| Title | : | The Dragon Blood Collection, Books 1-3 |
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | |
| ISBN | : | - |
| Language | : | English |
| Format Type | : | Kindle Edition |
| Number of Pages | : | 742 |
| Publication | : | First published November 20, 2014 |
There are those who still have dragon blood flowing through their veins, distant descendants of the mighty creatures of old. These rare humans have the power to cast magic, the power to heal, and the power to craft alchemical weapons capable of starting wars… or ending them. But they are feared for those powers, and in recent centuries, they have been hunted nearly to extinction.
The few remaining survivors must find a way to change how humanity perceives them or be lost to the world forever.
The Dragon Blood Collection includes three full-length novels of action, magic, and romance:
Balanced on the Blade’s Edge
Deathmaker
Blood Charged
The Dragon Blood Collection, Books 1-3 Reviews
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"I hate it"
I hate it because I can only give it five stars and it deserves more
I hate it because it forced me to read three books in two days
I hate it because it kept me awake the first night thinking about the books and characters
I hate it because it kept me awake till three am and fell asleep , reading the last few chapters with bleary eyes
I hate it because I got up early next morning to reread the last chapters again.
I hate it because Lindsay Buroker is such a wonderful story teller and since I discovered her few days ago I have been reading only her books, neglecting all my other friends.
So much hatred , wow! I love to hate this way and if you like great fantasy, witty writing, great characters and flowing adventures, this is a must. -
June 10, 2021: Updated this just to remove a comment at the end that was sexist in nature.
So, I picked up this trilogy for free (a daily freebie) and then actually picked up the fourth one as well (what the heck, I thought, the fourth one was cheap so it can't be all that bad!), thinking that this could be an interesting read and, hey, it was cheap. You can probably tell from my rating that I was disappointed. Not just because this is a lengthy series (something like 8 books at this writing), but because this series left me wanting. Not wanting more, but wanting. And I hate to pan another author, but I just couldn't justify a higher rating after reading these books.
To sum up this trilogy: Colonel Ridgewalker Zirkander is a hero pilot for his land of Iskandia that is at war with Cofarhe. Only he's not very good at being politically correct. (Stop reading when any of this sounds cliché.) So when one of his female pilots is in awkward situation and he intervenes, he gets sent to a mining prison (to be in charge, of course, not a prisoner) to learn to behave. Only there is a woman there who's just been unearthed after a 300-year slumber. Oh, and then some Cofah (people from Cofahre) show up at this secret base and this 300-year-old sorceress goes into action. Except that sorcery is a death penalty offense. But Ridge likes her, she likes him, and...
Book 2 finds Lieutenant Caslin Ahn, the pilot who needed saving in the first book, a prisoner in Cofahre. In a prison, she finds herself put in a cell with Deathmaker, a notorious pirate who hates Iskandia, Iskandians, and the lieutenant's boss, Zirkander. Only...he's distracted and finds that he kind of likes Caslin. Only breaking out of prison during war, battling pirates, and going back to Iskandia to meet up with ZIrkander might not be all it's supposed to be. After all, this pirate earned his name and is hated in Iskandia.
In Book 3, the happy little party of Zirkander, Ahn, Deathmaker, Sardelle (the sorceress), and a couple other people in Zirkander's squadron are sent on a secret mission to find a source of dragon blood that Cofarhe is using to try to win the war. Only there's a certain colonel who doesn't like Zirkander who's part of the trip. And Cofahre is farther ahead than Iskandian spies have been able to find out. Can our intrepid hero, his sorceress, Deathmaker-who-hates-killing-people, and the other cast of characters come out alive?
All kidding aside, mostly, this series (and the fourth book) suffer from a lot of problems. First, Sardelle's sword, a soulblade named Jaxi, is a wisecracking 16-year-old whose soul has been in the sword for hundreds of years. And if a telepathic sword making wisecracks isn't bad enough, everyone gets in the act by the third book. By then you're hating it, but you keep reading looking for a redeeming quality. Alas, it's not to be. Why not? Because the biggest reason this series suffers is not the impervious and very powerful soulblade who digs people out of trouble left and right, it's that there is no tension here whatsoever. Even when you read Edgar Rice Burroughs or Jules Verne and you know the outcome ahead of time, you still get some tension. Here, none. Zip. Nada. The only thing you wonder about is what snarky comment is someone going to make while their rear is being pulled out the fire by a soul trapped in an ancient sword. And I won't go into the stereotypical characters. Two-dimensional might be a little generous.
