/lit/ - Literature

>>19541806
Fury of a Demon, Dragons of Terra #3 - Brian Naslund (2021)
This was much better than the second book and better than the first. Many changes were made which may upset a subset of readers, but I greatly appreciated them. The first two books were primarily quest based, which is ok, but not what I prefer. This third book is epic fantasy warfare, which I tend to enjoy more. It's not what I ideally initially wanted, but it more than sufficed. I still take issue with many things in the series as a whole, but this book went a long way to mitigate those issues, which surprised me. It seems I was unduly influenced by what I thought about the second book. Most of what irritated me was made suitable, despite still thinking that the science fantasy parts don't belong in this series.

Most of Parts I and II, or somewhat more than 50%, were somewhat better than ok. Halfway through Part II was where the fun really started going and continued to ramp up from there until the climax. The fun primarily came from what I saw as becoming less serious and more comfortable. Relative to the two previous books, what the characters did became much over-the-top, especially near the end. That may be cause for concern for some, though for me I was enjoying it in a good way with how ridiculous it became. The ending was one of the the most satisfying I've read in a very long while. As for the emotional mood of the ending, rather than putting something in spoilers, this tweet from him says it all, though do note that it does spoil what kind of ending it has. It doesn't do so in any specific way other than generally what to expect.
https://twitter.com/BrianNasl/status/1445129604855857164

I may be premature in saying so, but I think Naslund is really beginning to come into his own as an author and establish his authorial voice. The first in this series, Blood of an Exile, his debut novel, definitely didn't read like that, so to me this represented a lot of progress on his part. Naslund says he'll be writing more books, so when/if they're published, I'll certainly give them a try. The series ought to have more readers than it has.
Rating: 4/5