The Dragon Seller by F.G. Ferarrio

I received this book in exchange for an honest review.

I think this would appeal most to people who like dragons, want a fast paced easy to read story. It would work great as a palate cleanser between epic fantasies, or grimdark.

Plot:

The main character, Jack, is a dragon egg trader, it can be quite a lucrative business but it comes with a high price – most of your life will be spent raising and taking care of dragons, leaving little time for anything else.

Jack’s fiance leaves him after he can’t find time to spend with her, and finds himself depressed and in need of some good news. He gets a call about an unusual job offer to meet a man on a train, and exchange money for a package. He doesn’t know what else is going on, and because he’s in a desperate way, he agrees to do it.

Things go very wrong, there were murders and mayhem aboard the train and he barely gets out of the job with his life. He tries to contact the person who gave him the job, but he’s disappeared and can’t be contacted by anyone. After waiting for weeks for his contact to get in touch with him, he decides to open up the package he was charged with delivering. It turns out to be a dragon egg unlike one he’s ever seen, completely different markings and coloring. He incubates it and hatches it, to find out that it’s the first of it’s kind ever hatched. The dragon is growing much quicker than normal and is going to be much, much larger than normal as well. He starts to panic because he doesn’t know where he’s going to house this new dragon without being caught by someone.

The people who were responsible for the assassinations come back looking for the new dragon, Whiskey. They manage to steal Whiskey away from Jack and are using him in a fighting ring, and Jack needs to get him back.

Final Score: 12/15

Characters:

Jack is in his 30’s and he’s a likable person. He really cares and studies his dragons more than most people do. Many of the dragon sellers around him don’t even raise their dragons from hatchlings, they just buy and flip for profit sometimes leaving their dragons in tight boxes that Jack thinks should be illegal. Jack has an expansive and very lively garden where he breeds and raises his dragons, taking the utmost care of their well being and makes sure that they have a healthy development.

The more I got to know Jack, the more I liked him. He’s a down to earth guy who’s really just doing his best to do right by his dragons, and keep his life in order.

Final Score: 12.5/15

World Building:

There are different classes or species of dragons, Ming Tang, Australian Outback, American Mustangs etc. They each have their own distinctive personality traits and preferences.

Mustangs are illegal unless you have a permit from the government, they’re failed military experiments trying to get a dragon to be a weapon.

Jades are calm and called the “gardener dragons” because they prune trees and keep insects and other pests away.

They all have their own specific tree types they like to roost in as well. Mustangs prefer cherry trees while Outbacks like oranges and Jades will only nest in peach trees.

A “Primus” is the first dragon of a new species and they can get exceedingly expensive, millions of dollars can be spent to be the first person to own a new species.

I really enjoyed getting to know all the different dragon species, and if you’re into dragons I think this would be a great book for you.

Final Score: 12/15

Writing and Tone:

The tone is overall lighter, the main character has a sense of levity and sarcasm, this isn’t a dark book by any means. It’s written in the first person and the character is speaking to you telling a story. There just a few punctuation errors where a quotation mark was missing, but it wasn’t anything that detracted from my enjoyment.

Final Score: 10.5/15

Pacing:

Since this starts out in the USA getting to know the world building was a much quicker affair than in many of the high fantasies I’ve been reading lately. I was pretty easily able to get into the story right from the start. The character was interesting, and the mish-mash of sci-fi and fantasy got me interested in it early.

Since there’s not a lot of simile or metaphor, the pace was very quick, this is kind of like a book that reads itself.

Final Score: 13/15

Originality:

I like dragons in urban fantasy, and although I see a ton of fantasy races present in urban fantasy, I don’t come across many dragons. When I do get dragons in UF, it tends to be of the magical variety, not the scientifically engineered sort, I really enjoyed that.

Final Score: 11/15