Now, all in all, I didn't hate this compendium, nor did I hate the fourth book. And judging from the average of reviews my thoughts here are in the minority, but I couldn't get into it at all. If this series were a television miniseries, it would be on Lifetime network, complete with the "strong female heroines" and masculine men who constantly doubt themselves and aren't nearly as adept at protecting themselves as the strong-yet-beautiful-and-always-ready-for-sex women they love, which is laughable.
If you like your characters shallow, your plots (and outcomes) obvious and predictable, and basically just want to read because you can't fall asleep or have nothing else to do, you can do worse than this series. Really. It's kind of like reading Edgar Rice Burroughs in the 21st century. Not bad, but far from intellectual or captivating. But if you need depth to justify spending hours of your life reading something, move along and do not look back. -
Book 1: Enjoyable. It'll make you want to read/listen to the other two books in the Omnibus.
Book 2: Introduces two new characters I couldn't care less about, and a storyline none too interesting.
Book 3: ... I can't even begin to explain how disappointing it was.
The first book is great, I rather enjoyed it—a solid 3 out of 5—but the second and third books leave much to desire, especially when you have the first one to compare them to.
I knew I was in for a disappointing ride as soon as I was finished with the first chapter of Book 2. After growing somewhat attached to the original two main characters, suddenly they were nowhere to be seen, and were not seen until the very end. Then, in Book 3, we're taken on this pointless mission that was extended waaaaaaaaaaaaaaay beyond what it could have been, clearly for the sake of having a reason to publish the fourth book (which I will not get, thank you very much).
The world-building was extremely poor, to the point that I could not visualise the settings where things were taking place, at all (this point not applying to the first book).
This is, also, one of those stories where you never feel like the characters are in any real danger, and everything always turns out all right. They're always successful, and if anyone dies, chances are you never really cared for them because, part of the main cast they were not!
All in all, yet again, I was lured in by a decent first book that extended into a very poor series of books that cannot even begin to compare with the first one.
Disappointing, and it gets 2 stars only because I truly enjoyed Book 1.
And the narrator was nothing special. -
Kindle freebie, Jan. 9, 2018, for this collection of the first three books in this series. Dragons! Lindsay Burokar is one of the better self-published authors of adult fantasy, from what I've read of hers before. It's worth a shot.
ETA: Hah, turns out I downloaded this the last time it was a freebie in 2017 and promptly forgot all about it. What can I say? My Kindle is overstuffed. -
Overall, not too shabby for a free e-trilogy with a $2.99 audio accompaniment!
It was probably a little too steampunk for my tastes, and for a series titled 'Dragon Blood' there was a distinct lack of dragons.
However it was light and easy listening with even a little humour and action thrown in to keep things entertaining.
I mostly listened to it while doing other things and still found it easy enough to follow what was happening, although the narrator doesn't make it too easy to recognise who is talking with her really terrible imitations.
The characters are fun enough, though - even if the romance gets a little cringe-y at times.
You can read my individual reviews here:
Balanced on the Blade's Edge
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Deathmaker
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show...
Blood Charged
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show... -
Did not finish at 15% (chapter 7 of book 1)
I'm giving this two stars even if I'm dropping it because I can see the promise in this, but it's really not grabbing me like I hoped, especially with knowing there's at least five more books after the three in this set.
As mentioned up there, I've completed six chapters of the first book,
Balanced on the Blade's Edge, and that was about all I really needed to know this book series isn't for me. The world sounds like it could be interesting, but it's really kind of vague with how things work. It's kind of steampunk-esque, and there's airships and guns and all that, but there's wasn't much more for me to really visualize off of. There's magic as well, but it doesn't seem like we're getting many rules on how magic works. It seems to work to whatever is convenient for their main character. I really wish we could have gotten more information on both, but alas.
The plot was alright, but there's not enough focus on it. Instead, we focus on Ridge and Sardelle deciding that, despite knowing each other for a couple of days, they really wanna bone each other. Like, they bring up each other's attractiveness an awful lot, considering one's in charge of a prison while the other is supposedly a prisoner. The steampunk/fantasy/adventure tag should honestly be changed to romance with a little bit of the three sprinkled in.
I have a dislike for the two main characters as well, which really didn't help with their impending romance taking center stage.
