, she sends her mechanical dragons against the beleaguered band, and the sands erupt in an epic clash of forces. Narissea’s desperate decisions threaten to alter destinies, but she’ll do whatever it takes to save her people.

No matter the consequences.

This novel contains violence.

©2020 Relay Publishing (P)2020 Relay Publishing

sequel

a great continuation of another well written story; an overall story that is worth reading and/or listening to.

good.

still dont care too much for the voice actor. VA has poor pacing/cadence, poor vocal range, off pronunciation of words. bit annoying.
still, despite the sub par narrator the story was enjoyable. good pacing, wonderful world building that was well displayed, good flow. to be honest I enjoyed this book far more than the initial book of this series. great story, cant wait to see more from this author

Great fantasy with a hint of...steampunk? It works

This is a fun fantasy, that on the surface is about real dragons vs mechanical/magical dragons. So that almost sounds like steampunk, which I would think would not really fit, but in this case, everything fits together nicely.

This is also a good middle book of a trilogy...it builds up to a nice conclusion, but setting up a major conflict to come in the final book.

One of the challenges of reviewing an audiobook is that I have no idea how to spell the names of the main characters, so I will not try to do so here. I think all of the characters a fairly well developed, although, since I think the male lead goes through the greatest changes over the course of these books, I would like to hear more of what is going on in his mind. And I would also like to hear more from the mage...he seems like he could be a very interesting character, but actually plays a very minor role here.

I mostly like the narrator and the passion she shows for the characters, but I have the same reservations I had in the first book...the main character sounds haughty and egotistical, and this grates against my image of her, and the voice for the dragon also does not match my imagination (even though I realize it makes no sense to claim that the voice doesn't sound like a "real" dragon).

Overall, very enjoyable

Get past the haughty narration the story is good

This is the twenty-third book i have read/listened to by this author and I would listen to anything she writes. I’ve enjoyed every series and this one is no exception. This book brings in a different feel than the other books but still has the occasional reference to people that ties it to the other series.

This is the second book I have listened to by this narrator ( Amy Soakes ) and would have stopped listening during book one if it weren’t for the fact I’ve listened to so many books by Ava that I knew I wanted to hear this one. Now that I’ve listened to two books I’ve gotten better at ignoring the narrator’s style to focus on the words. I do not like her choice of narration style. The emphasis she places on words make every conversation sound haughty and whiny. I do not think this is appropriate for the characters or storyline.

There are no explicit sex scenes, excessive violence or swearing.

I was given this free review copy audiobook at my request and voluntarily left this unbiased review.
Please feel free to comment on whether you found my review helpful.

Great sequel

Ava Richardson does it again! She is an amazing fantasy writer and really knows how to tell a dragon tale. The writing flows nicely, the characters are well thought out, the pacing is great, and the story never lulls. I’m excited to finish this series. I received this audiobook but chose to leave the review on my own.

Good book

Good story with plenty of action and characters who make you care what happens to them.

Worth a listen

Well written story, good narrator.
But, not together.
I found the narrator irritating at times. Which made the MC the same. Her other voices were spot on.
This audio was given to me free and I voluntarily gave this review.

Improved upon first book, narration still the same

I received this title for free in exchange for an unbiased review.

Narration 6/10
The narration remains exactly the same as the first book "Dragon Connection" so I'll just repost what I wrote about the narration back when I reviewed that one:
"Even though the narrator seems skillful and conspicuous effort is put into giving life to the characters, since the first moment I could not get past the sound tone chosen for the main protagonist, Nari. The voice, for me, was totally unfit for the character and it sounded more fit for the narration of something like "50 shades of grey" and I truly cannot understand why would someone designate a slightly silly and partly sensual voice to a fantasy hero, who should normally bear a more bold voice with some, either concealed or obvious, determination to it. In this regard, no matter how hard I tried, by the end of the novel I did not manage to get used to it. As a matter of fact, during the last few chapters I decided to speed the narration up to x1.5 which surprisingly helped, since the sped up voice took away an adequate part of the aforementioned sensual - silly hue.
Additionally, although a minor issue compared to the above, I should mention that the lingual sound effects were a bit off-putting, since they sounded nothing like they are supposed to. To be more precise, a dragon roar does not sound like "squeeeeeel" and a whistle does not sound like "feet feet feet".
For confrontation to the above and to give credit where credit is due, backtracking to my premise, the narrator does possess perspicuous skill with potential for improved recitation in future work, a dribble of which can be distinguished by the narration of several secondary characters whom she portrayed greatly."
To add to the above, I've actually checked the narrator's profile and I found what seems to be the source of the problem: She mostly narrates romantic flicks. Apparently she keeps the same style for the rest of the books as well, while she should adapt and change her style and tone depending on what she is narrating.

Story 7.5/10
The story continues where the first book (Dragon Connection) left off and it is told via the perspective of Nari, a sixteen year old girl set on a journey with her bonded dragon to find the Stone Crown.
The story is pretty straightforward, simple and easy to follow. I find it a bit improved upon the previous book since, even though the first half can be a bit stale, the second half is action packed and more interesting. Don't expect any twists and wows out of it though, it's a mostly foreseeable action fantasy story.

Overall, as I did with the Dragon Connection, I will also recommend this one for younger ages (10-15 y.o.), people getting familiar to the English language and people getting started with novel stories, as it is a pleasant, rather simple story, with easy vocabulary to tail after.