≫ Libro Gratis The Adamantine Palace MEMORY OF FLAMES Stephen Deas 9780451463135 Books

The Adamantine Palace MEMORY OF FLAMES Stephen Deas 9780451463135 Books

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The Adamantine Palace MEMORY OF FLAMES Stephen Deas 9780451463135 Books

I was always baffled by the criticism of the late TV series "Stargate Universe", with one of the major themes of its detractors being "There's no one to like on the show!" I myself had few problems with most of the lead characters, so I found this constant refrain baffling. Sadly, I now understand it far better after having read this novel.

The world of the Nine Realms features...well, nine realms. About which we learn approximately negative-zero about any of them. Where are they? What separates one from another? What is their history? How did their social and economic and political structures evolve and how are they sustained? I don't expect an in-depth treatise on the price of pork bellies in the Kingdom of the Crags, but I *do* want a little more than a few place and character names to be splashed out there with no further explanation.

So the rulers of the Nine Realms subordinate themselves to an elected Speaker who is drawn from their number and who serves for a fixed period of time before appointing a successor, subject to the approval of the current sovereigns. We have no idea WHY this ruling structure exists, or how it is enforced, or what the powers and duties of the Speaker might be, or how he or she exercises the authoritiy of the office. But everyone wants to be the next Speaker for some reason.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of dragons, which have the approximate intelligence of a dog and which can be trained to carry a rider, or to pick off large ground mammals, or to strafe troops. Back in the Bad Old Days, dragons were the enemies of humanity and a single one of them could easily annihilate hundreds of warriors in a single battle, but thanks to the science of the Order of Alchemists, a way was found to drug these giant reptiles into a lobotomized stupor. Now each kingdom supports dozens or hundreds of their erstwhile foes in specialized eyries, because...why? They're a huge economic drain, and they seldom seem to get deployed as a military resource, yet the social order of the aristocracy seems to be designed around keeping large numbers of these pseudo-tamed homicidal killing machines.

In any event, the plot is--it's time for a new Speaker. So everyone is plotting to advance their cause. We have four antagonists jockeying for position, supported by faceless drones and functionaries and allied to several other rulers who might as well be named King One and King Two. Most characters are sketchily drawn at best, and upon the remote occasions when some effort at providing depth is made, it is to the reader's regret, as each main figure is more loathsome and contemptible than the last. There is absolutely nothing sympathetic about any of the major leaders, who have nothing better to do than to plot and scheme for stakes that are poorly explained, against consequences that aren't delineated at all. They are monsters of ego and avarice who give virtually no indication that anyone exists outside their direct line of sight. There *are* some non-royal characters, but 95% of them are glorified redshirts who die about 80 seconds after we learn two personal facts about them. Okay, the first time a possible primary POV character gets eradicated it's kind of interesting. But when it happens repeatedly, and the ones getting picked off are those with whom we might possibly identify to some small degree, it becomes actively perverse.

This is the first part of a series, and I will never know how it turns out.


Tags : The Adamantine Palace (MEMORY OF FLAMES) [Stephen Deas] on Amazon.com. *FREE* shipping on qualifying offers. <B> A remarkable debut (<I>Locus</I>) from the new Dragon Lord in town (Gareth Wilson, Falcata Times). </B><BR><BR> The power of the Realms depends on its dragons. With their terrifying natures,Stephen Deas,The Adamantine Palace (MEMORY OF FLAMES),Roc Hardcover,0451463137,Dragons;Fiction.,Fantasy fiction.,Dragons,Fantasy,Fantasy - Epic,Fantasy fiction,Fiction,Fiction - Fantasy,Fiction Fantasy Epic,Fiction-Fantasy,GENERAL,General Adult,Monograph Series, 1st,SCIENCE FICTION AND FANTASY,United States

The Adamantine Palace MEMORY OF FLAMES Stephen Deas 9780451463135 Books Reviews

Very interesting book it is definitely a new take on dragons and the different perspective made it a fun read for me. Will definitely purchase the second book.
This book starts off a very promising and highly readable new Fantasy series! I was intrigued from the first page. Wonderful characters and a very interesting take on Dragons. Well worth the read and I'm looking forward to the books to come.
This book does not drag on like many fantasy books, it gets right to the nitty gritty, but the issue with that is that it gives VERY LITTLE BACKSTORY OR HISTORY necessary to carry deep emotions for the charachters.

The ending is very predictable. The book is about a place called, "The Realms." there are 9 kingdoms who are all under the administration of the Speaker of the Realms.

The Speaker is an old dude who is sickly and it is his time to hand it over to one of the queens, The Queen of the North (no this North is desert and stone, not ice and snow) but that goes arry due to two super villains who have no redeeming qualities or depth of character in this book (Jehal steals the show in book 3, he is awesome in that book) who conspire for good ol' fashioned POWER.

If I could tell what they look like or the swell swords Kemir and Sollos look like it beats me. The author never describes their physical appearance in the book.