Ridge, our male lead, is pretty much Han Solo. He's a dashing military pilot who's legendary and skilled at what he does, but he causes problems a lot and gets a lot of demerits or whatever. Somehow, he gets promoted. There's a lot of heavy handed "Colonel Zirkander is a good dude" things shoved in (he was promoted because he's being """punished""" for punching some politician or diplomat or whatever for wanting to feel up a female member of his squad, despite this causing some incident). It's not even that he did the thing (cause the dude deserved to be punched) but it's like we really want you to know how much better than people Ridge is. He's also the only officer who wants to treat the prisoners like people. Blah blah blah. The only other part of his personality is he has dirty dreams after Sardelle.
Sardelle is our female lead and the magical one. Her magic seems to be made up of things that will conveniently help her out no matter what she's doing (like mind reading and shit like that). She has the kind of generic female lead personality in a typical fantasy, so she's nothing to write home about. She's a magic user who's been trapped in stasis for 300 years and wakes up in the prison Ridge is sent to be in charge of, where she now has to pretend to be a prisoner. Except, she's not really treated as a prisoner, considering she gets to frolic around at her convenience. Also, she thinks Ridge is really hot and wants to protect him and stuff. Because he's hot and she's in denial.
Jaxi is by far the worst character, though. She's a sixteen year old girl stuck in a sword, and all she does is make snarky or perverted comments. I'm sure she's supposed to be endearing and likable, but literally 2-3 chapters in and I was already sick of her talking.
I had to peace out because Sardelle managed to sneak out the top secret important government prison and then they were attacked by a giant owl. That's really all I needed.
Like I said, there's something really good buried deep in there and I'm clearly in the minority because a lot of people seemed to have found what I couldn't. But, this book really isn't my cup of tea. -
🎁 FREE on Amazon today (7/14/2019)! 🎁
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It was okay for light and superficial fantasy entertainment. Not gripping but somewhat enjoyable. Sexy, too.
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Too juvenile for my liking. Everyone basically had the same personality.
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12/8/17 FREE for Kindle.
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Steam punk(lite) meet Barbara Cartland.
I had no idea of the genre that this series fell under when I started it but the 1st hint of fanny flutters at a manly chest gave me a clue.
Despite this the books actually weren't too bad, though I'm totally confused by where the civilisation sits technology wise as it ranges from 16th-19th century as the author desires. Though I'm sure the usual readers of this series are meant to be distracted from any anachronisms by the bulging biceps and heaving bosoms. -
Decent fantasy adventure.
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This was another one of those 'included in your subscription' books I decided to give a spin on Audible. Dragon Blood: Omnibus by Lindsay Buroker contains the first three books in her series, and I'll say straight up that I was hooked from the get go. If gunpowder fantasy and aircraft with a side order of romance is your jam, then these novels will no doubt hit the mark. And I admit freely that I am quite fond of well-written fantasy romance. Actually, scratch that, it's my not-so-guilty pleasure.
Book 1 is Balanced on the Blade's Edge and introduces us to the rather roguish Iskandian Colonel Ridge Zirkander, the devil-may-care pilot who has annoyed his superiors one time too many – he essentially gets his wings clipped when he's put in charge of a prison in an isolated mountain fastness. Which sets him up to cross paths with the sorceress Sardelle Terushan and her somewhat snarky talking soulblade (!!!) after she's spent 300 years in stasis. The only complication is that magic is a wee bit infra dig. Nah, scratch that, if anyone with even a scrap of magical ability crops up, they're as good as dead. But the two need to work together, because an evil empire (of course) wants to lay its grubby mitts on Iskandia.
Book 2 is Death Maker, in which we encounter Lieutenant Caslin Ahn, who's been captured by the Cofah Empire and is facing a wee bit of a tight spot in a prison. But her fortunes change when she runs into the notorious pirate Tolemek "Deathmaker" Targoson, who also has beef with the empire. Not only must this unlikely pair escape prison, but they need to figure out what to do about a rather nefarious plot. More than this, I won't say for fear of spoilers.
Book 3 is Blood Charged, and it brings us full circle back to Ridge and Sardelle, and other familiar faces, as they embark on a quest to find out how the Cofah empire's scientists have laid hands on a secret ingredient that might give them the upper hand in an ever-escalating war.
