Review by baudrillard_436 -- Inferno Dawn by Jacob Emrey
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Review by baudrillard_436 -- Inferno Dawn by Jacob Emrey
[Following is a volunteer review of "Inferno Dawn" by Jacob Emrey.]
Inferno Dawn by Jacob Emrey is a fantasy novel set in a world of humans, orcs, and elves, and following the story of a rogue prince, an elf with ancient magical powers, and a strong orc as they fight back against a tyrannical human empire that has all but exterminated the other races currently at its mercy.
The book starts out in a way that many fantasy novels do, in a tavern located in a shady part of a small town, with attractive elves and boisterous knights. The first character introduced to the reader here is Dryden, later revealed to be one of the princes of the human empire that has decided to shirk his responsibilities. When one of the knights gets too touchy with an elven barmaid and she fights back, the story really gets rolling, with dramatic reveals and fights at every turn. While the action is satisfying to read and the pacing handled well enough to keep the reader interested, the workings of the story’s world are revealed in a very straightforward and unoriginal manner, in that there are homogenous fantasy races, they all hate each other, and the humans rule the world. Besides being copied by a million other authors, this premise isn’t as compelling as it could be if it was shown through characters directly observing the world and more attention being given to how humans maintain dominance.
The story that follows largely revolves around political machinations within the Human Empire, told from the perspective of Dryden, an elf named Astanava, and an orc named Fane as they try to stop the nefarious plans of the Human empire through various means. There is plenty of action that is written rather well, the author probably drawing upon their military background. Although the world isn’t the most intricate, the technological situation is interesting, being a crossover of medieval fantasy with the technology of modern warfare, such as guns and airplanes, mostly possessed by the human empire. It at the very least explains how the humans were able to dominate all the other races so easily, but at the same time seems like sort of a cop-out. For example, why wouldn’t the other races steal the secrets to these technologies and try to create similar weapons? Thematically, issues such as drug addiction and discrimination are dealt with in fairly neutral ways, with it being made obvious that discrimination is bad and that it is right to stand against oppression. While it is not by any means necessary for authors to be blatantly obvious in what they are trying to say, it would have made the story more compelling if the themes would have carried more direct political or social relevance.
Overall, while decently executed, this novel is pretty generic. A fun read but not really much to think about beyond that. The editing was excellent, as I did not notice a single typo or clear grammatical error throughout my reading. The book’s big flaw is that the author gets so absorbed in exposition and action sequences that the world doesn’t feel as fleshed out as it could be. For readers of military fantasy, it is a safe bet.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. It is well executed but by no means original or extremely thought provoking.
******
Inferno Dawn
View: on Bookshelves
Inferno Dawn by Jacob Emrey is a fantasy novel set in a world of humans, orcs, and elves, and following the story of a rogue prince, an elf with ancient magical powers, and a strong orc as they fight back against a tyrannical human empire that has all but exterminated the other races currently at its mercy.
The book starts out in a way that many fantasy novels do, in a tavern located in a shady part of a small town, with attractive elves and boisterous knights. The first character introduced to the reader here is Dryden, later revealed to be one of the princes of the human empire that has decided to shirk his responsibilities. When one of the knights gets too touchy with an elven barmaid and she fights back, the story really gets rolling, with dramatic reveals and fights at every turn. While the action is satisfying to read and the pacing handled well enough to keep the reader interested, the workings of the story’s world are revealed in a very straightforward and unoriginal manner, in that there are homogenous fantasy races, they all hate each other, and the humans rule the world. Besides being copied by a million other authors, this premise isn’t as compelling as it could be if it was shown through characters directly observing the world and more attention being given to how humans maintain dominance.
The story that follows largely revolves around political machinations within the Human Empire, told from the perspective of Dryden, an elf named Astanava, and an orc named Fane as they try to stop the nefarious plans of the Human empire through various means. There is plenty of action that is written rather well, the author probably drawing upon their military background. Although the world isn’t the most intricate, the technological situation is interesting, being a crossover of medieval fantasy with the technology of modern warfare, such as guns and airplanes, mostly possessed by the human empire. It at the very least explains how the humans were able to dominate all the other races so easily, but at the same time seems like sort of a cop-out. For example, why wouldn’t the other races steal the secrets to these technologies and try to create similar weapons? Thematically, issues such as drug addiction and discrimination are dealt with in fairly neutral ways, with it being made obvious that discrimination is bad and that it is right to stand against oppression. While it is not by any means necessary for authors to be blatantly obvious in what they are trying to say, it would have made the story more compelling if the themes would have carried more direct political or social relevance.
Overall, while decently executed, this novel is pretty generic. A fun read but not really much to think about beyond that. The editing was excellent, as I did not notice a single typo or clear grammatical error throughout my reading. The book’s big flaw is that the author gets so absorbed in exposition and action sequences that the world doesn’t feel as fleshed out as it could be. For readers of military fantasy, it is a safe bet.
I rate this book 2 out of 4 stars. It is well executed but by no means original or extremely thought provoking.
******
Inferno Dawn
View: on Bookshelves
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