Unfortunately the cover and synopsis deceived me. I thought it would be a high fantasy because it had the dragons and quests so my first thought with those are usually high fantasy books. And then when modern words and ideas appeared – trains, the word underwear (which can be used but sort of isn’t) I was fine because “oh it’s just a modern fantasy world”. I then grew more confused because formal words were used for family and then the grandmother… gets a granny? And on and on it went. If you want your fantasy world to be a modern one, that’s all good and well, but make it consistent?

The writing style was very difficult – both from a writer’s perspective and a reader’s. It also made it more confusing to figure out what kind of a fantasy it was because the way it was written would change regularly. The sentences, way the characters looked and spoke about things – went from a modern way to a “normal” fantasy way constantly. That sort of back and forth is difficult for readers to receive.

Ultimately, I think the author should’ve spent more time writing the book and working on improving his writing. I could see Dickson’s passionate about writing and the story he wanted to tell but unfortunately it was hard to see. Also, while I’m very fine with issues – real world ones – being in books but there’s… almost an acceptable amount and then there was what is included in this book? Which can either help or hinder a book – depending on the author and how they manage to write it/write it into the book.