Victor Milán

"A world made by the Eight Creators on which to play out their games of passion and power, Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often brutal place. Men and women live on Paradise as do dogs, cats, ferrets, goats, and horses. But dinosaurs predominate: wildlife, monsters, beasts of burden--and of war"--Amazon.com.

A Novel

The Dinosaur Lords

Kirsten Simkiss

I'm going to preface this with a warning. A rape scene occurs within this book. If things like that bother you, please be advised that a main character is raped within the course of the book. Other rapes also occur, but are not described past being stated as having been committed. It's also a pointless scene, considering it only further villainizes someone you already know if a villain at that point in the book. Even though it was only a page and a half of stupid and pointless, it's soured my outlook on this book quite a bit. I'm really tired of the rape story arch. I'm sure she'll probably gut the guy in a later book, but it really pissed me off that it needed to happen at all. I hope the editors are fucking ashamed of themselves for leaving that in. Not only could it not have happened, it would have added to potential suspense if she had been missing when the villain appeared to commit the deed. Literally, that scene was only there for shock value and it pisses me off.

I've given this book 3 stars. Overall, I felt it was enjoyable, but it was pretty slow at times and, as the above paragraph would indicate, this book could have used a good editor to cut out the shock value bits that were unnecessary.

Overall, the world is pretty solid in it's concept. If you like Game of Thrones, you'll probably like this book. The battle scene at the beginning of the book is a little hard to grasp, but the later war scenes are far more legible. I feel like giving the dinosaurs nicknames instead of sticking to commonly known names was a little annoying, but I can see how it would be clunky to constantly refer to dinosaurs by their latin names. I think they're implying that somehow the world was rebooted once it fell into ruin by people who lived on the moon, but the details are too vague and the grey angels don't make a whole lot of sense yet. Still, despite that potential sci-fi origin, this book is squarely placed in the fantasy fiction genre.

Honestly, I thought the dinosaur riding aspect was handled pretty well. I was expecting some pterodactyl riders, but it appears all the dinosaurs that are ridden - at least up to this point - are all squarely land-based. I did like the prospect of gargantuan sea monsters coming out of nowhere to eat people off boats, of course, but no one's managed to ride one of those yet.

Overall, I'm not sure where the plot is going in terms of the long range goals. I actually liked most of the main characters, barring the villain of course who I rather wanted to hit in the teeth. There were bisexual characters all over this book, though no active romances with bisexuals to speak of as they are all warriors in a band of dinosaur knights and often die. I really liked Jaume, who is a main character, either bisexual or pansexual, and a really interesting male love interest for Melodía, another of my favorites. I also loved that a recurring character who you get to read from the perspective of is a carnivorous dinosaur named Shiraa. (Forgive me, I forget what variety she was, but she was within the Tyrannosaur sized range of dangerous.) Overall, I wish the characters grew more than they did. Melodia was starting to grow by the end of the book, but everybody just kind of kept playing that same melody the whole story long, never changing or really learning. Still, they have good foundations, which made them bearable to read from the perspectives of.

I will say the art is fucking spectacular. I love the styling of the dinosaurs, both the one on the cover and the ones on the chapter heads. Bravo, 

This is very much an adult book, so I don't really recommend it to readers who aren't accustomed to sex scenes, gore, and cursing. It's a little more vulgar than A Song of Ice and Fire in those aspects, though I did appreciate the sex scene being better written than any of the ones in George R. R. Martin's books. (Seriously. They're awkward.)

Paradise is a sprawling, diverse, often cruel world. Armored knights ride dinosaurs to battle legions of war-trained Triceratops and their upstart peasant crews. Karyl Bogomirsky is one such knight who has chosen to rally those who seek a way from the path of war and madness. The fact that the Empire has announced a religious crusade against his peaceful kingdom doesn't help him one bit.Things really turn to mud when the dreaded Grey Angels, fabled ancient weapons of the Gods who created Paradise in the first place come on the scene after almost a millennia. Everyone thought that they were fables used to scare children. They are very much real.And they have come to rid the world of sin... including all the humans who manifest those vices.

The Dinosaur Knights

I found out mid-book that the author to this book series died after finishing the third book in a planned six book series. RIP Victor Milán. 

Still, this is going to be my take on the book as it stands now. And, to be honest, I liked the first book more. In the first book of any series, you can rely more on world building as it's an entirely new world to show your readers. In the second book, a lot of that novelty of new things goes away. And, honestly, what was left in this book just wasn't that entertaining. I can say that fortunately, Milán toned down his idiotic shock factor scenes somewhat. They were still there, but I didn't think they were as glaringly stupid in this book. There were no rape scenes in this book and the main characters stayed very true to form. So, if you really liked a character in the first book, you'll probably still really like them in the second book. 

Unfortunately, I found that the characters did little to no growing. If they did grow, it was suddenly rather than gradually, and only ever to suit the plot. Mostly, it seems his characters only grow as the result of the death of someone they love. It's not something I particularly admired about the plot as I was really hoping the characters might develop a little more on their own and grow in more unexpected directions. I didn't get anything of the sort sadly. Melodía's "growth" in particular irked me as being unrealistic and irritating, seeing as she's still just as naive and proud at the end of the book as she is at the beginning. And Rob? He's still the same character he started out with in book one. Karyl's growth, apparently, might all be due to "magic" which is irritating.

I was just really not impressed with how the characters grew and changed. It was almost like the characters were an afterthought to the plot and then just pigeonholed into them after the fact with no real build-up. I want characters to grow because they're learning from those around them, not just all at once because it's convenient to the story line. 

I again found the action sequences to be a bit muddled. In all honesty, it took actual willpower for me to read through them and not simply skip over paragraphs and pages of battle content. And you can, especially in the climax. I loved that they introduced a new enemy to the world in the form of the Grey Angels, but I also felt that the ending is a little bit of a cop out, putting almost all previous dramas to rest. I did enjoy the horde that the Grey Angel commanded, as it was really interesting to see how it all began and how it snowballed exponentially as the story went.

There was enough in the book to make me want to read the third book, but it's not likely to be high on my priority list seeing as the character simply do not change from start of book to finish. It's really kind of sad to read these stagnant characters. This book is still recommended for adult readers and only for those who have read the first book.

Solid Game Of Thrones-esque story. Lots of intrigue, lots of politics, the battles are pretty robust but there aren't many. The biggest problem is how deep into its own terminology the book gets that you just have to wait for it to eventually explain itself. That's good for some, annoying for others. I thought it was good enough to hold attention despite it. Probably going to mean the sequel is absolutely buck wild. 

The Dinosaur Lords A Novel

Reviews