Review: Death Before Dragons ~ Books 1-3

Death Before Dragons ~ Books 1-3 by Lindsay Buroker
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

Lindsay Buroker books are essentially popcorn, but they're well-crafted, well-edited and consistent popcorn, a big step up from what I refer to as "extruded fiction product". The banter is amusing; the characters are driven through the plot by believable motivations, solving problems with bravery and intelligence; there's tension, suspense, excitement, romance (usually with a slow burn), and sensawunda.

This series is urban fantasy, in more or less the style of Jim Butcher, though with a much more Dungeons and Dragons-like universe (there are orcs, for example). The protagonist, though, is not a wizard but an assassin who has assembled a collection of magical amulets and weapons to help her in her work, killing dangerous and murderous supernatural beings for the US Army as a contractor. I don't generally like assassin characters, what with the whole killing-people-for-money thing, but this one worked OK for me; she only kills murderers (and the occasional rapist), only non-humans, and she's trying to improve her reputation and relationship with other non-human beings who are not criminals. Putting the criminals through the justice system is not an option, because the governments of the world have decided on a policy of denial towards otherworldly beings, and they don't officially exist or have any rights. But as the books progress, she does start wondering whether that's the way things should be.

I've heard it said that authors usually only have about 10 characters who they re-cast in new roles with each book or series, and I definitely felt that with these - we have the self-regarding but useful companion, the competent but worried female MC, the dangerous, haughty and emotionally reserved love interest, and so on, and all of them seemed like I'd seen them before under other names. But I did enjoy the ride, and plan to pick up the rest of the series in due course.

View all my reviews