No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished

Heartstrikers, Book 3

By: Rachel Aaron

Narrated by: Vikas Adam

Length: 18 hrs and 51 mins

Publisher's Summary

When Julius overthrew his mother and took control of his clan, he thought he was doing right by everyone. But sharing power isn't part of any proper dragon's vocabulary, and with one seat still open on the new ruling council, all of Heartstriker is ready to do whatever it takes to get their claws on it, including killing the Nice Dragon who got them into this mess in the first place.

To keep his clan together and his skin intact, Julius is going to have to find a way to make his bloodthirsty siblings play fair. But there's more going on in Heartstriker Mountain than politics. Every family has its secrets, but the skeletons in Bethesda's closet are dragon sized, and with Algonquin's war looming over them all, breaking his clan wide open might just be the only hope Julius has of saving it.

©2016 Rachel Aaron (P)2016 Audible, Inc.

Nice Dragon Not so Nice Anymore

Have I said before how much I absolutely love this story, especially as an audiobook? I have. And I still do despite how ridiculously long this book is in comparison to the previous. The length isn't the problem, although I do like to listen to stories I can start and finish during work, but it was extra hours of words. By words I mean:

Marci is the queen of exposition. She exists just so things can be explained to us readers/listeners through her. And that made me want to skip over some of her very long scenes. There was just too much talking, too much unnecessary explaining. Julius is just as bad. "No. We can't keep killing each other. We have love and sing campfire songs and be one big happy family..." or something along those lines. We've listened to him preach in book one. We listened even more in book 2. Now, I'm tired of hearing it. I'm so tired of hearing it. It was very annoying.

Now the good parts:

Chelsea. Chelsea. Chelsea. I've adored her since she first stepped out of the shadows in book 1, I adore her even more now. And her secret? Oh her secret! Mannnnnn!!! That is a secret I can't WAIT to be revealed. And Bob and Amelia T_T. And Chelsea. I knew the ending was going to happen from the very beginning. What I wanted was for Julius to connect those dots. But he didn't. He's too nice to pry. And too blinded in a rage that was all things glorious and draconic and wonderful that brought tears to my eyes and damn you Chelsea from stepping in.

Again, Vikas does a great job, especially with the new characters. 5 stars for him
3 stars for the story. Too much exposition and Julius repeating the same thing. And to be perfectly honest, everything was predictable. The secret. The ending. Marci. What the new characters would do. All predictable.
4 stars overall, because the next book is gonna be awesome!!!!!
And Chelsea.

Poor plot/protagonist, but interesting world building.

Protagonist: (1/5) Be prepared to have everyone try to convince the protagonist that he is not a failure from start to end.

Plot: (1/5) This book tries really hard to make pacifism the solution for everything, but it feels forced/fake. By the end it would feel natural if the main character harnessed the power of friendship and love to defeat some evil incarceration of hatred and murder.

There is so much plot armor that If the main character died I could see god himself coming down saying “the world needs you” and then brings him back...repeatedly.

Lore: (4/5) the book performs enjoyable world building and includes it into the story fairly well. The perspective is unique even if the protagonist himself is not.

Whiny Protagonist

Whereas Julius, the protagonist, was a likable ernest dragon in the earlier books, he came across like a dogmatic idiot who spent all his time pontificating in this book.

Hold on tight

because there are so many amazing twists in this book, you will be holding onto each word. Beautiful performance by Vikas Adam, as usual. Every character is distinctly different, which is great because Rachel introduces us to more of the Heartstriker clan.

If you thought that presidential elections were stressful, just try to get a bunch of dragons to elect their new clan representative. Poor Julius just wants everyone to stop trying to kill each other.

I loved this book and I am biting my nails until the next one releases! Please, Bob, tell me when that will be!

Please kill off Julius, as his story is pointless.

The Good: The world; the supporting characters of Bob, Amelia, Chelsea, and even Ian. The spirits and the magic system.

The bad: Julius and his never ending EMO whine of unimaginative and pointless pining. This character is clearly an ill conceived, non-evolving, depthless romance novel set piece, hiding behind dragon veneer. I thought he would grow, but he's just as awful as book one. His behavior is simple minded, especially when compared to the other characters, who are so well thought out. I honestly feel that removing him from the series is the only way to save it.

No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished: Heartstrikers 3

The narrator did an incredible job once again bringing the characters to life. I appreciate his attention to detail. His voices are consistent in all the books. This isn't always easy when narrating multiple books over a period of time.

The story certainly had some twists that were unexpected. I have a theory about the maternity and paternity of F clutch so I am looking forward to the next book.

Whoa.

Please focus on the sequel and write away.

Listening to this had me so giddy.
I found myself relating to almost every character, which surprised me.

Felt so many things, in so many ways.

I took off work, put my headphones on and listened.
A day later.. I found myself listening to the epilogue verbally and physically cheering.

I hate Julius

He is so repetitive and "nice" in this book it's sickening. And by nice; I mean short-sided and fighting in the defense of murderers, because "they're family".

Too Much Jibber Jabber about the same stuff

I LOVE LOVE LOVE long stories... but of the 18 hours in this one, only 3 hours actually had something happening. The rest was just jibber jabber. It felt like watching C-Span. Julius trying to talk the clan into a council. Julius trying to talk Dragons out of fighting. Julius trying to talk Dragons out of killing him. Julius trying to talk down government officials. Julius trying to talk Spirits out of attacking. Julius trying to talk Bethesda out of scheming against of the Council. ALOT of talking...

We listen to Julius get the "🤕" beat out of him. Personally, I dont like the idea of teaching folks not to defend themselves. I'm all for the MLK Peaceful method, but there is a difference between not inciting violence and being a doormat.

Honestly, this was boring. Not enough Bob. Not enough Amelia. The action scenes were bland. And the author kept repeating the phrase "But then, to his amazement..." over and over again. Now that I think about it, this was said a few times in the previous book too. This one is definitely at the bottom of the series.

The narrator, Vikas Adam's, was excellent of course. He was the saving grace in this experience for me.

1 STAR - 🌟 Not Interesting or Bad story telling. Usually a book I had to force myself to finish.

it's too much.

I liked the first two books, but this one is just so monotonous. He is just an unbelievable character

Getting better

A strong follow up and the story is getting more complex. Characters are becoming more fleshed out, their motivations are coming to the surface and the worldbuilding is becoming more and more important.

Story widens (for the better). Masterful narration

Vikas Adam! A truly great narration. Adam has a soft pleasant voice. That alone makes me like him as a narrator. Add to that his ability to create VERY different (and believable) voices, male and female, as well as accents. Even the characters different emotions, demeanour, status and to whom he/she is speaking at the moment changes subtly. Masterful!

The book itself then? A bit darker than the previous ones. A bit thinner on humor. A lot richer in tension. Some major changes in the storyline (and more to come obviously). Most of them for the better. The story base (and list of interesting characters) gets a LOT wider, making for rich and exciting books to come.

A great book in it's own right, but perhaps even better as a setup for books to come. I often gripe about books not being self contained enough. Not this time! I liked it immensely.

Caught up in this series again

This 2nd book was a disappointment, so I was sceptical about this book in the series. It was a great listen, with great characters great story, and another great narrator. I would recommend this to anyone who likes fantasy or dragons. I,ll be listening to the rest of the series.

simply brilliant!

I love it, got frustrated with Julius' do gooding at times but by far the best audio series I have come across, spell binding, twists, plots and pathos..wonderful stuff!

Exceptionally well performed

Vicas Adams' performance in this audio book was exceptional - he does well to bring the characters and their stories to life.