Review: The Golden Dragon

The Golden Dragon by Mike Shelton
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

The Golden Dragon, the first book in Mike Shelton’s The Dragon Artifacts series, is very much one of those ‘it’s me, not you’ books. I’m positive there will be many out there who will really enjoy this one – unfortunately, it was not for me.

I can break down the reasons into two elements.

The first is that I have not read any of the author’s other work. Although The Golden Dragon is the first book in a new series, it is clear from the start that this book builds upon a world and characters that are already known through other series. As it was, I found it extremely difficult to come to terms with the characters and the events – in many ways, it felt as though I was thrown into the middle of a story rather than being at the start of one. The more I read, the better my understanding became. However, it never reached the point where I felt as though I understood things as well as I would have liked.

The second was the writing style. As many people will know, I can be somewhat particular about my writing styles. With this one, it was a bit too much on the younger end of the young adult spectrum. I understand such books do exist and are needed, but I often find myself distracted by the simplicity in such cases. In this case, this was especially obvious with the dialogue. Things were sweet, I cannot deny that, but it was too unrealistic for my liking. I know it’s fantasy and therefore realistic is not a world that should be used, but I found it did not reflect the way conversations usually play out.

Don’t get me wrong, if you’re a fan of the author’s other work I’m sure you’ll enjoy this one. It was an interesting story and there were sweet aspects to the development of characters; however, it wasn’t the book for me.

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