Reseña: Nice Dragons Finish Last (Heartstrikers, #1)

Nice Dragons Finish Last (Heartstrikers, #1)

by 

Rachel Aaron

283 pages

Published July 11th 2014 by CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform

ISBN:1500506338 (ISBN13: 9781500506339)

Edition Language:English

Series:Heartstrikers #1

Literary Awards:Audie Award for Fantasy (2016)

My rating: 4.5

My bookshelves; magical-practitioners, fantasia-urbana, alternate-reality, shifters_dragons,  magia, mage, not-sure-but-not-human, hic-sunt-dracones, dystopia, psychic-clairvoyant-seer-prophet

For some, there is no more harsh judge than family. Imagine a family of power hungry and ruthless dragons where you are the fail, the shame, the runt and worst ... NICE. Julius Heartstriker is one of the youngest of Bethesda, he is pacifist and accepted that as the runt he better keep out of the way of big predators hiding in his room, being a slacker, playing games and studying online. Well, mommy dearest take the 'swim or die' approach and kick him out of home with no clothes or money, and sealed from his true form to the worst place for a dragon: Detroit Free Zone, governed by Algonquin the spirit of the Lakes (whom hates dragons).

---

“What am I supposed to do?”
“You’re a dragon,” she said flippantly. “Be draconic. Take something over, destroy one of our enemies, win a duel, capture an advantage for our clan. I don’t really care what you do, but you will do something to make me proud to call you my son before the end of the month, or I will do to you what I did to my other under-performing whelps.”

----

This is a sort of dystopia, an asteroid falls in 2035 releasing magic and waking old spirits in the world.

Insert a mage girl scaping from bad guys. A city with magical mutant beasts. Dragon schemes and politics. Did I mention that dragons are forbidden in DFZ? And a dead line. As in better fulfill the quest mission or ... be eaten die.

This is lighfooted fantasy, entertaining, but watch for the girls -- they are ice-cold killers.

And Julius maybe will not react as her mother or older siblings think

“So far as I can tell, ‘good dragon’ is just another name for coldblooded sociopath,” he said. “No friends, no trust, no love. Why would I ever want to live like that? It’s not like any of you good dragons are happy.”

But some sibling at least try to help him , in their own special way. Like a probably insane seer

[Bob] “Don’t get your feathers in a fluff,” he chided. “I’m here to help! I can’t let you have all the fun, can I?”
Julius gaped at him. “What’s fun about almost dying?”
“But that’s the best sort of fun,” Bob replied. “The kind you can look back on centuries later and laugh about. Of course, since I’m always centuries ahead, I can laugh about it right now.”

and a Rambo version of twin: “You might be a sheep in wolf’s clothing, but never forget that, to the humans, you’re just another monster with a bounty on its head. We’re all monsters to them, and they will punish us for it every chance they get if we don’t give them a reason to run away. In this whole world, your clan is the only thing you can trust, so if I were you, I’d worry less about pleasing a bunch of short-lived mortals who will never accept you, and more about pleasing us.”--Justin

But Marci Novalli, the human mage take the credit for being totally ruthless. Oo'

I'd like to read the next one.