‘The Adamantine Palace’ – Stephen Deas (Gollancz)

While certain fantasy tropes have either been culled from my shelves (or moved to the ‘Guilty Pleasure’ shelf...) there will always be a small fiery place in my heart for the noble, or sometimes not so noble, dragon.
I’ve always loved reading about dragons but completely agree with those who say that, recently, dragons have had their claws clipped to make them that little bit more accessible to readers. Anne McCaffrey’s dragons are the chief culprits and Naomi Novik’s Temeraire is steadily losing that air of a dangerous animal in favour of campaigning for ‘Dragon Rights’ and spending his spare time solving maths problems...
Where are the dragons that will torch a village just because a tricksy hobbit beats them in a word game? Where are the dragons that we just know are top of the food chain? They’re still around (if you know where to look) and now it looks like Stephen Deas is about to add to their number with his debut set to be published in March next year...

The power of the Realms depends upon its dragons and the mysterious liquid that the alchemists use to keep the beasts under control. If this balance is broken the dragons would soon return to their natural state and humankind would find itself hunted to extinction...
Funnily enough though, the ruling families are all occupied by other matters. Prince Jehal has set his sights high and won’t balk at poisoning his father to advance his aims. Queen Shezira also seeks to gain power in the long term but doesn’t need to stoop to the acts of the poisoner, she has three daughters to be strategically married off to the right suitor. At the other end of the scale is the sell sword Kemir, his plans don’t stretch much further than making it through another day but he has a big grudge against any dragon rider and doesn’t need much of an excuse to act on it.
In the midst of all this it may not seem like such a big deal if one dragon goes missing. It is though; it’s a very big deal indeed...

It’s not like I haven’t been reading any fantasy just recently but I’ve been feeling the urge to put all the sci-fi and horror to one side so I can get back to reading what I like best. ‘The Adamantine Palace’ turned out to be a great place for me to get started! It’s full of everything that I like about fantasy right now; strong characters, a complex plot and loads of dragons. If that wasn’t enough, the ending promises all this and more from the next book....
That’s not to say it’s a perfect read though (for all that great things are promised). The reader gets enough hints of background setting for the story to sit on but it felt strangely insubstantial to me. Kind of like the difference between me hanging a shirt up in a gorgeous antique wardrobe and hanging it off a door handle... To be fair, this is because characterisation and plot take priority but I like plenty of worldbuilding and this isn’t that kind of book. ‘The Adamantine Palace’ is the first book in a series though so I’m hoping that Deas will choose to go into his settings in a little more depth as the series progresses... The Realms are an intriguing setting and fully deserve more detailed treatment.

The main problem that any ‘opening book’, in a series, will have is that it is setting up events that the reader may not get to see until maybe several books down the line. ‘The Adamantine Palace’ is no exception with plenty of politicking some of which is resolved while other events merely serve to leave the book ending on several cliff-hangers. Other reviewers may be tired of trilogies, my view is that a series can be as long as it likes so long as it consistently holds my interest. ‘The Adamantine Palace’ looks like it will do just that with a decent mixture of machination and action.

There is plenty going on with a plot that demands the reader’s attention and heavy doses of ‘dragon action’ that explode in a burst of flame. These dragons are brutal and vicious predators that are only held in check by human ingenuity, Deas does a great job of showing the reader just what these animals are capable of and that’s before they are freed from captivity... When that happens, Deas ramps things up to a completely different level with awesome displays of draconic power and cunning.

It’s not just the dragons who come across well on the page; the human characters are also well treated by the author. Deas takes a lot of time to come up with characters that are well rounded and interact with each other in the way that you would expect from conniving, backstabbing and generally very ambitious people. In the midst of this though you get to see little glimpses that each character could be different from the way life makes them have to behave. Maybe they would prefer to be this new way instead... This element of uncertainty keeps things fresh and interesting and I for one plan on being around to see how things develop.

Like I said earlier, ‘The Adamantine Palace’ may not be without it’s faults but what it does well more than makes up for these. I very much enjoyed it and am already looking forward to a sequel...

Eight and a Quarter out of Ten