I don't want to spoil anything so I'll steer clear of particulars when it comes to plot points. Overall, this is a fun, pulpy offering of fantasy that often made me think of the dynamics I encountered in the Indiana Jones and Pirates of the Caribbean movies – these are not books to take too seriously. They're fun, filled with adventure and action, and the romance elements don't overpower the narrative, which in my mind is a perfect blend. I've seen SomeDude™ kvetch in the reviews that 'no adult male would want to read this'. Well, that comment says more about him than it does the stories.
Okay, so maybe I *am* the demographic (adult female), and I thoroughly enjoyed these stories for what they are: good, escapist fun. Also, I'm carrying on because DRAGONS! Yes, I am not ashamed to say that I love stories that have dragons in them. And I have my Suspicions and Many Thoughts about where this series is going, and if the author intended books 1-3 as loss leaders on Audible, she definitely has me invested enough to sink my fangs into the rest of them when they pop up on my TBR list. -
Had a lot of fun reading the first three books in the Dragon Blood series. Since I wrote individual reviews for all of them, I don't think I'm going to copy-paste them here on Goodreads. If anyone's interested in reading my thoughts, then:
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review for Balanced on the Blade's Edge
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review for Deathmakermy link text
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review for Blood Charge -
I was able to complete the first book (Balanced on the Blade's Edge) in this 3-book Omnibus. Just started the second book, Deathmaker, and have lost all interest. I just can't continue. Too bored; doesn't hold my attention. I don't seem to care at all about what is going on. Its a DNF for this listener.
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Honestly, it was somewhat entertaining. It was a light read. But there were some really big problems that suddenly had overly simple solutions that were really hard to believe (can’t say more without spoilers). And the whole thing about the protagonists having paler skin while the morally corrupt people were all darker skinned was lazy, uninspired, and quite irritating.
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A very enjoyable steampunk adventure, join Col. Bridgewater his crazy crew including pimples, apex, raptor, duck among others. Also a three hundred year old wizard and her sword (soul blade), the blade provides a sense of humorous dialogue. Such terms as soul schnitzel are included!
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Ms Buroker does not disappoint with this trilogy. A rollicking adventure mixture of steampunk and magic. Technology and sorcery all mixed together. Ridge ZirKander and his companions rise to the challenge to defend their country. Recommended reading for any fantasy fan.
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The Dragon Book Collection Book
3 books Lindsay Buroker is the author of these books. very interesting and well written. Cover design all good. It is written in a simple language that is to understand when read. These books life events introduced all the good things about love relationships. Colonel Ridge Zirkander isn't the model of military professionalism he has a tendency to say exactly what on his mind and his record has enough. Demerits to wallpaper the best as the best Pilot in the Iskandian army he is used to a little leniency from his superior. Finally Colonel Zirkander figures out who she is truly he will be duty bound to sentence her to the only acceptable punishment for sorcerers death.
Tables of contents
Balanced on the Blades Edge.
Death Maker
Blood Charged.
I liked the main character Sardelle and Ridge. Three full length novels of action, love and magical life story. Lindsay Buroker make sure there that the sense of fun love and humour are not lot lost in the series especially lieutenant Kaika. The third book provide the us with the suspense we require to crave reading further as there is a definite lead up to a climatic plottelwist in the story lines Tolomaks siste. Overall it was good I strongly recommend you. -
A strong fantasy, adventure saga!
The books in this series get stronger with each installment (so far). The action and adventure was at a high with this one. Though books one and two ended like a stand alone would, book three leaves you knowing there is much more in store for the characters.
It was a slow build, but definitely got me hooked into the series by the time I reached the end. I’ll definitely keep the remaining books of the Dragon Blood series on my watchlist for when the other books may go on sale. -
Free on Amazon 3rd April 2019
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Really enjoyed this omnibus. Great value too on audible.
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I wonder if I remember this series in a year. It was okay I guess. Shame it ended right before actual dragons made an appearance (I think).
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All I want is more of this. Can not wait to enjoy more of the series. Also don't want to get to the end.
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Three novels of magic, romance & fantasy! If you’re into pirates, pilots & 500 year old sorcerers preserved within telepathic sassy swords, this book series is for you!
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Romping Steampunk/Fantasy adventure. Fast moving action, wry humour, pure escapism, ideal for light reading. Can easily imagine a very good role playing game emerging from the setting and the characters. Not for readers looking for complex characterisation and insights into the condition of man.