Then there is a gift, Jehal is marrying the Queen in the North's daughter (one of them) and the Queen is supposed to give him the only white dragon in the realm named, "Snow."

Well that goes arry for a reason we don't know and from that point on you just guess a lot at the book. Initial books are supposed to spark some mysteries but not have a soap opera feel to them as this one does.

The worst book in the series, read through it for the information needed in books 2 and 3 which are far better than this piece of junk.
Battelogue. Competently written. I have absolutely no desire to read further than the first trilogy once it was obvious it was going to more of same.
I ordered this book based on a recommendation from . I have done this in the past and been very pleasantly surprised. That was not the case this time. While the book had moments of well written flair and unusual fantasy insight,overall it was not my cup of tea. I read a lot of fantasy and this book just doesn't make the cut. The characters are not well developed and I'm sure the story was left hanging for a second in a series. The dragons were a delight and I enjoy the development of their story but the humans weren't as interesting. I didn't find the land, the various histories or timelines developed enough to care what happened and the story dragged on and on. I wouldn't recommend this book.
I have read nearly four hundred fantasy genre books. The best authors by far (in my opinion of course) are J.R.R. Tolkien (The Hobbit, The Lord of the Rings), George R.R. Martin (A Song of Ice and Fire, Dunk & Egg), Terry Brooks (The Sword of Shannara and the rest of the Shannara series), Michael Moorcock ( Elric of Melnibone novels), Weiss & Hickman (The Dragonlance Chronicles and Legends) Ursula K. LeGuin (Earthsea trilogy), Robert E. Howard (Conan),Gary Gygax (Gord the Rogue), R.A. Salvatore (Drizzt novels, The Cleric Quintet), Raymond E. Feist (The Riftwar Cycle) and Fritz Leiber (Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser novels).
I can now add another name to the list of stellar authors in the fantasy genre. Stephen Deas. He is an author to watch. His writing is crisp, the characters dialogue is terrific and the story is unique and often surprising. His world is richly imagined and filled with believable characters and events. I'm on the third book in this series now and I can't put it down. The fourth book is already winging its way across an ocean and I look forward to this authors work for years to come. Do yourself a favor and buy all four hardcover novels in the series; A Memory of Flames. You won't regret it.
I was always baffled by the criticism of the late TV series "Stargate Universe", with one of the major themes of its detractors being "There's no one to like on the show!" I myself had few problems with most of the lead characters, so I found this constant refrain baffling. Sadly, I now understand it far better after having read this novel.

The world of the Nine Realms features...well, nine realms. About which we learn approximately negative-zero about any of them. Where are they? What separates one from another? What is their history? How did their social and economic and political structures evolve and how are they sustained? I don't expect an in-depth treatise on the price of pork bellies in the Kingdom of the Crags, but I *do* want a little more than a few place and character names to be splashed out there with no further explanation.

So the rulers of the Nine Realms subordinate themselves to an elected Speaker who is drawn from their number and who serves for a fixed period of time before appointing a successor, subject to the approval of the current sovereigns. We have no idea WHY this ruling structure exists, or how it is enforced, or what the powers and duties of the Speaker might be, or how he or she exercises the authoritiy of the office. But everyone wants to be the next Speaker for some reason.

Meanwhile, there are a lot of dragons, which have the approximate intelligence of a dog and which can be trained to carry a rider, or to pick off large ground mammals, or to strafe troops. Back in the Bad Old Days, dragons were the enemies of humanity and a single one of them could easily annihilate hundreds of warriors in a single battle, but thanks to the science of the Order of Alchemists, a way was found to drug these giant reptiles into a lobotomized stupor. Now each kingdom supports dozens or hundreds of their erstwhile foes in specialized eyries, because...why? They're a huge economic drain, and they seldom seem to get deployed as a military resource, yet the social order of the aristocracy seems to be designed around keeping large numbers of these pseudo-tamed homicidal killing machines.

In any event, the plot is--it's time for a new Speaker. So everyone is plotting to advance their cause. We have four antagonists jockeying for position, supported by faceless drones and functionaries and allied to several other rulers who might as well be named King One and King Two. Most characters are sketchily drawn at best, and upon the remote occasions when some effort at providing depth is made, it is to the reader's regret, as each main figure is more loathsome and contemptible than the last. There is absolutely nothing sympathetic about any of the major leaders, who have nothing better to do than to plot and scheme for stakes that are poorly explained, against consequences that aren't delineated at all. They are monsters of ego and avarice who give virtually no indication that anyone exists outside their direct line of sight. There *are* some non-royal characters, but 95% of them are glorified redshirts who die about 80 seconds after we learn two personal facts about them. Okay, the first time a possible primary POV character gets eradicated it's kind of interesting. But when it happens repeatedly, and the ones getting picked off are those with whom we might possibly identify to some small degree, it becomes actively perverse.

This is the first part of a series, and I will never know how it turns out.