Maxey, James: Bitterwood
Bitterwood
Writer: James Maxey
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 482
So for all my talk about being TIRED of dragons, I have a few books on my shelf that features them. This one by James Maxey I would've never given a second glance at if not for the fact that James Maxey is an Odyssey Alum, so give it a second glance I did. I even bought it, but it's taken me a while to feel like reading it, because you know, it's got dragons. And I'm SO TIRED OF DRAGONS.
But from what I've read and heard about, this isn't your usual dragon book. In Bitterwood, dragons are the ruling class on Earth, and humans are essentially, well, the oppressed. Better still, the main hero and the main villain both have the exact same motivation for wanting to wipe the other race out: their counterparts killed their children. Wait, that doesn't sound right: Bitterwood killed King Albekizan's son, and King Albekizan's responsible for the death of Bitterwood's children. There. That's better.
Which makes for a rather interesting conflict, when you think about it. Neither side is right, but neither side's wrong either, which makes for interesting reading.
Spoilers ahead.
So for a book about dragons, I rather enjoyed myself. For starters, even though Maxey does a good job describing his dragons and I have no trouble visualizing them, once I'm in a dragon POV, I don't really picture them as dragons, if that makes sense. Like, I know they're dragons and can picture them as such sometimes, but the voices are so human that it's easy to forget that the POV character who's walking through the palace is actually a giant dragon.
But for me, that worked. And while it might bother some readers that the dragons sound a little TOO human, that there's no distinct culture for dragons (we don't get a LOT of their mythology and creation story, but we do get some), but it works in context of the book, because as the reader learns, it was humans who created dragons.
Maxey is really careful with this, and it's a good thing, because by the end of the book, my suspension of disbelief is really tested. We learn through gradual setting details that what appeared to be a fantasy world is actually our future, where humans have regressed and their creation, the dragons, have evolved into superior beings. And that's the dragon-scholars' biggest secret, that the very people they oppress are the people who created them.
The book is kind of Terry Brooks meets Anne McCaffrey meets Michael Crichton's Jurassic Park meets, oddly enough in my mind, Robin Hood. In a good way, but in such a way that walks a thin line, so it wouldn't take much for a reader to really love what Maxey's doing or really hate it.
What won me over is the relatively strong voice from the start, as well as the setting, which is revealed to be the entire East Coast of the United States, WHICH IS AWESOME. Once I realized that, I was tickled pink and pretty much ready to accept whatever Maxey tossed my way.
Though, I had my moments: the very beginning, the Night of Sowing, I was really confused how a woman could be allowed to pick ANY MAN SHE WANTED that night, but Recanna was afraid of getting in trouble for being with Bant. Is this night meant for multiple partners? If that's the case, I understand the fear, but it doesn't explain why Jomath was so hell-bent of having her first, or why she was so afraid of choosing Bant first. It doesn't quite gel, but that's okay since that's not the point of the chapter, let alone the book. The chapter's point, the introduction of Hezekiah and a very evangelistic Christian religion made for a rather jarring insight to this world, but it was made ALL better when we learned that Hezekiah was, essentially, a robot. That's one of those points that's on thin ice, but I cracked up. An evangelistic robot. Can I put one in a SF novel, please?
Another area that I read with much caution was the flashback to Atlantis (aka Atlanta? HA!) because I wasn't entirely convinced that humanity would abandon its own, nor did I really buy the wealth of technology confined to such a small location. That scene really pushed my suspension of disbelief, but I read on.
Little things tripped me up too, like "argh!" and the use of explanation points. Sometimes, the dialogue got a wee bit too...dramatic in a rather easy to mock fashion? But that was toward the end of the book, and I can forgive that.
My Rating
Worth the Cash: Who knew I'd enjoy this as much as I did? I went ahead and picked up the sequel today, Dragonforge, and I hope to get to that relatively soon. It's a fun, fast read with memorable characters and a rather interesting setting, so if you're a fan of dragons, you should check this out.
Next up:
Book: The Yiddish Policeman's Union by Michael Chabon AND Blood Bound by Patricia Briggs
Graphic Novel: Mr. Punch : The Tragical Comedy or Comical Tragedy by Neil Gaiman