Valraven Dreadwood

I tried and I just Cant

Revisado: 02-13-24

I tried to finished this story compilation, I really did, but I just cant. I'm an author, and I've listened to tons of books like this one for research. I've found as good as Dresden Files, and the worst of the bunch the I won't name out of respect. But this is just bad. The writing is simplistic and chopy. It comes across like so much of a Merry Sue that I want to drop it every few lines. The character protrail is simplistic and honestly comes across as totally racist. All the orcs have the same thug profile. All the goblins are lieing scum suckers. All elves are pompous asses. The "Blood Magic" is so damned edge-lord that it hurts while totally down cutting the cost of the magic, and thats coming from someone who's MC in my series litterally spills his own blood to cast magic. The writing is such a blaitent knockoff of other series I know that I cringe at the plot at least once or twice a chapter. It's clear that the writer did ZERO research into anything that she has written and I'm only part way through book three. I won't call myself a good author, but I'd like to think that I can spot bad writing when I read it. I really do hate to put the writer down like this, because I've written plenty of total-trash-texts, but I honestly have no idea how this got published.

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Needs FAR more work

Revisado: 12-26-23

Let me with, this story isn’t all bad. It’s not the worst story I’ve read, but there is plenty wrong with it. I will list each issue out below.

1. TOO MUCH PLOT ARMOR!!!! The Protag is walking thought life and is just handed power over and over again. ‘oh, here’s a magic dagger that just so happens to unlock magical power.’ ‘Here, let’s have him get two incredibly powerful magical items that just dropped in his lap with effort.’ It also really doesn’t help that the Protag just happens to have multiplicative magic power. MAKE HIM WORK AND BLEED FOR ANYTHING GOOD!!!

2. The Protag is never really shown struggling and working against the odds other than when his power first manifests and even that feels cheap. It’s made cheap because of a magic dagger he was just handed and a deus ex machina is what really wraps up that scene.

3. Character interaction comes across as flat and wooden, like a plank you could get from the lumberyard. The orphan trope is played but never really expanded on when he gains a father figure who comes across as perfect, drowning in money and power, and is just handing over the keys to the kingdom.

-The mean-girl-turned-girlfriend trope was played, but the switch was so sudden that I’ve seen lightbulbs take longer to flip from off to on. ‘Oh look, the magical elf girl that was rude and mean in the beginning is suddenly joking and stealing kisses.’

-The exposition is delivered in a less-than-engaging manner, especially for how it was framed to be given as a rousing story told to kids. This leads me into the next issue.

4. The world feels… small. Maybe it’s just that I’ve done more world-building than any healthy person should, but the only world-shaping things being shown are almost required staples in high fantasy these days. ‘Oh, look, an airship.’ ‘Wow, yet another floating island.’ ‘And over there is a pocket dimension shack with doors to other worlds.’

5. He bribed a powerful demon with… food. Demons of that degree of power should be depicted as complex, snake-tongued deal makers with plots within plots. The demon also just drops a crap-load of exposition and critical information for no truly valid reason.

6. Video game mechanics in a story that clearly should have none of that. There were several points that had slight video game world vibes, but I looked the other way. But flat out using the term Fire Damage is less-than-subtle but was only slightly aggravating. The big screw up with this mechanic was when a big scary ‘boss monster’ was killed and it “dropped loot”, and the loot was an ungodly amount of gold and what might as well amount to an XP supplement boost.

I will continue listening to these stories to support a fellow author and if he/she/they read this review, I hope they can take it a feedback to make improvements from.

HEY AUTHOR PERSON!!! Keep on pushing and climb that mountain. You are more than welcome to give me feedback on my work on Royalroad.com . My username is Ailill Blackwood. I’m more than happy to talk shop with fellow authors or fans.

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Master work tha had me tearing out hair by the end

Revisado: 11-08-23

Let me start with, I’m an author myself and very critical and picky of any novel I pick up. Book 1, Iron Prince, was an awesome piece of work that I chewed through in 3 days and was clawing for more. O’Connor is a mad genius I want to sit down and talk shop with. But this book... THIS BOOK!!! Everything good about the last book was cranked up to 13 and blasted. Combat choreography was masterfully worked. Pacing with quick when it needed to be, with breaks that slowed things down for more emotional moments. Character development was stunning, and foreshadowing started in the previous book was worked in seamlessly. One Antag from the last book actually develops into a guy I can respect after learning his backstory. Another Antag gets his just-desserts in a satisfying way. All of this is pulled off while introducing a new antagonist group that has been present since the start of book one.

My only complaint is the cliff hanger the book ends on that has me ripping out my hair as I’m screaming questions. As a writer, I can respect the hook that has me wanting the next book. But this book took what felt like 6 years to finally get published and I had it pre-ordered the moment it was announced.

And as always, Luke Daniels makes yet another masterpiece come to life with a vivid voice full of emotion and inflection and with a wide ranged of voices used. Excellent work. I tip my hat to both the author and the actor for a piece of art that I enjoyed every step of the journey through its pages.


Let me start with, I’m an author myself and very critical and picky of any novel I pick up. Book 1, Iron Prince, was an awesome piece of work that I chewed through in 3 days and was clawing for more. O’Connor is a mad genius I want to sit down and talk shop with. But this book... THIS BOOK!!! Everything good about the last book was cranked up to 13 and blasted. Combat choreography was masterfully worked. Pacing with quick when it needed to be, with breaks that slowed things down for more emotional moments. Character development was stunning, and foreshadowing started in the previous book was worked in seamlessly. One Antag from the last book actually develops into a guy I can respect after learning his backstory. Another Antag gets his just-desserts in a satisfying way. All of this is pulled off while introducing a new antagonist group that has been present since the start of book one.

