Reviewed by Dan
TITLE: Dragonslayer
SERIES: A Twitterlight Story
AUTHOR: Matthew Lang
PUBLISHER: DSP Publications
LENGTH: 258 Pages
RELEASE DATE: September 25, 2018
BLURB:
A Twitterlight Story
Kill the dragon, marry the princess, and rule the kingdom. It’s a fantasy come true… if you’re straight.
Adam is a chemistry student and martial artist, active in his local chapter of the Society for Creative Anachronism. But none of that prepares him to be the savior of a faraway land locked in perpetual dusk.
In a world of shape-shifters, necromancy, and religious politics, Adam is fated to slay the golden dragon, Khalivibra, and defeat its mind-controlling sorcery to help Princess Esmeralda of Aergon retake her city. Tradition dictates he’ll rule by her side—but Adam is much more interested in Duin, a warrior who changes to beast form in the light of the sun… or fire.
Adam hopes he and Duin might end up together when their ordeal ends. But first, the reluctant hero, the spell-casting heir to the throne, the beast-shifting object of Adam’s desire, a six-legged cave lizard, and any allies they can gather must do the impossible… and live to celebrate their victory.
REVIEW:
This was a book that seemed perfect for me. It ended up being good, but I wanted more along the way. The story’s premise was interesting, and I love those stories that start here and end up somewhere else where our MC becomes a hero.
In this one though, I needed more details. The story seemed to jump around a lot, and I was never sure who anyone was, outside of the main characters. Adam seemed to fit into the new world where he found himself… without really ever asking much in the way of questions. Did I mention there are giant spiders, six legged lizards and four armed bad guys? We learn that he belonged to some sort of Creative Anachronism group back in Australia and that he is fairly proficient at using a sword. But the story was kind of choppy and I was confused on how fast things just kind of fell together.
I finished the book last night, and my only feeling was… huh. I’ll be honest and tell you that the end was all sorts of rushed. Before I knew what was happening the story ended. For a minute, I’ve got to tell you I thought I’d hate the ending because of the things that happened, but we had a brief epilogue to wrap everything up, and it was okay… but not totally to my satisfaction.
I guess my biggest complaint was that I was never able to develop an understanding and a picture in my head of what these people, creatures, and locales looked like. There were also a couple references which might work for others but drew me out of the story to Google what they were. One was an extinct Australian animal and the other was, I think, a city in the Lord of the Rings stories. While it only took a minute each time, it pulled me out of the story.
Overall, I would have to rate this one as good/average. I’m not sure where the author is going from here, but I’m guessing there might be more to come since this is listed as a twitterlight story, so I’m assuming there will be more.
RATING: 
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