Blurb:

The New York Times bestselling Raven’s Shadow Trilogy was a perfect read for “fans of broadscale epic fantasy along the lines of Robert Jordan’s Wheel of Time series and George R. R. Martin’s Song of Ice and Fire novels.”* Now, Anthony Ryan begins a new saga, The Draconis Memoria...

Throughout the vast lands controlled by the Ironship Trading Syndicate, nothing is more prized than the blood of drakes. Harvested from captive or hunted Reds, Greens, Blues and Blacks, it can be distilled into elixirs that bestow fearsome powers on the rare men and women known as the Blood-blessed.
 
But not many know the truth: that the lines of drakes are weakening. If they fail, war with the neighboring Corvantine Empire will follow swiftly. The Syndicate’s last hope resides in whispers of the existence of another breed of drake, far more powerful than the rest, and the few who have been chosen by fate to seek it.
 
Claydon Torcreek is a petty thief and an unregistered Blood-blessed who finds himself pressed into service by the Protectorate and sent to wild, uncharted lands in search of a creature he believes is little more than legend. Lizanne Lethridge is a formidable spy and assassin facing gravest danger on an espionage mission deep into the heart of enemy territory. And Corrick Hilemore is the second lieutenant of an Ironship cruiser whose pursuit of ruthless brigands leads him to a far greater threat at the edge of the world.
 
As lives and empires clash and intertwine, as the unknown and the known collide, all three must fight to turn the tide of a coming war, or drown in its wake.

Review:

I put off reading Waking Fire for far too long. Because it has dragons, and I am all dragoned out. I have been all dragoned out for years.

However, I was assured by a fellow reader at SFFI that it wasn’t like other dragon books. There wouldn’t be a young fellow hatching an egg and learning to ride a dragon or going to dragon riding or school or what have you.

So I went in, keeping my expectations low. And this has turned out to be my favorite Anthony Ryan book to date. For starters, the sort of steampunk, commerce-driven society is not at all what I expected. Usually when I think dragons, I think medieval. 

Dragon blood as an economic commodity and the primary conduit of all “magic” is the central premise of this book. So no riding dragons, just gathering them like cattle, draining them, and selling vials of blood that leads to an assortment of temporary enhancements.

I might be the odd duck out here, but I really loved the economic factor being such a key point with the Protectorate, its employees, its goals and how it fit into the world with technology and magic. Engineers, mechanical sorts, and their contributions being woven into the plot in addition to the bloodborne (people able to use the dragon blood) made everything just a bit more interesting. 

Speaking of the syndicate and its employees, my favorite character was obviously Lizanne, a sort of spy. Her moral journey from the start to the end of the book was intriguing and she had a lot of fun little twists. Overall, I just vibed with her personality. 

The other characters were all good fun as well. I think it would be fair to say that this book is a cross between Moby Dick and Indiana Jones. There is a lot of adventuring in the dragon-infested jungle, some city battling, some sailing about, and a lot of hunting for a big white dragon. 

The world is quite vast and there are a lot more facets to this story than perhaps in the Covenant of Steel. There are the Spoiled (some humanoid peopley things), the 5 species of dragon, the blood-blessed, the Ironship Trading Syndicate, The Corvantines, The Ironship Protectorate, the academic/steampunk aspect, the dragon hunters, and more. There are a lot of moving parts in this book and they’re all handled efficiently and gracefully. Instead of feeling like a mess as books with too many ingredients often do, it was just a grander adventure.

Subgenres: Dark Fantasy, Steampunk

Romance: A Dash of Romance

Spice: No

Premise: Dragon blood as a source of magic and trade

Highlight: Lizanne

Vibes: Adventurous but dark? A little zestier than Ryan’s other books

PoV: 3rd Limited, multi-PoV

Tense: Past

Time Period: Alternate world kind of industrial? Combat is still swords and spears, but there are canons and lots of gadgets and engines