Dragon’s Fury by Brian Meeks

Character-based, Campy Epic Fantasy

Is campy epic fantasy a thing? That’s how this book came across to me. I don’t know if you’re familiar with the sequel to The Blues Brothers movie, but this reminded me somewhat of the idea of having “to get the band back together.” It is definitely character driven, and there are a LOT of characters (not always easy to keep track of them all, especially when some have similar names). An old nemesis is supposedly back, dredging up bad memories and opening old wounds as people come together to try to figure out what to do about it. The character vignettes were interesting, but I felt like the action itself was a little boring. It was more about reading about quirky characters and what they got up to as they sorted themselves out rather than a true edge-of-your-seat epic fantasy. By the way, I didn’t think either the title or the cover went along with the book at all; I do like both to reflect what is in the book; they set a tone and expectations, acting as the first gatekeepers and guiding me in deciding if I want to read it. Despite all this, though, I am curious to see where the author will go with this world.