The good thing about fantasy is that the imagination can be
limitless. I believe I had watched some old Asian movie about dragon
shapeshifters, but I certainly had never read a book about it.
The book follows the journey of Asher (a firefighter; this
is not as close as Bookman as a librarian in Seinfeld, and definitely not
better than a real-life firefighter, Lieutenant Les McBurney, but good enough)
facing the challenge of a serial arsonist who seems to have something against
him. He moves to a new place to escape from a traumatic event and meets a girl,
a dragon shapeshifter, on the run of her own problems.
There are a lot of creativities in this book, but there are
many times when I was distracted by 'witty comments' uttered by the characters.
Some of them feel inappropriate to the situations and take me out of the
moments, especially serious and sad scenes. They also blur the characters'
distinctiveness. I have met many different people in my life, and trust me, not
many are quote machines; some even laughed at my jokes on Monday after I told
them the previous Wednesday. They are creative and funny but can become too
excessive and tiresome for the above reasons.
I like the twists that make the book not very predictable
and the greyness of the characters with their backstories. The ending is a bit
draggy, but overall, this is a good read for those who enjoy fantasy. It's not
my genre. I like GRRM books, but I categorize them more as realistic 'fantasy'
(I know, it has dragons and zombies, but they lean heavily on stories,
characters, social politics and the parallels to reality) than mythical ones.
Over time, I have come to appreciate the fantasy genre and the amazing world of
imagination that comes with it.
4.5 rounded up.
