Book Review: Dragonsoul

Dragonsoul

By:  Philippa Ballantine

Publish Date:  July 2013

Publisher:  Pyr

Format:  ebook, 20pgs

Genre:  Fantasy

Series:  A Shifted World set story, Book 1 of Shifted World series ~ Hunter and Fox

Recommendation:  A short story to bring you back to the Shifted World ways.  And learn of a distant history as well.  A Legend.

Synopsis:
Kindred and Wings is coming out August 6.  Philippa Ballantine's first Shifted World novel, Hunter and Fox, was called "a worthy feat of world-building" by the Miami Herald.

To celebrate what Booklist calls a "well-imagined" world, Pyr is offering Dragonsoul, a FREE EBOOK short story written by Philippa Ballantine and set in this same world.

First Sentence:
When a lady has a dragon, wooing must be done with great care.

Purchase At:
For free through Pyr

**I read this free read for my own enjoyment as I loved the first book in this world.

My Thoughts and Summary:
Lathan has just come to Conhaero, from the White Void he was born in.  Lathan sees his first dragon as he readies to cross the gate to V'nae Rae.  Morleth, the only of her kind.  Lathan was drawn to this shifting land to see Ellyria Dragonsoul, the leader of the Vaerli nation, in person after his dreams.

This is a story set in the Shifted World setting.  In the world, but not necessarily in the series.  This could be a short story telling a legend in the Shifted World.  One that will have meaning to you if you've read the first book from mention of the first to walk through fire for her people.  Remember this is not of any of the characters you read in Hunter and Fox when reading, as I didn't know and didn't know where I was or who I was reading when starting the book, so I was slightly confused for a bit.

The connection of this story to the Hunter and Fox.  Ellyria is the one who walked through fire and lava for the people of Conhaero.  Earning respect and an alliance with the Kindred.  When I learned this I realized where I was in the world and time, the story came easier to me.  Ellyria is a far past relative of one of the characters in the main series.  This is a small important piece of history.

This story gives us a great refresher to the unstable world again, the constant changing scenery, after having read Hunter and Fox last year.  You really get a feel for the hard life in the White Void compared to the life here outside of it that the Vaerli have.  What they had escaped.  We get a closer look to the Vaelri in the ever changing world they are accepted in and the world the Kindred guard over.

This story can be read without reading Hunter and Fox.  It's not going to spoil anything with the story line.  But the world is strange and mysterious.  You may be lost to the ways of the world.  Even in the beginnings of this one, I was lost as to where the story would go and who Lathan and Ellyria were.

This is a nice companion read to the series.  A legend of things and people of the past that will lead to what we know now in The Shifted World.