The third book of Arenson’s Dawn of Dragons trilogy keep the pace – as well as the violence and blood flow – of the previous two books.

While more bad guys met their end, King Raem survived – in a new, terrific form.

The dragons, meanwhile, try to forge a new home back in Requiem, letting the book start on a tone of hope (barring the grisly intro setting up a new secondary antagonist) – only for it to be cur short very fast.

Given the book’s length, I expected a straight dive for the belly of the beast (which, in the way the realm of demons is described, is not just a figure of speech). Instead, it starts with a fight between the dragon and the new secondary antagonist that goes terribly wrong and sends the dragons on the run again.

The mentioned grisly intro also has a scene that reminded me of the World of Warcraft: Warlords of Draenor cinematic and Gul’dan’s offer of demon blood – though in even more disgusting manner.

The amount of crude humor also drops – though this is mostly due to the situation getting even direr than anything else.

Among all of the hectic plot, the dragons on the run desperately trying to keep the new enemy – which outnumbers them at least ten to one – at bay, there is some more development for the demon PoV. By the time I reached half of the book, I wondered how can this be brought to a conclusion with most of the dragons on the run and Issari with Tanin still trying to gather reinforcements from the other kingdoms (after getting a fair share of beating, of course).

The ending lets some characters shine and the victory comes at a great price (expected, in this book) – and shows a great sacrifice – which does not always mean losing your life.

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Read date: 7.-8.8.2019
Published: 15.8.2014
Goodreads/Amazon rating: 3,93 / 4,2
My rating: 85%
Length: 274 pages (Kindle)
My highlights

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The trilogy as a whole was a fast-paced (sometimes hectic), gripping read, in a very violent world – to a degree some might find off-putting, though I believe I’ve read worse. There are six more trilogies in this fictional universe and I might return to them at some point – though I don’t dare to guess when.

One of the issues I had with this trilogy was how conveniently well-possible it was for the demons to mate with humans (including the weredragons) with no regard for differences in shape and size, let alone possible biology.