What to do when you are the slacker of a huge family and all of your instincts and deeds run counter to your family? Well, you try to get by is what you do, and that’s what Julius Heartstriker tries to do in One Good Dragon Deserves Another, the second entry in Rachel Aaron’s Heartstriker urban fantasy/post-apocalypse series. More than many series books, discussing too many plot details will spoil the events of Nice Dragons Finish Last, the first in the series so there may be minimal spoilers…
This is the tenth novel I’ve read by Rachel Aaron and one of the things that impresses me the most is how much better she gets with each book (and she was very good with her early novels) in terms of plotting and keeping me as the reader glued to the narrative. Aaron does this in many ways. She makes Julius a believable underdog character and through his dialogue (at least the majority of it), he brings clear-headedness to situations where it is sorely needed. I also thought she did a fantastic job of revealing more of her world; how magic exists, more intricacies of the creatures, and nice, tragic backdrop for the dragons. In addition, more of the Heartstriker clan is introduced, including the enforcer Chelsie, one of the bearers of a Heartstriker Fang (a magic sword which was once the fang of Bethesda’s father); Amelia, the Planeswalker and prodigal daughter (last remaining of the A-clutch of dragons, the group of Bethesda’s first-born making her the eldest); the enigmatic Brohomir (aka Bob) the Seer of the Heartstrikers; a little bit more of Julius’ clutch-brother Justin, and of course we get to experience more of Bethesda herself.
Of course, maybe the star of the novel is Marci, Julius’s human mage, and her familiar, the spirit in cat form named Ghost. Well, all the dragons think that Julius possesses Marci as if she were property, but we (being the reader, Marci, and Julius) know better. The two have a spirit catching business together and have become very close. Here, Aaron does a very nice job of building up the obvious romance between the two characters, and the best way for me to gauge how well Aaron handled it was that regardless of the obvious nature of their relationship, Aaron made it a powerfully intriguing narrative thread of One Good Dragon Deserves Another. I also appreciated how star struck Marci was when she was introduced to members of the world famous Heartstriker clan. Of course some of those clan members were less appreciative and patient of Marci’s bewilderment.
The conflict of the novel is three-fold and becomes more intertwined as the novel progresses. The Heartstriker clan is pure conflict in and of itself, with Bethesda at the top seeing her children only as tools, and the youngest child (Julius) the most bullied, there’s bound to be angst and frustration. There’s conflict with Algonquin hater of dragons, the lady of the lake and the most powerful magical spirit in the North (as centered in the Detroit Free Zone) if not all of North America. Then there’s the conflict between two Dragon clans – The Heartstrikers and their enemies the Daughters of the Three Sisters.
As in Nice Dragons Finish Last, Aaron uses a more omniscient POV storytelling style (compared to most urban fantasies) and this really helps to give Marci and Julius their own well-defined character arcs in the story. Every character, for that matter is very well-defined, so much so that I want more of each of them. Well, except maybe Justin, not because he’s not well-defined, but because he’s a well-defined, annoying, wanna-be, tough-guy jerk so I wasn’t too upset to see his role in this one be relegated to a minor supporting role.
I switched up to the audio version for the second installment, narrated by Vikas Adam. I thought he did a wonderful job, especially with giving each character his or her own unique voice, intonation, etc. It isn’t often that (as I’ve remarked in some of my other audio book reviews) a male narrator can pull off female characters effectively or vice versa. Not so here with Mr. Adam, it was fairly easy to differentiate the various characters, each had their own voice. Only because of some of the pronunciations for specific letters/sounds did it sound as if the same narrator was reading all the characters, regardless of gender.
All told, I absolutely love this series, the amazing world building, superb characterization, and powerful plotting are a cracking combination. With each book I read by her, Rachel Aaron climbs ever higher on my list of current favorite SFF writers, she always satisfies my reading sensibilities. A lot of readers move across the dotted lines making up the boundaries of the Speculative Fiction Map, Rachel Aaron is one who seems to do this effortlessly and with great strength in her stories, wither from series to series, or within one single story. I’ve already pre-ordered the third installment, No Good Dragon Goes Unpunished from audible and I’m marking the days until it is available and ready to add to my iPod.
— Highly Recommended —
© 2016 Rob H. Bedford
eBook courtesy of the author/Audio book purchased
Published August 2015
Sample: http://rachelaaron.net/samples.php?Book_ID=3
http://www.rachelaaron.net/books-heartstrikers.php
