Hey all I’m back with an odd low fantasy series for my review this week. It’s The Dinosaur Lords, Book 01 of the Dinosaur Lords series, by Victor Milán!
Plot Synopsis: A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise, as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden – and of war. During the course of one of these epic battles, the enigmatic mercenary Dinosaur Lord Karyl Bogomirsky is defeated through betrayal and left for dead. He wakes, naked, wounded, partially amnesiac – and hunted. And embarks upon a journey that will shake his world…
Plot: This reads a lot like A Song of Ice and Fire, and as those who have been reading my blog or reviews for a long time will know I’m not a huge fan of that series. There are a ton of similarities in this book to Game of Thrones. It’s full of political intrigue and bloodshed. If it were written before the television adaptation of aSoIaF I would say that it was a new take on the genre with Dinosaurs instead of obscure mysticism and base magics.
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However, since this was written after that adaptation I can only think of this as a copy with a twist. What makes matters worse is that the book opens up with a note from the author saying Paradise isn’t, wasn’t and will never be Earth. However mere minutes into listening to the book the Author starts using Earth measurements. I have no problem with an author using such things, if he hadn’t just intentionally tried to separate his story from any connection to Earth. The fact he did so just makes Mr. Milán look foolish, and doesn’t help with my impressions towards the book.
Characters: There’s a good amount of characters, but frankly it was like listening to a bad European historical fiction written by an author who was highly intoxicated at the time of writing. The fact that there are so many flagrant nods to Earth culture, not including the use of the Metric system, is just further fuel for my ire. And yes that is an intentional pun, not a typo. His characterization of highly conservative stances of people would have been somewhat amusing, if not for the fact that I despised every character regardless of political leanings.
Voicework: Noah Michael Levine is our narrator, and while he was good at his job, I can only lament at the fact he got burdened with reading this series.
Overall: Please, please skip this book and listen to another book from Audible like The Pillars of Creation or Demon Accord series. You’ll have a much more enjoyable experience with less, or none at all, aggravating plot devices and characters.