Say this for Jon Hollins, he knows how to construct a world only to destroy it. He also knows how to build fascinating characters only to transform who they are. In Dragon Lords: Bad Faith, a world once ruled by dragons then taken back by a god who was overthrown, Hollins closes out the trilogy that began with pig farmer Will Fallows in grand fashion. Given that this is the final book of a trilogy, the review will contain some spoilers…
Guardians of the Galaxy meets the Hobbit in this rollicking fantasy adventure.
Will and his comrades went to war to overthrow the reign of dragons, winning battle after battle, and acclaim as conquering heroes.
But now they’ve angered the gods, and may just need the dragons to help them this time…
Killing the protagonist in the second book of a trilogy could pose some problems, but for Jon Hollins, this was just an opportunity to continue the story. Will and his companions are in the underworld as we begin the third volume and after fully taking stock of the situation, Will concocts what amounts to another heist in order to grab power, return to the world of the living, and take the fight to Barph, the god who spent years masquerading as Will’s mentor. While Will is definitely seeking revenge, he has also come to realize the world needs saving and his actions aren’t just of a selfish nature.
This power Will attempts to take is ancient, older than dragons and the gods themselves. Referred to as the Deep Ones, these beings are completely alien to anything Will and his friends can recognize, and the way they are spoken about isn’t too far removed from Lovecraft’s Great Old Ones and the Elder Things. One of the problems is that the adage of power corrupting isn’t just a metaphor for Will, his body and soul is changing as a result of his contact with the Deep Ones.
The dragons aren’t quite gone either and our friend Quirk manages to find one (Yorrax) who may prove a key to knocking Barph of his godly pedestal. Quirk’s storyline with the dragons is as fascinating as is Will’s revenge/redemption arc. She befriends Yorrax and the way in which Hollins highlights their mutual distrust of the other’s species is a great contrast to how these two characters come to rely on each other despite the natural distrust.
Hollins does so many things well in the finale to this trilogy, not the least of which is the continued exploration of the world’s history / mythology. There are still things left to reveal and substantiate in this volume and Hollins manages to do so without invalidating anything he revealed in the first two volumes of the trilogy.
I continue to use this theme in my reviews, but balance is a great theme here. Even if Hollins doesn’t quite balance the distribution of plot to all the characters evenly, what he does balance so well is the epic and intimate. Nothing less than throwing down a god is contrasted by the intimate feelings of loyalty, love, and friendship between two characters or a small group of characters. There are serious moments when characters are on the cusp of death or major change, but there is ample humor throughout the novel from the dialogue to the chapter headers as I pointed out on twitter when I was reading the book. 6. Look, Dragons are in the Series Name, Okay? 11. The Backstory I’ve Spent Three Books Getting Around To and 11. Because We Haven’t Heard from Her in Nine Chapters.
Jon Hollins (@thexmedic) has the best chapter titles pic.twitter.com/0Hh8MEHa1i
— KROBmpus Bedford (@RobHBedford) December 9, 2018
I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the series as a whole, especially since Bad Faith is the final book in the trilogy. Hollins introduced a simple pig farmer who wanted to overthrow the Dragons who were treating humans as a step above chattel and slaves. Through each of the three books, Hollins kept true to much of what made that first volume so much fun: ripping pace of a heist story, a fun fantasy world, engaging characters, and snarky self-aware humor. Despite the goalposts shifting from volume to volume, local scale in book one to global and reality by series’ end, Hollins’s story remained consistent and true to what he introduced in the first book, Fools Gold.
The Dragon Lords series is enormously enjoyable and one of my favorite trilogies from the past few years.
Highly Recommended, both as a series concluding novel and the series as a whole.
© 2018 Rob H. Bedford
Orbit, August 2018
Trade Paperback, 507 Pages
The Dragon Lords #3
Excerpt: https://www.orbitbooks.net/orbit-excerpts/the-dragon-lords-bad-faith/
Review copy courtesy of the publisher, Orbit Books
