Chasing Embers by James Bennett
The Blurb On The Back:
There’s nothing special about Ben Garston.
Or so he’d have you believe. He won’t tell you, for instance, that he’s also known as RED BEN. Or that the world of myth and legend is more real than you think.
Because it’s his job to keep all that a secret.
But now a centuries-old rivalry has resurfaced, and the delicate balance between his world and ours is about to be shattered.
Something is hiding in the heart of the city - and it’s about to be unleashed.
Ben Garston is a man of secrets. He has to be. As a signatory to the Pact of 1215, he’s pledged to keep the world of magic hidden from the world of men and in return for the rest of his fellow dragons going to the Long Sleep he is protected as a Remnant by the Guild of the Broken Lance from being hunted by any human or other magical creature. But not every Remnant agrees with the pact and when Ben is attacked by the descendent of a family with a centuries old grudge against him, he discovers that there are those who have never accepted the Pact and now see an opportunity to bring it all down …
James Bennett’s urban fantasy novel (the first in a new series) draws heavily on English folklore and African myth to build a rich fantasy world but it can’t make up for leaden writing, a main character who bumbles from trap to trap without any sense of agency and an underwritten love interest reduced to complaining and being used as bait. My big problem with this book is Ben Garston - a character who’s a dragon should be fascinating but instead Ben’s a melancholic drunk who mopes after his ex-girlfriend Rose McBriar (a student so woefully underwritten that she’s reduced to complaining that he doesn’t tell her the truth and getting captured by the antagonists for their own nefarious purposes). I enjoyed the scenes where Ben is in dragon form because Bennett has clearly put a lot of thought into the biology and mechanics of it all, but the dragon fight scenes (as indeed were the human fight scenes) are slow, leaden affairs and Ben isn’t much of an investigator - essentially lurching from one trap to another with no wit or agency to start putting facts together until they’re practically slapping him in the face. Ben’s sometime ally, the Fay ambassador Blaise Von Hart is part Cabaret MC, part Herr Lipp and the three witches Babe Cathy, Miss Macha ad Nan Nemain have potential as twisted versions of the virgin, whore and crone stereotypes but aren’t given the page time to evolve. The scenes building on African myth and Egyptian legend are interesting but again, stifled by two-dimensional characters. Ultimately there isn’t enough here for me to want to continue with this series, although I would check out Bennett’s other work.
The Verdict:
James Bennett’s urban fantasy novel (the first in a new series) draws heavily on English folklore and African myth to build a rich fantasy world but it can’t make up for leaden writing, a main character who bumbles from trap to trap without any sense of agency and an underwritten love interest reduced to complaining and being used as bait. My big problem with this book is Ben Garston - a character who’s a dragon should be fascinating but instead Ben’s a melancholic drunk who mopes after his ex-girlfriend Rose McBriar (a student so woefully underwritten that she’s reduced to complaining that he doesn’t tell her the truth and getting captured by the antagonists for their own nefarious purposes). I enjoyed the scenes where Ben is in dragon form because Bennett has clearly put a lot of thought into the biology and mechanics of it all, but the dragon fight scenes (as indeed were the human fight scenes) are slow, leaden affairs and Ben isn’t much of an investigator - essentially lurching from one trap to another with no wit or agency to start putting facts together until they’re practically slapping him in the face. Ben’s sometime ally, the Fay ambassador Blaise Von Hart is part Cabaret MC, part Herr Lipp and the three witches Babe Cathy, Miss Macha ad Nan Nemain have potential as twisted versions of the virgin, whore and crone stereotypes but aren’t given the page time to evolve. The scenes building on African myth and Egyptian legend are interesting but again, stifled by two-dimensional characters. Ultimately there isn’t enough here for me to want to continue with this series, although I would check out Bennett’s other work.
There’s nothing special about Ben Garston.
Or so he’d have you believe. He won’t tell you, for instance, that he’s also known as RED BEN. Or that the world of myth and legend is more real than you think.
Because it’s his job to keep all that a secret.
But now a centuries-old rivalry has resurfaced, and the delicate balance between his world and ours is about to be shattered.
Something is hiding in the heart of the city - and it’s about to be unleashed.
Ben Garston is a man of secrets. He has to be. As a signatory to the Pact of 1215, he’s pledged to keep the world of magic hidden from the world of men and in return for the rest of his fellow dragons going to the Long Sleep he is protected as a Remnant by the Guild of the Broken Lance from being hunted by any human or other magical creature. But not every Remnant agrees with the pact and when Ben is attacked by the descendent of a family with a centuries old grudge against him, he discovers that there are those who have never accepted the Pact and now see an opportunity to bring it all down …
James Bennett’s urban fantasy novel (the first in a new series) draws heavily on English folklore and African myth to build a rich fantasy world but it can’t make up for leaden writing, a main character who bumbles from trap to trap without any sense of agency and an underwritten love interest reduced to complaining and being used as bait. My big problem with this book is Ben Garston - a character who’s a dragon should be fascinating but instead Ben’s a melancholic drunk who mopes after his ex-girlfriend Rose McBriar (a student so woefully underwritten that she’s reduced to complaining that he doesn’t tell her the truth and getting captured by the antagonists for their own nefarious purposes). I enjoyed the scenes where Ben is in dragon form because Bennett has clearly put a lot of thought into the biology and mechanics of it all, but the dragon fight scenes (as indeed were the human fight scenes) are slow, leaden affairs and Ben isn’t much of an investigator - essentially lurching from one trap to another with no wit or agency to start putting facts together until they’re practically slapping him in the face. Ben’s sometime ally, the Fay ambassador Blaise Von Hart is part Cabaret MC, part Herr Lipp and the three witches Babe Cathy, Miss Macha ad Nan Nemain have potential as twisted versions of the virgin, whore and crone stereotypes but aren’t given the page time to evolve. The scenes building on African myth and Egyptian legend are interesting but again, stifled by two-dimensional characters. Ultimately there isn’t enough here for me to want to continue with this series, although I would check out Bennett’s other work.
The Verdict:
James Bennett’s urban fantasy novel (the first in a new series) draws heavily on English folklore and African myth to build a rich fantasy world but it can’t make up for leaden writing, a main character who bumbles from trap to trap without any sense of agency and an underwritten love interest reduced to complaining and being used as bait. My big problem with this book is Ben Garston - a character who’s a dragon should be fascinating but instead Ben’s a melancholic drunk who mopes after his ex-girlfriend Rose McBriar (a student so woefully underwritten that she’s reduced to complaining that he doesn’t tell her the truth and getting captured by the antagonists for their own nefarious purposes). I enjoyed the scenes where Ben is in dragon form because Bennett has clearly put a lot of thought into the biology and mechanics of it all, but the dragon fight scenes (as indeed were the human fight scenes) are slow, leaden affairs and Ben isn’t much of an investigator - essentially lurching from one trap to another with no wit or agency to start putting facts together until they’re practically slapping him in the face. Ben’s sometime ally, the Fay ambassador Blaise Von Hart is part Cabaret MC, part Herr Lipp and the three witches Babe Cathy, Miss Macha ad Nan Nemain have potential as twisted versions of the virgin, whore and crone stereotypes but aren’t given the page time to evolve. The scenes building on African myth and Egyptian legend are interesting but again, stifled by two-dimensional characters. Ultimately there isn’t enough here for me to want to continue with this series, although I would check out Bennett’s other work.