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Member Reviews

Zendragon is the first two books/stories in Preston's series:
- Demon Slayer introduces us to Winteru and his quest for vengeance against the demon who killed his mother (and just life in general) and how he became part of the zendragon order. All the action takes place on the island of Shidokan
- Dragonblaze is set on the mainland as Winteru and crew are on a quest to close a portal and stop Shidokan evildoers from taking over the mainland. Most of the main characters in Demon Slayer are background players here.

Our author has clearly spent ages constructing this alternative world and thinking about the various belief systems espoused by our characters, particularly in Dragonblaze where those in the crew come from several nations whose religious beliefs conflict. Ultimately, to fully realise all this hard work, I think another round of edits would really help:
- There are a number of places with very long, unbroken, sections of dialogue. Consider adding in some descriptions of the location/weather/clothing/etc. to break them up
- Consider whether the stories might work better as stand alone books, especially given the recapping at the beginning of Dragonblaze.
- The zendragons have a complex belief system including chakras. But does the reader need to know this as the chakras part isn't used anywhere else? Consider deleting/shortening
- Could you slow the pace down slightly in places and add in more description (including smells, tastes, etc.) to help the reader visualise your world?
- Slowing the pace down and more description would also help in dragonblaze where we need to get a sense of the very different members of the crew as well as the different enemies in the background (and who's double/triple crossing whom) - I lost track of who was who by the end
- Consider whether a creative writing course could help you with polishing your work, e.g. https://www.curtisbrowncreative.co.uk/course/writing-fantasy-1024

2.5* for effort, rounded up to 3*. With swearing. I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily.

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