From Dragon -Flame Begun (pt 1)The World of Linaria | L.L. MacRae

From Dragon -Flame Begun (pt 1)

World of Linaria books 1-3 box set

I love it when authors collect all their books in one massive collection. I know it can be a little daunting, but it can be read or listened to in chunks rather than doing the whole thing as one continuous story (however, I must say that I did do this in one continuous story). 

As usual, the Books of Linaria are ones that have been languishing in my TBR for ages. I have had the two books for quite a while. 

However, these were the first incarnations of the books, and recently, L.L. MacRae has updated a number of books. In addition to that there has been the release of the audiobooks which have been narrated by Georgie Leonard. 

You can get the audiobooks individually, but to be honest, this collected version gives you a lot of bang for your bucks, wading in at just over 45 hrs (yes I know that this is one Stormlight Archive by the Sando bloke, but you are getting three books here), this is one lengthy title. 

ABOUT THE BOOK

In Linaria, dragons are revered as gods.

Airships command the skies.

And across the land, war is brewing.

Devastated by their father's death, Moroda and her sister struggle to make ends meet. Things go from bad to worse when a rogue dragon destroys their city.

Fleeing on a sky pirate's airship to escape the chaos, the sisters find themselves penned in by untrustworthy companions, a bloodthirsty warlord, and dragons on the rampage.

For Moroda, who would do anything to protect her sister, nowhere is safe. Not even the sky.

If you love dragons, airships, and sky pirates, you'll love discovering The World of Linaria.

From Dragon-Flame Begun Box Set contains the first three novels of The World of Linaria, an epic fantasy saga spanning six books.

So, let’s take a look at the books themselves.

Moroda

Moroda is the first book in the series, released as I understand in 2018. The book has had some revision since then, but I couldn’t really tell you what the differences were as, whilst I have an electronic copy of the original, I never actually got the chance to read it (it’s that endless TBR’s fault!).

Now as you have already gathered from the description, the World of Linaria is a six book undertaking and it has some massive worldbuilding going on. From the moment that you begin this book you know that it is going to be epic. 

The story starts with us meeting the main character, Moroda and her sister Eryn, seemingly incarcerated for speaking up against government officials. They soon quickly realise that the cell is occupied, by a self-serving sky pirate called Amarrah, and a shape shifter called Sapora. 

The disparate group soon find themselves thrown together when a dragon attacks the town that they have found themselves in. They soon find themselves involved with Palom, a shape shifting warrior/blacksmith and his erstwhile companion (I’m sorry, his name has gone from my head!), and a dragon hunter named Kohl. Thus the group is assembled, Avengers style like. 

However, events soon take another twist as there is Aciel, a race of flying, magic wielders that have been outcast to the most inhospitable northern edges of the world of Linaria due to them being involved in some historical war, decides that they aren’t going to take it anymore and launches a bid to take over the world.

The ragtag group are thrust into events and are at the centre of an all-out battle. 

I loved this first book in the series. The characters are complex and vivid. None of them get along and there are motivations afoot that the other characters have no idea about. Throughout the story, most of the characters are really strong (except for maybe Kohl, the dragon slayer) and each character is a delight to spend time with. 

The action is fast paced as the group move around the world attempting to thwart the plans of the big bad, and by the time I reached the end of the book, I had to get my breath back a bit. 

Palom

Right then, it’s time for book 2!

Palom continues directly from the end of book one and deals with the events following that ending (so obviously, I am trying to keep this as spoiler free as possible). 

Now usually in epic fantasy, when we have a mahoosive battle, at the end of it, everyone just tends to pick themselves up, dusts themselves off and away we go. However, interestingly, with Palom we don’t get that. Yes, some of the characters have done exactly that, but the tiger shifting Palom is actually suffering from grief and PTSD following the events and spends most of the book attempting to distance himself from the image of legendary warrior that he has come to be known as. 

Meanwhile, Sapora has found his rightful place and is attempting to establish his power. Whilst Amarrah is doing whatever she is doing with Kohl (mainly trying to find a way to help her friend Moroda).

(keeping those details vague you notice!)

In addition to this, we have other characters joining the fray (these books do have a large cast of characters)

Palom for me, was the least favourite of the books and I do have to admit that I found it a bit of a slog. It’s more of a character driven book and there seemed to be more politics happening in this one. 

Don’t get me wrong, I enjoyed it, but not as much as the other ones. 

 Amarrah

Right then! Book Three

If you look at the reviews for book three individually, you will notice that there is a general consensus that Amarrah is everyone’s favourite character. 

Unfortunately for me, I do not find that to be so. To be honest, most of the time I found her annoying throughout books one and two. She simply got on my nerves most of the time and there were many occasions where I would have happily thrown her the side of her own sky ship. 

However, this third book changed my opinion of her, and this is where I grew to like her at last. 

I think that this is one of the strengths of this series, is that L.L. MacRae does not shy away from showing the bad side of her characters. We get to see them warts and all, thus making them appear believable and well rounded. 

It’s hard to describe what happens in this book due to the fact that this is the third book, and a hell of lot has happened. However, the story moves along really well with this third book and characters are developed a hell of a lot more. 

In terms of enjoyment, I liked this one better than the second one, and I think that this one was more accomplished as a whole. It felt like L. L. Macrae found her feet in this one and was more comfortable in her own writing skills, which is always the way. 

So! There we go! The end!