My only complaint is the cliff hanger the book ends on that has me ripping out my hair as I’m screaming questions. As a writer, I can respect the hook that has me wanting the next book. But this book took what felt like 6 years to finally get published and I had it pre-ordered the moment it was announced.

And as always, Luke Daniels makes yet another masterpiece come to life with a vivid voice full of emotion and inflection and with a wide ranged of voices used. Excellent work. I tip my hat to both the author and the actor for a piece of art that I enjoyed every step of the journey through its pages.

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Not Bad But Not Her Best

Revisado: 06-08-23

I've been a big fan of the author's Frith Guild Chornicles since the beginning. That series I found entertaining, engaging, relatable, and emotionally moving. I wouldn't call this book bad, but its far from the quality I was expecting. I found the main character annoying more often than not and his brother drove me up a wall almost the entire book. I found the twist lack luster and the character dynamic across the book just plane lacking. Where the story does redeem itself is in the forshadowing of the climax.

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One of my new favorite stories, with one issue

Revisado: 03-15-23

The Frith Chronicles is one of my favorite series. I love the writing. The narrator is spot on with the voices and inflections. This last book had me on the edge of my seat and crying at the end. My biggest issue is a really annoying misspelling in one of the chapter titles and I’m afraid that the error was made through the written book. There is a big difference between the words Rune and Ruin. The author clearly meant Rune, i.e. a magical or arcane symbol, but she used Ruin, meaning to destroy or render unuseable. That is the only issue I have, but I found it really bugs me.

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Impressively good combared to his Father's work

Revisado: 12-12-22

I won’t lie. Jim Butcher is an all-time hero of mine. His work with Dresden Files shaped me as an author. But HOLY HOT DAMN!!! James is a hell of an impressive artist in his own right.

Looking at it from an author’s perspective, foreshadowing was impressively well done. Red herring work is top-notch. Character design is both relatable and intriguing with backstory hints that have me asking questions even at the end of the book. The meshing of the start components of the story with the end climax was seemless. At that Epilogue… GAHH!! I already want the next book and I can’t wait to see how James works with what he has already used.

I only have one issue with the story and the only reason I spotted this plot hole is because I’m an actively practicing witch in my downtime. His Ogham is off. I can’t say too much without serious spoilers but, but I’m reasonably fluent in the script of the druids and the layered meaning doesn’t fit.

But even with that issue I still give the story 5/5.

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Excellent story if with a few oddities.

Revisado: 10-24-22

I have been a hug fan of Darkling Mage for several years now and seeing this next book pop up in the shop made me very happy. As with each of the other books (that I have read) this story is top notch if with a concept that I feel kinda came out of the blue. Dustin being gay, or bi was something I didn't see coming. Don't get me wrong as a bisexual myself I found it a plesent surprise to have that kind of representation from a character I'm a huge fan of but... The dude NEVER set off my gay-dar. I was 100% expecting him to be hetero. This is the only piece of the story that I feel doesn't fit organically. To me it felt... I guess you could call it forced. As a bisexual I appetiate the concept, but as an author I'm not so much a fan of it. Now, this isn't going to stop me from finishing the series by any means, but I hope it can be more organically worked in into later books.

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I don't want to be a dick but...

Revisado: 03-31-22

As a fellow author I'm hesitant to out right say this book is crap. I have no about the writer poured months of work and passion into this piece of work. But the character isn't relatable for me and rather bland, his 'Journey of the Quest' up to where I'm at atm is little more than him evolving into a really lame gym rate with no perspective on fictional art revolving around the near-integral theme of heroism. The setting is lackluster. Side characters are flat. The monsters are uninspired. there is no rising action save for some mental issues that I'm honestly kind of offended by as someone with CPTSD. The Call to Adventure scene wasn't memorable, and The Denial of The Call was too abrupt. In fact I have fallen asleep on several occasions while glistening and have yet to find a need to backtrack, its just been a steady fall into lackluster mental trauma and really poor examples of training.

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Not what you think

Revisado: 03-05-22

I'm an aspiring author myself so I have some serious respect of a good indie author like Martin. When I first picked up the series I thought to myself 'Here way go again. Yet another Dresden clone no doubt.' But I was dead wrong. This Urban Fantasy is not for the faint of heart or those that are too "clean" for vulgar language. Down and dirty, Detective Drake had be hooked after the first chapter with his fascinating personality and gripping scenes. I can only hope to be as good an author as this N.P. Martin

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peer review from one author to another

Revisado: 02-25-22

Since I myself am an aspiring author I am hesitant to call this work bad but it has some flaws that I can't ignore. The performance by the narrator was monotone, no emotion and little if any change of tone between characters. As for the novel itself, the shifting perspective form first to omniscient third person was jarring and pulled me from the story with every chapter. Then there's the antagonist. Making the whole of the human race the enemy alienates your audience right off the bat. And when you combine the perspective of an alien protagonist that has been wronged and similes comparing something to a human experience, such as a movie, You aren't conveying the protagonists perspective and are again pulling the reader from the state of suspension of disbelief. Lastly the ending. I could go on for another few paragraphs about scene setting, character diction, and pacing but I'm skipping over that so something that the a reader way point out. Without spoiling anything, the protagonist gains phenomenal cosmic power. Great, so now what? His has the power to make or kill stars essentially. The obvious choice to make in his position would lead to the next book being made up of a single chapter at most. He kills all the humans in creative ways, he cleans up his planet and brings his people back. The End. P.S. One final note that I really should have mentioned in the first writing, the novel length. This was painfully small. I chewed through this in an evening. You should definitely market this as a novelette.

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