I wish I liked this series more.

I feel like the time for me to realize this series wasn’t for me was back after book one or two, but I can’t quit now because I only have ONE book left and that would sit in the back of my brain gnawing with tiny teeth for the rest of my life, so I must finish this series even though I already know it’s not for me. So. Take my review with a grain of mountain-sized salt.

I still can’t figure out why this series doesn’t resonate with me. I should probably just call it a day, and sum it up by saying that some books just don’t mesh with some readers. But the truth is that something prevented me from becoming emotionally attached to these characters from the get-go, and now that we’re four books in, the time is long past where the book should have to win me over to liking them. At this point, I should be in it with them, waiting eagerly to hear how things turn out for them, how they end up. But I just don’t care. Listening to this series has become an exercise in emotional detachment.

Except for the bits with the dragon* in. I genuinely loved all those bits, and my emotional engagement in the scenes where Inys was present made me wish rather earnestly that I liked the rest of the story as much.

*But seriously, the thing with the dragons here is so cool. In this world, dragons were the first sentient beings, and they created humanity, which here is made not just of regular old humans (which they call First Bloods), but twelve other tribes of “humanity” that include everything from mer-creatures (the Drowned) to humans with horns (the Yemu), and pale wraith-like slender things (Cinnae). But the dragons died out ages ago in a mysterious war. Last book, one of the main characters woke Inys, the last dragon, and his whole thing this book is stomping around and being angry. It was very entertaining.

Not sure when I’ll get to the last book. Ideally, I’d like to finish this series by the end of the year, just to finally have it be done. And I probably won’t read any more standalone Daniel Abraham fantasy, though I continue to be obsessed with his work as one half of the pseudonym James S.A. Corey.